triclomes a legal cannabis shop in rochester new york was recently raided john brown the owner says officers seized around 2 million in cannabis products without any explanation search warrant or cause reported wham they were asked for a warrant and probable cause but nobody had anything to issue nobody wanted to give id or say who they were they just said were ocm and we can do this said brown referring to nys office of cannabis management which also conducted raids in manhattan on tuesday what happened on tuesday the nypd raided a marijuana dispensary in manhattan as part of an ongoing battle against the hundreds of illicit weed shops that are popping up all over the city while the officers were targeting two locations of the empire cannabis club chain they were only successful with one why the second attempt failed when store manager lenore elfand taped the police which is legal as they attempted to barge in without a search warrant which is not legal why it matters brown in rochester is expressing concerns that the ocm is behaving with “unadulterated authority” he says new york has made it nearly impossible to comply with producttesting mandates where do we get it tested at if the state doesn’t have those facilities in place are you going to license me to do it if i own all the equipment have all the knowhow the knowledge why cant i get that license myself brown asked we dont have a license because the state hasnt issued those licenses according to the ocm website the agency is “still soliciting firms to perform thirdparty sampling of adultuse and medical cannabis products in new york state currently there is only one permitted testing lab in rochester brown added that by buying in a legal dispensary like his customers are ensured that the products are safe and tested “there is no heroin fentanyl there is nothing else mixed inside how about the illicit places that are selling all the other stuff not just a legal product why is so difficult for new york to curb illicit marijuana operations one of the reasons is that the state is way behind schedule in terms of issuing licenses for legal dispensaries with only 19 operating across the entire state customers don’t have many legal options to choose from other reasons are likely force of habit and of course price what’s next the state is working to speed up the licenseissuing process as it likely realizes its losing millions of dollars the longer this situation drags on want to talk more about these thorny issues facing not only new york but other states join us at the benzinga cannabis capital conference in chicago on sept 2728 get your tickets today before prices go up secure a spot at the epicenter of cannabis investment and branding time for course correction activists urge ny gov hochul to open up rec program can you sue an individual state for legalizing cannabis this group thinks so and goes after new york