An Open Letter to All NYC Mayoral Candidates

From the New York Cannabis Retail Association (NYCRA)

Fourteen months ago, New York’s licensed cannabis retailers gathered on the sidewalk outside Assembly Speak Carl Heastie’s office to demand action. We stood together to advocate for legislation that would empower local law enforcement to shut down the illegal, unlicensed cannabis storefronts that have flooded our neighborhoods, undermining public health, public trust, and the very foundation of New York’s emerging legal cannabis industry.

We were successful. That legislation passed. The law was signed. And in the year that followed, the City launched “Operation Padlock To Protect”, which was billed as a concerted enforcement campaign to address the proliferation crisis around the city. We applauded this initial announcement and cautiously waited to see the results. But a year later, the facts are sobering.

When polled at the one-year mark, a clear majority of licensed cannabis retailer responses reported that the situation with illegal cannabis retailers around their legal businesses had “gotten visibly worse” over the last year (46%) or at least “had not improved” (24%). Only a minority (26%) saw the situation visibly improve around them; illegal shops are still operating openly and with impunity, selling untested and unregulated products, evading taxes, targeting underage New Yorkers, undermining the legal market, and exploiting communities without oversight or accountability.

This situation is not only a threat to public safety, it’s an existential threat to the legal cannabis industry in New York City. Entrepreneurs who have invested time, resources, and hope into building compliant, community-based businesses are being undercut daily by bad actors operating outside the law.

We do not need more rhetoric, we need real, coordinated action that is sustained, transparent, and accountable. Enforcement must be strategic and relentless. Communities must be protected. Licensees must be supported. And Cannabis law must be more than words on paper.

New York’s legal cannabis industry is still in its infancy. Without urgent, committed leadership, it will not survive. The time to act is now.

To every candidate seeking to lead this city: If elected or reelected to lead this city, what exactly will you do differently: what specific steps will you take, on what schedule, to effectively address the plague of illegal cannabis shops, protect the public, and support the legal, licensed industry, by using the local enforcement authority we fought so hard to win in the NYS FY25 Enacted Budget?

Sincerely,

NYCRA Board of Directors