The state budget bill signed into law by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) on Friday notably does not include a controversial marijuana provision the governor proposed earlier this year that would have allowed police to use the smell of marijuana as probable cause that a driver is impaired and then force them to take a drug test.
Amendments made in the legislature this week removed the provision, which a coalition of 60 reform groups had argued in a letter to Hochul and top lawmakers would “repeat some of the worst harms of the War on Drugs” and allow law enforcement to “restart unconstitutional racial profiling of drivers.”
The governor’s plan drew criticism from not just reform advocates but also the state’s Assembly majority leader and the governor-appointed head of the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM), who’d previously said the plan would undermine the goals of legalization and was “not going to work for New York.”
Historically, New York has been home to some of the country’s starkest racial disparities when it comes to enforcement of laws against marijuana. For example, Black people in New York City in the 2010s were more than nine times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than white people.
In Hochul’s original budget bill, a line would have added “the odor of cannabis, burnt cannabis or other drug” as a “reasonable cause” for law enforcement to stop and search a vehicle. An amended bill approved by lawmakers this week, however, removed that provision.
After both chambers approved the changes, the legislation went to the governor on Thursday and was signed into law the next day.
As for other cannabis-related provisions in the new state budget, one change eliminates the $229,000 annual salary for the chair of the state’s Cannabis Control Board (CCB).
That official, Tremaine Wright, said this week that she will not leave her post.
“I didn’t take this job because there was a salary,” Wright said at a Women in Weed luncheon in Albany, according to Spectrum News. “I took this job before they even determined what the salary would be.”
Wright said CCB and the governor’s office have good relations and that her salary wasn’t cut due to bad blood.
“This is a changing landscape,” she said. “The same way our licensees and our applicants have had to pivot in real time and they’ve had to respond to demands and changes along the way, the board is as well.”
In a statement, Hochul spokesperson Kassie White said that chairing state a state board “is generally a voluntary, unpaid position for individuals interested in pursuing public service, and the enacted budget will align the CCB’s governance structure with other state boards.”
Additionally, the new budget puts $5 million toward hiring more enforcement workers at the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM).
Meanwhile in New York, a recent OCM report says the number of licensed marijuana retailers in the state grew by nearly threefold last year, fueling total sales in 2024 of nearly $870 million.
Including sales so far in 2025, New York’s legal cannabis market is now close to reaching $1.5 billion worth of purchases, OCM said late last month.
Ahead of the 4/20 holiday last month, regulators also rolled out a “higher education” campaign meant to provide adults with information about how to “make informed, responsible decisions about cannabis,” including how to locate state-licensed retailers.
The office also advises that “Continued enforcement against the illicit market is critical to building a health regulated market,” pointing to what it describes as successful enforcement efforts in 2024. Last spring, for example, officials in New York City launched Operation Padlock, an enforcement initiative meant to shutter illegal storefronts. Within months, licensed shops that were open before the operation began saw sales climb 105 percent, according to an OCM survey.
Also last month, New York cannabis regulators and labor officials announced the launch of a workforce training program aimed at “providing comprehensive safety education to workers” in the state’s legal marijuana industry.
Separately, OCM’s press secretary recently indicated the office is working on plans to expand permitting and licensing rules that could allow adults to buy and consume marijuana at movie theaters. Authorizing sales of cannabis products at theaters would set New York apart as it continues to build upon the state’s legalization law.
Days before that, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) signed a pair of companion bills into law that are meant to expand New York’s marijuana farmers market program, allowing for more partnerships between licensed cannabis businesses and standalone “pop-up” events.
New York initially authorized cannabis farmers market events in 2023, aiming to expedite consumers access as traditional retailers were being approved and help producers bring their products directly to market. Last December, Hochul separately signed legislation to revive the program after it sunsetted in January 2024.
The farmers market events as originally authorized were largely responsive to the slow roll-out of New York’s adult-use marijuana program, which faced multiple delays in implementation amid litigation. But the state’s industry has gradually expanded, with officials in January touting $1 billion in total sales since the market launched.
State officials also recently launched a grant program that will award up to $30,000 apiece to retail marijuana businesses to help cover startup costs.
Also, earlier this year, a collective of businesses licensed under the CAURD program called on Hochul to forgive tens of millions of dollars in high-cost loans issued under a governor-created social equity loan fund.
Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes (D) said in December that there’s a need to extend financial aid to CAURD license holders, many of whom are struggling under the high-cost loans.
Critics—including the NAACP New York State Conference, Black Cannabis Industry Association, Minority Cannabis Business Association, Service Disabled Veterans in Cannabis Association, Drug Policy Alliance, NYC NORML and VOCAL-NY—wrote to the governor earlier that month to express dismay at what they described as marijuana regulators’ “efforts in service of big corporations at the expense of small business and equity outcomes.”
Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.
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