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Transcript

Alan Silverstein -ATCC-: 

Alan Silverstein -ATCC-: Jessica, how are you today? Eric, good to see you.

Eric Morrissette: Hey, I hope you’re doing well, I’m in New York, but I’m looking forward to listening in.

Alan Silverstein -ATCC-: How’s the weather there?

Eric Morrissette: It’s rainy right now, but I think New York needs it. I think it was dry for a long spell. Is that right? Yeah. So, it’s good for New York.

Alan Silverstein -ATCC-: That’s good. I was talking to my brother who lives on Long Island. So, yeah,…

Eric Morrissette: Is that right? we’re in Queenstown, so not far from Long Island.

Alan Silverstein -ATCC-: he lives in Seville and…

Eric Morrissette: Nice.

Alan Silverstein -ATCC-: yeah, and I’ve got cousins out there. I’ve still got relatives that live there and nieces, nephews, great nieces and…

Alan Silverstein -ATCC-: great nephews.

Eric Morrissette: That’s awesome.

Eric Morrissette: Back in that time, you can enjoy the good weather.

Alan Silverstein -ATCC-: Absolutely. it’s good to have you on board. Hopefully, we’ll have a quorum today.  Jessica, have you heard from any

Alan Silverstein -ATCC-: Other commission members.

JESSICA HONEYCUTT -ATCC-: Let’s see. Robert Betty said no. Elizabeth said yes. Jim.

Alan Silverstein -ATCC-: So we need Durac.

JESSICA HONEYCUTT -ATCC-: And she said that she’s most likely going to be able to join.

Alan Silverstein -ATCC-: Okay. All right. Jeff and…

Alan Silverstein -ATCC-: I just talked and he said she thought maybe she’d be able to now. So, we’ll see. Wonderful. Thank you.

JESSICA HONEYCUTT -ATCC-: Yes, she did send me a message.

00:05:00

Alan Silverstein -ATCC-: Jeff, good to see you. I think you’re still on mute.

Jeffrey Herndon -ATCC-: 

Jeffrey Herndon -ATCC-: I am still on mute but now I’m Good to see How are you?

Alan Silverstein -ATCC-: Jeff called me and let me know what’s going on. So,

Jeffrey Herndon -ATCC-: Do we know…

Jeffrey Herndon -ATCC-: how many is going to be joining us today? Okay. Okay.

Alan Silverstein -ATCC-: Eric and…

Alan Silverstein -ATCC-: We are hopeful that, Darcane will be joining us. So, if she does, we’ll have a quorum. If not, we will still go through the agenda, but we will not ask for approval of minutes or anything else.

Alan Silverstein -ATCC-: 

+1 301-***-**01: Who’s the 13? Yes, I am present.

Alan Silverstein -ATCC-: Derek, you with us?

Alan Silverstein -ATCC-: Thank you very much. You make the quorum.

+1 301-***-**01: I hope everyone’s been well.

Eric Morrissette: Same here.

Alan Silverstein -ATCC-: We’ll get started in two minutes. Elizabeth, nice to have you join us.

Elizabeth Kromm -MDH-: Great to be here.

Alan Silverstein -ATCC-: 

Elizabeth Kromm -MDH-: Good afternoon.

Alan Silverstein -ATCC-: Good afternoon.

Alan Silverstein -ATCC-: And we have a quorum today. So, life is good.

Alan Silverstein -ATCC-: Okay.

Alan Silverstein -ATCC-: 

Alan Silverstein -ATCC-: It is 3:00 p.m. November 21st, 2024. opening the meeting of the Maryland Alcohol, Tobacco, and Cannabis Commission. present today are Silverstein, Vice Chair Morsett, and Commissioner Rosarian. So, we have a quorum. I’m going to ask for approval of the September 19th, 2024 minutes. Need a motion, please. Okay.

+1 301-***-**01: Happily second. Okay.

Eric Morrissette: motion.

Alan Silverstein -ATCC-: And A motion a second. All those in favor signify by saying I.

Jeffrey Herndon -ATCC-: 

Alan Silverstein -ATCC-: I. All Eyes have it. All right. Mr. Hearnen is going to be joining us today to give the executive director’s report.

00:10:00

Jeffrey Herndon -ATCC-: Good afternoon,…

Jeffrey Herndon -ATCC-: ladies and gentlemen. my name is Jeff He. Hearnden. Recently been appointed the director of the field enforcement division for the Alcohol Tobacco Cannabis Commission. I’m sitting in for our executive director, Mr. Kelly and going to go over some of our field enforcement division items of interest to let you know for the previous month. Our agents conducted 165 alcohol inspections. They’ve completed 267 tobacco cannabis inspections for the month. They had 13 reportable incidents that arose from those inspections andor complaints.

Jeffrey Herndon -ATCC-: They ended up making seizures of product that were obtained legally. Of that, it was 28,219 sticks of other tobacco products and that was yielding an estimated tax loss of $17,291.  They also seized 9,227 packs of yielding an tax loss of 46,135. And they’ve also seized 23 gallons of distilled spirits, nine gallons of wine, yielding a tax loss of $42. the large seizure that we discussed there, over 9,000, that was a culmination of a case that our agents worked over a period of months.

Jeffrey Herndon -ATCC-: still ongoing investigation charges are pending with individuals that were obtaining outofstate cigarettes, transporting them into the state of Maryland and using counterfeit tax stamps to put onto those cigarettes to be sold out of their stores. So, we’re now working in cooperation with Homeland Security, and we have numerous people identified and like I said, charges are going to be pending on that. our regulatory licensing administrative services division. also to go over we have open positions within the agency here. We’re finishing up interviews today. As a matter of fact, we’ll be filling two vacant agent positions to bring us back up to full staff.

Jeffrey Herndon -ATCC-: 

Jeffrey Herndon -ATCC-: We’ve received multiple applications and I believe the deadline is posted for that for one of our research specialists. so we’re going to be hopefully filling that position coming up probably mid December and our legal and legislative division recently conducted the alcohol summit hosted here at our facility and…

Jeffrey Herndon -ATCC-: Mr. Chair,…

Alan Silverstein -ATCC-: Okay. …

Alan Silverstein -ATCC-: new business. You want to talk about the staff volunteer day.

Jeffrey Herndon -ATCC-: the staff volunteer day is going to be coming up. we have that on Thursday, December 19th. Again, coordinated with our executive associate Jessica coordinated with the Franciscan Center of Baltimore. So, we’ll be looking forward to being on staff with them.

Jeffrey Herndon -ATCC-: 

Jeffrey Herndon -ATCC-: There’s going to be a toiletry drive for the Franciscan Center. and then our support staff will be going over there to help them with our reach out helping provide hot meals, culinary training for those in the immediate area like we did last year. We’ll get to meet and…

Jeffrey Herndon -ATCC-: greet some of the folks from the local community and assist them through donations and being able to provide them with some meals.

Alan Silverstein -ATCC-: Okay. …

Alan Silverstein -ATCC-: one question I have, we’re finding now that the counterfeit stamps, seem to be a new issue.

Jeffrey Herndon -ATCC-: Yes. Yeah.

Alan Silverstein -ATCC-: Is that correct?

Jeffrey Herndon -ATCC-: It’s a newer issue.

Jeffrey Herndon -ATCC-: we’ve seen two different variations of it now. One was a stamp that was a self- adhesive stamp and these latest ones were actually heat transfer stamps. The stamps themselves to the untrained observer look very legitimate. what we found is that we’re becoming more of a destination state for the illegal activity since the tax of the cigarettes themselves, the tax stamp is now $5.  And I think that makes us second leading in the country only behind New York. So if going through a licensed wholesaler for a carton of cigarettes is going to run a retail establishment $110 to $120 whereas you can buy the the counterfeit stamped carton of cigarettes at least $50 cheaper than that.

Jeffrey Herndon -ATCC-: 

Jeffrey Herndon -ATCC-: We also know of counterfeit products being brought into the state that were working. Also the investigation that includes counterfeit cigarettes themselves,…

00:15:00

Alan Silverstein -ATCC-: Okay.

Jeffrey Herndon -ATCC-: meaning the entire cigarette, the package, the carton, the whole thing is counterfeit. And those were being sold to retail locations for $50 or $60.’s and yes, there is a difference between the original Newport and counterfeit Newports. And consumers can figure out the difference, but by the time a complaint gets made or the fact that the new ports that are normally $1325 on the shelf are being sold for 12 or…

Alan Silverstein -ATCC-: 

Jeffrey Herndon -ATCC-: 11, you’re less likely to complain about getting a cheaper price. So, that’s what we’re dealing with there, Al. Correct. Yeah.

Alan Silverstein -ATCC-: And North Carolina is the only state that does not put a stamp on their cigarettes. Correct. Okay.

Jeffrey Herndon -ATCC-: And that’s where these stamps are coming from. a lot of the cigarettes that we’ve dealt with also came out of Virginia because their taxes are much lower than ours. And in some instances, the tax stamp rather than trying to remove the Virginia stamp, they were simply applying the Maryland stamp over top. Kind of being lazy about it.

Alan Silverstein -ATCC-: Does anybody else have any business that new business they would like to bring up or any questions for the, members of the commission, I spoke with Mr.  Kelly and we’re going to schedule an executive session with the commission talk about a couple of issues in the near future and we’ll be working with Jessica to get that set up. and also anybody who would like to volunteer from the commission at the Franciscan Center are welcome to join the staff and it’s my intention to try to get over there and volunteer that day.

Alan Silverstein -ATCC-: 

Alan Silverstein -ATCC-: So, please, put that on your calendar. All right. I need a motion for adjournment. I’ll make a motion to adjurnn. I need a second, Eric, I know your, mic is turned off.

Eric Morrissette: Move. I’ll make a motion.

Alan Silverstein -ATCC-: And, Derek A, are you there?

Jeffrey Herndon -ATCC-: Thank you, sir.

+1 301-***-**01: I am.

+1 301-***-**01: Yes. I second. Hi

Alan Silverstein -ATCC-: You want to make the second All those in favor signify by saying I post same sign.

Eric Morrissette: We’re fine. We’re fine.

Alan Silverstein -ATCC-: We will see everybody next month on December 19th at 3:00. Thank you all for your attendance.

Eric Morrissette: Thanks everyone. Happy

Meeting ended after 00:18:17 👋

This editable transcript was computer generated and might contain errors.