A Wayne County man whose eight unlicensed marijuana stores became snared in the first court battle testing the constitutionality of New York’s new cannabis enforcement regulations has been ordered to pay more than $15 million in penalties and fines, including for continuing to sell products after he had been warned to stop.
The case filed by the state attorney general’s office has been waged in state Supreme Court in Wayne County against David A. Tulley, 44, who had drawn attention from state regulators when he openly distributed cannabis from his various stores and made public comments touting what he believed was his ability to purportedly “gift” marijuana to customers who paid for advice on cannabis use.
A year ago, after Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation into law increasing civil and tax penalties for the unlicensed and illicit sale of cannabis, investigators and state troopers raided Tulley’s stores in the Rochester and Syracuse areas and seized marijuana products before obtaining a court order to padlock the businesses. The case marked the state’s first effort in state Supreme Court to seek substantial financial penalties against an alleged illicit marijuana retail operator — and some of the landlords whose properties housed his shops.
[Read more at Times Union]