Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul and Mayor Adams Announce More Than 1,000 Illegal Cannabis Shops Have Been Shut Down Statewide

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul joined Mayor Eric Adams and New York City officials to celebrate a major milestone in New York’s enforcement actions against illegal cannabis retailers. Since Governor Hochul signed legislation expanding cannabis enforcement powers, New York City has reported more than 779 illegal stores have been padlocked, and the New York State Illicit Cannabis Enforcement Task Force has closed an additional 230 across the State — bringing the statewide total to more than 1,000.

VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

AUDIO of the Governor's remarks available here.

PHOTOS of the event are available on the Governor's Flickr page.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

We're here today to talk about a real success story. One that just six months ago, people would not have thought was possible. And how we're finally, finally shutting down the illegal cannabis shops that have taunted us, taunted our neighborhoods, and finally bringing back vitality to our neighborhoods.

And I want to thank the people who helped us get here. And yes, I've known Gale Brewer for over a decade. I don't know that we've had a conversation the last two years without her bringing up, “You've got to shut down the cannabis shops.”

And so, your tenacity has helped bring us to this point. And the beauty is, you have a Mayorwho listens; who understands the power of the Office of Mayor to put a spotlight on an issue, and say, “This is a challenge, it's tough, it's not easy, but I'm going to run into the fire and solve this.”

So, that is the kind of partnership I so appreciate, but also having a Legislature that is responsive. Assemblymember Rajkumar, thank you for being a champion on this issue. Assemblymember Dinowitz, thank you, thank you, thank you.

I was just with our leaders yesterday, Carl Heastie, who had hoped to be here, but he's up in other parts of the state right now. We spoke about this and how important this is to continue this effort, because these criminals are very clever. It's Whac-A-Mole. They were playing Whac-A-Mole for a long time because the city did not have the power to put on a padlock that would stay on. It became a game. They thought they were winning. Guess what? They lost.

And so I want to thank everyone, especially our Sheriff as well. It's a lot more responsibility on your shoulders and to all the members, the deputies and everybody who are at this working in the streets with heart and soul, knowing how important it is to stop this industry because it is perilous for our neighborhoods. It is perilous for our children. So, Sheriff Miranda, I want to thank you for everything you've done as well.

Let me throw some numbers at you as well, and I'll get up to the big thousand number because I love that one as well, Mayor. Six, that's how many months ago it was that I raised this in my State of the State address last January. And we knew we had a tough road ahead. But everything I put in my State of the State has a tough road ahead. But it's whether you're going to stick with it and get it done is the big question.

I said we needed to empower localities. We needed to give the power from the state to the localities to do what they should have had all along, in my opinion. But they needed to get it from the state.

It's been four months since we signed this into law with great fanfare, many of you were at that as well. And again, that thousand number, I'm really proud of that. That's just in a few months. That's not since the beginning, it's since we've been able to allow sheriffs and local police officers and the NYPD and the State Police working together on a task force that we started to be able to go up and go to these nuisance stores – and finally, they're all going up in smoke.

63 million is the collective total of all the product we've received, city and state combined. And now, because we took down these illegal competitors, we now have 152 legal dispensaries across the state, and that is growing by the week. $312 million sales done by those dispensaries just in the last few months.

So, there's so much hope behind those numbers. People believe that we're turning the corner, making progress, doing something that we'd all dreamed would happen. But also, it's about keeping our kids safe.

Let me point out again what the Mayor showed you. I want parents to see this, because if you see this in your house, it’s disguised to look like one of your child's toys – something that you'd expect to see. And the older teenagers might bring it in the house and think nobody's going to notice this.

This is an attractive nuisance, as we would say in law school. This is intentionally designed to draw the eye and the interest of our children, creating lifelong addictions to products that they never should have had at such a young age when it has an effect on them. This is why we're proud, not just as government leaders, but as parents saying, “No more”. So again, thank you for all that you are doing shutting this down for our kids.

There’s also contaminated product. We're talking about so many overdose deaths. These illegal products have fentanyl and are laced with other products. They’re not pure. They're unsafe. They could kill you and people don't realize that.

So, what we're doing here today is giving the green light so our legal industry can go even higher, and rapidly build what is planned to be, and will be, the most expansive and equitable legal cannabis industry in the nation.

I know it's a little tough, the rollout. I understand that. We have new leadership at the Office of Cannabis Management, Director Felicia Reid. And there's new reforms that are underway to speed up the process, unclog the licensing bottleneck and streamline the application process. That coupled with the enhanced enforcement is critical – and stopping the undermining of the legal market as well.

Look at these products, know that their lifespans are over. You see the product expiration date? Date is expired today. So, we're getting them off the streets. But also, we're starting to bring back the legal tax revenue that is intentionally channeled to go back to the communities that were overpoliced, over prosecuted and over incarcerated when marijuana was not a legal substance here. So, we want those communities to be reinvested in to undo the harms of the past.

But let's continue to do this. And I also want to thank those who never gave up. All the legal owners who are just getting swamped. I remember visiting one in the Bronx just not that long ago. He says, “I'm trying my best, doing my very best. And I can't open because everybody's going to the illegal ones just down the block.”

They don't know the difference. And yet, when I went back and visited him — he told me their sales are now up 100 percent because of what we did. That's what we've been trying to do, unlock the power that has been waiting. And now it's finally happening as well.

So, you look at people – Osbert Orduña, sorry to mangle your name, he's at all my events. When he opened his dispensary, Cannabis Place in Queens, he was surrounded by the illegal shops. He said those are now gone as well. His sales are up 105 percent. What is he doing with that money? He's investing in the community. He's hiring new staff, he just added five more people to his payroll.

That's how you start small businesses and get it moving again. Another woman said her sales are up 3,000 percent. She's raised, she's sold more than $500,000 worth of goods, whereas the year before she sold almost nothing.

So, I'm excited about this. I know that one year from now when we look back, we'll have eradicated this industry. We'll have continued the progress that we're on. And to all of you – who never gave up believing that we could get this done, we got it done. We're on the way to ensuring that this is going to be the fairest, most equitable industry. The money's coming, and we're going to stop the illegal actors from harming our kids.

All of you, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Mayor, let's continue to partner on this – and so many more initiatives. Because working together, the people get stuff done.