It’s a scary thought that, with cannabis becoming increasingly legal and ingrained in society, dispensaries are actually facing increased risk of raids by the police. It’s not that law enforcement is specifically targeting midland mi dispensary — if they were you’d be reading about it on the front page of every newspaper — but rather that officers are being pressured to prioritize more high-profile crimes.
Today we’re going to talk about 8 ways a dispensary could be raided today. We’re not tailoring this post to any one state or region; this list applies across the board.
1. The Pretending-To-Be-A-Normal-Business-And-Calling-Yourself “The Medicine Bar”
Let’s face it, anyone in the cannabis industry will tell you there’s not a lot of legitimacy to the term “dispensary.” Even though most establishments that are even remotely related to medicine, no one is going to call it “the pharmacy.” But that doesn’t stop people from operating under such a name. The danger here is that when law enforcement does come knocking, they’ll ask for proof of both state and federal inspections. And without those records, even if the officers aren’t familiar with the dispensary, it’s going to be easier for them to assume you’re breaking the law.
2. The Yes-We-Have-A-License Dispensary
At some point in its history, many dispensaries were legitimate businesses that followed all of the rules and paid their taxes. Even though they may still have such a license with the state, losing that license doesn’t mean they won’t be raided by the police or federal officials. And for many years, dispensaries operated without any licenses at all. And some of them are still operating illegally today.
3. The Just-Haven’t-Been-Inspected Dispensary
If you have a cannabis business and haven’t been inspected by an inspector, then you’re probably doing something wrong. There are a number of reasons to have it inspected, and law enforcement will be one of them if they find out you don’t have one or haven’t had one done in recent history. Even if they’re not going to come visit themselves, they’ll give you a call and ask you to verify that the business is up to code on a regular basis. The same goes for state inspections, which you most likely need if you’re selling cannabis in that state.
4. The Ex-Prohibitionist-Striking-Their-Razors-Against-The-Inside-Of-A-Holder Dispensary
Everyone wants to be able to say they support legalization. But when law enforcement knows what’s going on, they’ll ask the owner if they’ve ever been a law enforcement officer. If so, that could be used against you in court as evidence of your bias or even as grounds for prohibitionist charges against you personally. It can also be used as part of an investigation into the company itself.
5. The Old-Stuff-In-The-Back Dispensary
If the dispensary has limited storage space, then it’s going to be easy for law enforcement to pick him or her out. And since they’re going to be looking at a number of types of items, it’s an even more obvious place to start. Meanwhile, if you’re pulling cannabis products from the shelf and putting them on the counter without inspecting them, then you’re certainly missing one possible place where evidence could be found.
6. The “We-Never-Keep-Records” Dispensary
If you’re operating as a legitimate business, then there are going to be some records. And it’s not just the records for the state, either; it’s also the record of who bought what and where they live. Law enforcement is going to want to ask for that kind of information and see if it matches up with their own record books. If it doesn’t, there’s going to be some serious questions asked of you and your employees as well as your customers.
7. The We’re-Your-Friend Dispensary
It might be a good idea for you to look out for law enforcement because they’re actively looking for you too. This can be used against you in court as evidence that you knew or suspected illegal activity was going on and didn’t tell your employees. The same goes for the employees. If they’re looking for proof of illegal activity from those who work at a dispensary, then they’ll ask the employee to give them such information. And if enough employees agree, then it becomes significantly more likely that it’s a widespread problem.
8. The We-Don’t-Keep-Records Dispensary
This is similar to the “We-Never-Keep-Records” dispensary except they’re probably not committing any other crimes and they’re simply avoiding the issues. And it’s a good guess that law enforcement will take a very serious view of this when they discover it. You could end up losing your entire business, which means you’ll not only be facing arrest but also massive fines on top of everything else.
Conclusion:
There is no such thing as a completely safe dispensary. All of these methods can and will be used by law enforcement to raid your store. But the more often you have one of these situations that could lead to your dispensary being raided, the safer it is for you. The only way any business can truly be 100% free from legal risk is to operate entirely underground, in direct defiance of state and federal laws against cannabis sales and distribution. I’ve already talked about ways to do that . It’s still very hard to do so, but there are ways you can minimize the risk just enough for it to not be that much of a problem.
