Shuttered Bay Ridge weed store ordered to pay $6M for repeat violations of NY cannabis law

Owners of the defunct Big Chief Smoke Shop in Bay Ridge, which the state shut down for selling marijuana without a license at the end of 2023, have been slapped with $6 million in penalties for repeat violations of the state’s cannabis law.

A Brooklyn judge handed down the financial judgment on Tuesday in response to a case initiated by New York Attorney General Letitia James and the state Office of Cannabis Management. James announced on Wednesday that penalties should “serve as a warning to anyone who thinks they can ignore our laws and endanger our communities.”

Big Chief started selling cannabis without a license as early as 2022 and proprietors told Fox 5 that October that enforcement had not been an issue. But soon the shop began receiving visits from inspectors with the city sheriff’s office as well as the state Office of Cannabis Management and Department of Taxation and Finance.

During a visit in August 2023, state investigators seized more than 400 pounds of cannabis products and ordered the shop to stop operating, according to the attorney general’s office. In a follow-up inspection in October 2023, inspectors found the owners continued to flout the law. During that second visit, state inspectors seized more than 200 pounds of cannabis products and issued another order to stop operating, the attorney general said.

Finally, the state successfully shut Big Chief down in December 2023, representing an early win for state cannabis officials at a time when unlicensed shops were operating with little consequence.

“Of all the unlicensed cannabis operators who worked to undermine the rollout of the legalized cannabis industry in New York, Big Chief was one of the worst bad actors I’ve seen,” City Councilmember Justin Brannan, who represents Bay Ridge, said in a statement on Wednesday.

Brannan acknowledged that Big Chief is not the only unlicensed cannabis shop that’s popped up in his district, but said the store “generated more complaints to my office, in the one-plus year they were open, than any other single legal or illegal establishment in my district since I took office in 2018.”

Last year, more than 1,000 shops accused of selling cannabis without a license in New York City received violations from the city sheriff’s office, but those fines were typically for $10,000.

Lance Lazzaro, an attorney representing Big Chief, said he’s skeptical that the state will ever see the $6 million the shuttered business has been ordered to pay. “It’s my belief that it’s a judgment that will never be collected and it’s really ceremonial in nature,” Lazzaro said.

Rapid progress on shutting down New York’s unlicensed cannabis shops didn’t come until last year, when a new law took effect that empowered the city sheriff’s office to shut stores down on the first inspection, and gave the sheriff the authority to decide whether stores should remain closed for up to a year. That law, which was put in place through the state budget, is now being challenged in court over allegations that it violates business owners’ due process rights.