The Steuben County Legislature passed its first law targeting unlicensed cannabis sales on Monday.
The law authorizes county officials to conduct regulatory inspections of businesses that are suspected of selling cannabis and cannabis products without a state license.
Storefronts, also called “sticker stores,” refer to sellers “gifting” cannabis to customers for free in exchange for buying stickers or another product but are not legally sanctioned to sell state inspected cannabis products.
The county’s Office of Weights and Measures will conduct inspections.
The law passed 11 to 5 after much debate and input during the public hearing ahead of the vote. Local business leaders and owners, elected officials and some members of law enforcement all provided input.
Corning Area Chamber of Commerce President Colleen Coro, Steuben County District Attorney Brooks Baker and Steuben County Sheriff James Allard spoke in person, and Mayor of Bath Michael Sweet provided a letter that was read by the Chair of the Legislature Kelly Fitzpatrick.
Each expressed their concerns for excluding law enforcement from the new law.
“Let's not reinvent the wheel,” said Allard. “Let's do it the way every other municipality is doing it. That's because they're doing it the way that works, the way that provides for both the civil and the criminal in any investigation.”
Some municipalities use law enforcement to inspect cannabis businesses, while others engage their public health departments. Steuben County does not have a full-service public health department or a code enforcement agency to carry out regulatory inspections.
Some legislators wanted to table the law so that it could be rewritten with more emphasis on the inclusion of law enforcement. Legislators Hilda Lando, Joseph Tobia, Jeffrey Horton, Carol Ferratella and Shannon Logsdon voted to table. Legislator Gary Swackhamer was absent.
Local area business owner Patrick Thrush implored the legislature to move forward to adopt legislation targeting illegal cannabis sales and add to it as appropriate in the future.
“We can add to it, we can fix it,” said Thrush. “But you know, before we can do that, we have to start. We have to get up and do something.”
County manager Jack Wheeler said the state Office of Cannabis Management leaves it up to counties and cities to adopt their own regulatory laws.
“We need to walk a fine line between the fact that this is a wholly civil fine,” said Wheeler. “This is not additional criminal authority that we have. Certainly if Weights and Measures partners with law enforcement and additional criminal activity is observed in the course of their civil inspection, law enforcement can certainly enforce that,” said Wheeler. “But there's nothing preventing law enforcement, at the moment, from being able to investigate or handle anything that may currently be happening if there [are] illegal things happening at some of the stores. “
It is illegal to sell cannabis to minors, sell cannabis products without a license, remove a padlock on a storefront closed due to selling unlicensed products, and to “gift” cannabis in exchange for something else.
A court order seals any business operating without a state license to sell cannabis and cannabis products. The law also makes the offense punishable by fines of up to $10,000 per day and no more than $25,000 in the county.
According to state reports, unlicensed cannabis store locations have been shut down in the Southern Tier in Delaware, Chemung, Schuyler and Allegany counties. There are a total of ten licensed cannabis retail shops in the region. The licensed stores are located in Tompkins, Broome, Delaware and Tioga counties.