Hochul demands Google, Meta stop promoting illegal NY pot shops
Heeding complaints from the licensed cannabis industry, Gov. Kathy Hochul said it’s high time that social media companies and tech giants such as Google and Meta stop promoting illicit weed dealers on their sites that hurt legal operators, aid the massive black market and deprive New York of tax revenues.
“Right now, Google and others knowingly allow illegal stores to promote unlicensed products on their platforms. I’m calling on them to cease promotion of all illegal cannabis shops,” Hochul said in a statement to The Post.
Hochul will deliver that message Wednesday during a scheduled press conference at her Manhattan office, which will also highlight her other proposals to crack down on the illicit cannabis operators.
The Post on Sunday reported on a letter that licensed cannabis operators sent to the urging her to launch a probe — and even consider suing — Google, Meta and others for engaging in “false advertising” of unlicensed marijuana shops.
Hochul will note a simple search on Google or Google Maps for “cannabis dispensaries” shows many unlicensed pot shops peddling their products with listed reviews — with little to distinguish illegal stores from licensed businesses.
The sites give specific addresses, phone numbers and some include links to websites.
Yelp also lists reviews for unlicensed stores while sites like Meta’s Instagram allow illegal shops to promote their products, licensed owners said.
The legal weed operators were thrilled that Hochul is smoking out the tech and social media giants’ role in aiding the illegal pot stores at not only their expense, but also state and local governments that lose out on tax revenues to the black market.
“This is a great thing. Leadership starts at the top,” said Osbert Orduna, CEO of The Cannabis Place in Queens and head of the Service Disabled Veterans in Cannabis Association.
“The governor is displaying real leadership here by confronting these giant companies profiting off the clicks for unlicensed cannabis dispensaries while misleading New York State consumers,” he said.
Hochul will be accompanied by licensed cannabis operators and Manhattan business advocates on Wednesday as she urges lawmakers to back her enforcement agenda as part of the 2024-25 state budget.
One proposal would give the NYPD and the New York City Sheriff’s Office — as well as the state Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) — greater authority to padlock smoke shops and other retail stores illegally selling marijuana.
Another measure would slap Illicit cannabis business owners who refuse to allow state regulators to inspect their shady shops with much steeper fines.
The fines for scofflaws would quintuple — from $4,000 to $20,000 for a first refusal and $8,000 to $40,000 for subsequent balking — under Hochul’s proposed law.
The budding licensed cannabis industry has been hobbled by a slow and rocky rollout since marijuana was legalized for recreational sale in 2021.
There are currently 77 licensed cannabis outlets in all of New York state, while Mayor Eric Adams and Sheriff Anthony Miranda estimate there are as many as 2,000 smoke shops illegally selling weed in the Big Apple alone.
Many illicit pot shops have operated with virtual impunity.
Few have been padlocked and of the $25 million in fines levied by state regulators against unlicensed stores, only a paltry $22,500 has been collected amid bureaucratic inertia and a lengthy appeals process.
Hochul also will discuss a streamlined process that encourages more cooperation between various state and local government agencies to share information to crack down on illicit pot operators, sources said.
Alfredo Angueira, co-owner of ConBud on the Lower East Side, applauded Hochul for targeting “the bad actors.”
He claimed there were as many as 71 illicit smoke shops within 1,200 feet of his licensed cannabis store.
“There’s an uneven playing field. The illegal operators are sucking money of out of the state. They’re not paying taxes. They’re selling out-of-state products at dirt-cheap prices. They’re paying lower wages. There’s no way for us to compete,” Angueira said.
He also said it’s “just mind-boggling” that Google and other platforms are allowing illegal pot shops to market themselves on their sites.
A Google spokesperson responded, “We display places that people can visit or interact with in the real world by using a variety of sources, including third-party information and feedback from our community.
“If we can confirm that a business has closed for any reason – including license issues – we’ll reflect that it’s closed in the listing. We also prohibit cannabis ads in New York and remove them upon detection, often before they ever run.”
A spokesman for Meta, which operates Instagram and Facebook told The Post Sunday, “We prohibit content — both in ads and organically on pages — that promotes the buying and selling of drugs, including marijuana, and remove it whenever we find it.”
