Q&A
Enforcement actions against illegal marijuana dispensaries
3:05:59
·
175 sec
Council Member Brannan inquires about the sheriff's office's enhanced powers to shut down illegal marijuana dispensaries. Commissioner Niblack details the multi-agency enforcement efforts, including inspections, closures, and seizures of illegal products.
- 400 locations visited, 252 inspected, and 175 sealed as of the current week
- Various illegal items recovered, including untaxed cigarettes, vaping products, and even weapons
- Cash seized during raids is carefully documented and handled by the NYPD
Justin Brannan
3:05:59
I wanna talk about the marijuana dispensaries and the sheriff's office.
3:06:03
Enacted state budget provides the sheriff provided the sheriff with more power to go after illegal marijuana dispensaries.
3:06:10
And thus far, I think sheriff's been doing an amazing job with catching up on all the, the the illegal shops and padlocking the illegal stores.
3:06:22
Could could you detail a bit how the DOF will utilize this additional authority to to shut down the illegal weed shops?
Preston Niblack
3:06:29
Yes.
3:06:30
Of course.
3:06:30
So me immediately after the first step immediately after the state budget was enacted, which gave us the additional enforcement authority was to put in place the emergency regulations that was done by the heroic efforts of our legal, affairs team led by our general counsel, Mike Smilowicz, in the law department.
3:06:47
And that, then immediately, the sheriff Miranda and the multi agency team that he's leading, has rolled out operations, and is going out, you know, almost every day to inspect and close as many illegal shops as quickly as possible.
3:07:06
The teams include personnel personnel from the sheriff's office, from the NYPD, from our tax, enforcement folks, from DCWP, and other agencies as needed.
3:07:17
So far as of this week, we'd, we had visited almost 400 locations.
3:07:24
They were able to inspect 252 of them and sealed a total of a 175.
3:07:30
And we'll continue to keep you updated.
3:07:33
I know that that we have bi biweekly reports that will shortly be due to, OCM, which we'll share with you.
Justin Brannan
3:07:40
And are you still during the raids, is the sheriff department still recovering other illegal contraband besides marijuana, untaxed cigarettes, that kinda illegal vape stuff?
Preston Niblack
3:07:50
They are.
3:07:50
They're recovering you know, a lot of these shops were, as you are aware, selling all kinds of products.
3:07:56
So we have recovered illegal cannabis in nearly every location we've inspected.
3:08:01
But there are a wide variety of other products besides cannabis, including untaxed cigarettes, vaping products, gummies, etcetera, lots of other contraband material.
3:08:12
We've even found weapons.
3:08:14
We've found you know, mushroom psilocybin products.
3:08:18
So there's plenty of plenty of stuff out there that we find every time we go out.
Justin Brannan
3:08:22
What happens to any cash that might be recovered in the raids?
Preston Niblack
3:08:26
The, the cash, is, seized, bagged, entered into evidence, vouchered.
3:08:38
The PD has been taking, possession of it.
3:08:42
And, yeah, it's you know, it we have to keep that, careful track of that, obviously, because, you know, it's cash.
3:08:50
It belongs it may belong to someone else.
3:08:52
Okay.
3:08:53
But that's how we
