Police investigate a 2019 gunpoint robbery at Capitol Hill’s Ruckus (Image: CHS)
Washington’s cash only pot shops make tempting targets and an ongoing wave of armed robberies including recent hold-ups with deadly consequences have officials looking at forming a new taskforce to address the crisis.
A proposal from King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn would put law enforcement and marijuana tax revenue at the center of a new group including the King County Sheriff’s Office, the King County Prosecutor’s Office, marijuana shop retailers, and community members “to identify resources necessary to aid law enforcement in the prevention of criminal activity targeting marijuana retailers, deepen interjurisdictional cooperation and data sharing to, and coordinate emphasis patrols by law enforcement.”
“There is a perception that marijuana shops are easy targets because they are known operate on an all-cash basis. This has resulted in very dangerous situations that have quickly escalated and have resulted in deaths,” Dunn said in the announcement of his proposed legislation. “Like so many other areas of our criminal justice system, we need to be sending the message that this type of lawlessness will not be tolerated and give our law enforcement the support they need to apprehend those responsible. Letting these brazen crimes continue is not an option — we must act for the safety of our communities, before more lives are lost.”
This proposal will be referred to the King County Council’s Law, Justice, Human, and Health Services Committee in coming weeks, Dunn said.
Marijuana industry armed robberies have been a problem from the start of legalization. Here’s CHS’s report on a 2015 E Madison dispensary hold-up. But a recent string of deadly robberies including the killing of a Tacoma pot shop employee earlier this month has pushed officials to respond to longtime concerns from owners and workers.
CHS reported here on concerns about the robberies raised to the City Council by members of a Seattle cannabis equity community panel and asked for more resources to improve security at stores and provide workers with better training. “One thing that would really scare me isn’t looking down the barrel of a gun. It is what I would do shortly after that,” Belltown Have a Heart budtender Zion Grae said. “I know when someone comes in, you’re supposed to give them everything. I am a prior service veteran and my muscle memory and what goes to how I react is to immediately defend myself and fight for my life. It really scares me the fact that that’s still embedded in me as a reaction.”
Around the Hill, the most recently reported pot shop hold-up took place at E Union’s Ponder in January. In that robbery, the tiny shop was robbed at gunpoint on a Saturday night in what police say was a coordinated “takeover” style hold-up involving a team of three armed suspects, each wearing facemasks, gloves, and armed with handguns. E Republican at 15th Ave E shop Ruckus has also been targeted multiple times. Capitol Hill’s largest pot retailers Uncle Ike’s and The Reef have, so far, gone unscathed, supporting the assertions from equity community panel members that store security and resources can make a big difference in deterring the hold-ups.
Under Dunn’s proposal, in addition to planning resources for law enforcement to respond to the crisis, the taskforce would also include an analysis of “$4.6 million in marijuana tax revenue that was removed from the Sheriff’s office budget in the 2021-22 biennial budget.” It’s possible with that cash that any new programs put in place could pay for themselves. A report on the analysis would be due to the county council by August for consideration in putting together the county’s 2023-2024 budget.
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And of course none of this was anticipated and implemented years ago when it could have done some good out of the box.
“identify resources necessary to aid law enforcement in the prevention of criminal activity targeting marijuana retailers” What a joke.
This problem wouldn’t exist if there was reform that allowed them to use banks. Defund the police. Reform the obviously broken rules. Don’t pretend like police can stop crime.
And don’t use the word “marijuana” it’s a racialized slur for cannabis.
The reform you speak of needs to occur at the federal level – cannabis would need to be legalized by the federal government in order for the business to have access to banking.
Police can’t stop all crime – obviously nothing can – but they can help deter it. No one is going to defund the police over issues with an industry that isn’t legal at a federal level.
After reading about the controversy surrounding the word marijuana, I agree that it shouldn’t be used. I don’t know that I’d call it a slur (most users of the word do not have that intent), but it is a word with a racially charged history and should be retired from use.
Hope you move soon to a place that has not legalized pot (is that a good word for you?); and find whatever it is that you’re looking for.
You’re very toxic, and hope when you move, you will stop engaging here as well.
Good luck.
Best solution: Senate passes the SAFE Banking Act to open traditional banking services to retail marijuana stores; it is currently stuck in the U.S. Senate Banking Committee. Our state treasurer went to DC recently to try to push this along.