Binghamton residents gathered at the Binghamton City Council chambers Monday night for a discussion on new legislation aimed at cracking down on unlicensed cannabis sales.
City of Binghamton Mayor Jared Kraham proposed a new law in October which would allow the Binghamton Police Department to conduct searches of businesses suspected of unlicensed cannabis sale and pursue further action such as fines and closures.
Enforcement is currently carried out by the New York State Office of Cannabis Management which has closed about 1,000 illegal cannabis shops, handing out fines to unlicensed owners and posting placards in storefront windows. Kraham said giving local police the authority to crackdown on “sticker shops” would expedite this process and protect the sale of legal cannabis in the city.
The Binghamton City Council Municipal and Public Affairs Committee met on March 11 to discuss how this legislation would affect the community and the benefits of legal cannabis sale for the city.
The town hall meeting centered around answering questions and explaining the legislation as well as hearing from local business owners and organizers.
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In support: Local dispensary owner calls for equal playing field
Damien Cornwell, who owns Just Breathe, a legal cannabis dispensary on Main Street, said he thinks the passage of this legislation would be for the sake of equity in the community with less emphasis on the enforcement aspect.
Cornwell said that as an owner of a regulated dispensary, he is required to follow specific rules that make it much more difficult to make a profit − he pays higher taxes including a 9% state tax, a 4% local tax and 9% of the cannabis products’ price and he is required to follow a set of guidelines from the OCM that outlines how the business must be run.
This, he said, makes it incredibly hard to run a legal business while others, who sell cannabis illegally, do not have to adhere to any of the same regulations.
“We’re so constricted as a regulated shop it’s just not right that there’s no accountability on the other side,” he said. “I would be fine if there were no laws, but to have two laws is bad. A law for you that’s not the same for another is counterintuitive to the fabric of our society.”
He said that by creating an equal playing field for all cannabis businesses by cracking down on unregulated stores and sticker shops, the cannabis economy could grow quicker, and more could be invested into the city through sales tax.
Cornwell made a comparison to the regulation of alcohol sales in the state − if there was a bar in Binghamton selling without a liquor license, the state creates the law, and the Binghamton Police Department enforces it.
“It seems to make more sense that you would delegate that authority down to your local municipality,” he said.
Looking for amendments: Proposed law ‘very poor tool’
Andrew Pragacz, a sociology professor at SUNY Cortland and President of Justice and Unity for the Southern Tier, spoke to city council members at the town hall and questioned certain aspects of the law, specifically the designation of the Binghamton Police Department as the lead agency in enforcement.
Pragacz said he has no disagreements with Cornwell − he said he understands the difficulties that those who own legal dispensaries face, and the states needs to do more to “give relief to the cannabis industry.”
His main concern, he said, is that the police would be granted the ability to enforce the law. Within the guidelines set by the Office of Cannabis Management, a municipality is able to designate a lead agency in the written law to carry out enforcement. As the law is currently written, Binghamton has chosen the Binghamton Police Department.
Pragacz said the police have proven to be “a very poor tool to regulate the cannabis industry,” and he thinks that this enforcement, which he views as more of a public health issue, could potentially be carried out by the code enforcement office or the health department instead.
“I would assume that the type of dedicated enforcement that would make a dent in closing down these shops and keeping up with this game of whack-a-mole would be a pretty remarkable expenditure of funds,” he said. “It would probably require more police and that gives a lot more power to the police department.”
He said cannabis had been legalized in the first place because of the strength of the illegal market and the inability to control illicit sales from the local level up to the federal level.
“While I understand that there’s an urgency to do something to support an industry that is being hampered by regulation, this law looks like you’re doing something, when it’s not really going to do almost anything,” Pragacz said.
Nate Hotchkiss, who represents the city’s Fourth District, said he does not foresee sales from the illegal cannabis shops “migrating” to legal dispensaries if these closures were to happen, rather the “gray market” would continue to thrive.
Part of the benefits of the legalization of cannabis, Hotchkiss said, is that it has allowed police statewide to focus enforcement efforts and funding on preventing other criminal activity.
“My gut feeling on this is that this is a regression from all the promises of what legalization was about,” Hotchkiss said.
City Council member Kinya Middleton said city council will continue discussions on the law at their next meeting.
This article originally appeared on Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin: Binghamton residents debate proposed crackdown on illicit cannabis sale. What to know
Reporting by Jillian McCarthy, Binghamton Press & Sun Bulletin / Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin
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