David Schwartz, Director of NYAWD Talking About "The Smoke Out Act". This legislation aims to shut down illegal shops that sell untaxed cigarettes.

Youtube transcript
0:03 well either We're a nation of laws or 0:06 we're not a nation of laws and I have to 0:08 thank uh assemblywomen Raj Kumar Senator 0:11 Comer for finally taking action every 0:15 single day we New York State uh every 0:19 year is losing $2.4 billion dollar with 0:23 a fee due to Illegal untaxed cigarettes 0:27
illegal Vapor Products and of course 0:30 illegal cannabis and it's got to stop 0:32 now the city of New York is losing 0:35 hundreds of millions of dollars we've 0:37 had thousands of small convenience 0:39 stores bodegas new stands shutting down 0:43 because of this proliferating illegal 0:46 Market thousands of illegal shops 0:49 opening up on our streets and and you 0:52 know for the kids that are here not only 0:54 is this a Scourge on society but $2 0:57 billion dollar a year of being taken 1:00 away from you they're taken being taken 1:02 away from police and fire and everything 1:04 else the city and state has to pay for 1:07 every single year so finally we're going 1:10 to be a nation of laws and it's because 1:11 of your hard work and your hard work 1:14 that we're going to get this in the 1:15 budget get it signed and get this passed 1:18 and get rid of these stores they are 1:21 cheating the taxpayers of much needed 1:23 Revenue the city and state of New York 1:26 deserves better our children deserve 1:29 better and if you're going to buy 1:31 cigarettes they should be taxed in a 1:34 legal brick and mortar store in the city 1:36 of New York and also you know we've lost 1:40 thousands of licenses we have to get 1:43 those licenses back because those are 1:45 the legal Market we need to bring 1:48 everything to the legal market right now 1:50 as we speak there are trucks traveling 1:54 up the I95 Corridor right now as we 1:57 speak from North Carolina from Virginia 2:00
from Georgia bringing up untaxed illegal 2:04 cigarettes and now they have a great 2:06 place to bring it right these thousands 2:08 of illegal markets that have opened up 2:11 so I'm going to ask the our leaders to
2:14 not forget about the illegal tobacco 2:16 problem these aren't just illegal stores 2:19 these are criminal Enterprises they they 2:22 are not only selling illegal cannabis 2:24 but the cigarettes that they're selling 2:26
robbing us of much needed revenue and 2:29 the flavored Vapes the illegal flavored 2:32 Vapes they're selling uh we have to stop 2:34 it now thank you so much for what you're 2:36 doing we're finally taking action thank 2:39 you thank you