The Hemp fights back !
The Times Union Reports
ALBANY — A lawsuit challenging the legality of New York’s ongoing regulatory raids of licensed hemp stores was filed late Monday in Albany against the state Office of Cannabis Management, accusing the agency and its oversight board of “trampling on hemp retailers’ constitutional rights.”
The case was filed in state Supreme Court in Albany on behalf of three licensed hemp stores: Smoke N Save on West Avenue in Saratoga Springs; Two Strains on Aviation Road in Queensbury, and Breckenridge on W. 31st Street in Manhattan. The New York City Sheriff’s Office, which is also named as a defendant, is leading the regulatory inspections in New York City that store owners and their attorneys have described as “military-style raids.”
The Times Union reported earlier this month that hundreds of licensed hemp stores across New York have been raided over the past several months by state regulators and police agencies that have seized millions of dollars in cannabinoid products — goods that the retailers had been selling without penalty over the past six years as state and federal laws had expanded the legalization of hemp.
The seizures have followed new regulations governing hemp and cannabis that were authorized by the state Cannabis Control Board in December, without public comment or involvement of the state Legislature.
The regulations tightened the rules governing hemp products and effectively outlawed millions of dollars in products that many of the state’s thousands of licensed hemp retailers had been selling since New York legalized marijuana in 2021. As part of that law change, the state also set rules for hemp products and gave the Cannabis Control Board the power to regulate them.
The lawsuit, which follows a similar case filed two weeks ago in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, accuses state regulators of improperly treating the licensed hemp stores like illicit marijuana shops. The hemp stores have been increasingly targeted by the raids, which the Office of Cannabis Management characterizes as “inspections.” The civil action seeks a temporary restraining order enjoining the New York City Sheriff’s Office and Office of Cannabis Management from carrying out seizures in hemp stores without a formal hearing, among other demands.
Many hemp store owners said the inspections usually have a heavy police presence in which the enforcement teams, which also include state tax and labor department investigators, may turn off a store’s video surveillance cameras, refuse to provide their identification, search the personal belongings of workers and threaten to break open locked cabinets or doors if the employees decline to open them.
Read the full report at
Lawsuit by New York Hemp Retailers Alleges Cannabis Regulators ‘Trampling’ Constitutional Rights
