ALBANY – There are some New York State cannabis dispensaries that may be out of compliance.

State Sen. George Borrello, R-Sunset Bay, wants to know how the state enforces non-compliant dispensaries.

Borrello said during a Feb. 26 Joint Legislative Hearing on the 2025 executive Budget Proposal, that since the legalization of Cannabis in New York State, millions of taxpayers dollars have been spent, and industry has become a disaster.

He said before the arrival of NYS Office of Cannabis Management Acting Executive Director Felicia Reid, her office was not working the way it was designed to work.

“I think it has been unfortunate that we saw a lot of waste and continued burgeoning of the illegal markets,” Borrello said.

He said Reid’s office, specifically, is not enforcing the rules and regulations of licensed dispensaries that are out of compliance.

“Basically, you have a trade practices bureau. Can you explain that (bureau)? Who is going to be heading that up – the enforcement of things and what the trade bureau actually is,” Borrello asked Reid.

Reid said that before she took office there were compliance teams as well as an enforcement team in place.

Reid added that compliance teams differ from the trade practice bureau where the bureau enforces malpractice of the state’s licensed dispensaries which includes inversion where cannabis comes from out of state, and diversion where in-state cannabis goes out of state.

Compliance, Reid noted, conducts inspections, and no dispensaries have lost their licenses due to being out of compliance, and corrective action plans are issued.

“They (license holders) want to benefit from the opportunity (of cannabis), so when we (compliance teams) things that are going well or wrong with those plans, they are correcting those things,” Reid said.

Reid said more people need to be hired for the compliance teams to address the many issues that arise.

In a related matter, Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal, has introduced bill A.790 to create an illegal cannabis retailer directory to allow the general public to keep track of illegal stores.

According to a Jan. 27 Post-Journal article, the state’s Cannabis Enforcement Task Force has been closing illegal cannabis stores around the state – including Chautauqua County.

The 2025 state budget included $13.4 million to hire 95 people dedicated to fight illicit marijuana sales, including 37 OCM enforcement staff, 43 to assist the state Department of Taxation and Finance and 15 workers in the Attorney General’s Office to assist with related litigation.

Gov. Kathy Hochul said in December 2024, the state’s cannabis industry had reached more than $1 billion in retail sales after its slow rollout. During that announcement the governor mentioned the increased enforcement actions against illegal marijuana shops. Throughout 2024, 1,300 enforcement inspections were conducted and 450 businesses padlocked statewide with 16,900 pounds of illicit products seized with a street value of $68.5 million.

Rosenthal wants the state Office of Cannabis Management to develop a directory of businesses that have been closed by the Office of Cannabis Management or local authorities that includes the name and address of each business, the owner’s name, the building owner’s name, the date the business was closed, penalties or violations and the date of hearings that were held, and a list of any penalties or violations issued to each business. The directory would be updated weekly.