NIAGARA COUNTY, N.Y. — As New York’s cannabis industry has been budding in recent years — both legally and illegally — local law enforcement has had to sit on the sidelines.
State law prevents local law enforcement agencies from shutting down illegal cannabis shops, leaving all the control in the hands of the state’s Cannabis Control Board.
But as the market continues to grow, that task has become too much for the board to handle.
The state reported it has seized $63 million in cannabis from just shy of 500 illegal shops but believes there are thousands more out there.
That’s why a pair of bills have been introduced to change that.
The proposed bills are called the Smokeout Act and would allow local law enforcement to shut down unlicensed shops and seize their property in the process. It would add additional manpower across the state and give local law enforcement the power to conduct their own inspections.
Right now, local law enforcement can seize the cannabis product but many shops continue to operate afterwards. Niagara County Sherriff Michael Filicetti said that’s a problem his department has faced, as his county has just one licensed cannabis dispensary.
“It's frustrating,” he said. “In law enforcement, we always look for the for the fix. When somebody calls and says, ‘This is going on in my neighborhood,’ we want to be able to deal with it.”
Filicetti said he believes, if passed, this new law would give more power back to local law enforcement agencies to enforce the law and deal with the illegal shops in their own communities.
“We're a nation of laws, right?” he said. “We should be enforcing these laws and be able to do something with it.”