Does Medical Marijuana Promote Criminal Activity?
Annie Blanco | Apr 01, 2010 | Comments 4
A number of movements to legalize the use of marijuana have been gaining momentum. Already there are places in California where it’s legal for medical purposes and in other parts of the nation too. In fact, 14 states now allow medical marijuana. However, as the Associated Press reports, patients, growers, and clinics in some of those states are falling victim to robberies, home invasions, shootings, and even murders at the hands of marijuana thieves.
To highlight the crime wave is a NBC news story out of Colorado Springs in which two places carrying medical marijuana became robbery targets in just one week. Police say in one incident two men threatened employees with a knife then sprayed mace on them. The robbers locked the employees in a back room and took marijuana and cash. Those culprits are still on the loose. The other incident involved robbers who used a stun gun on people inside of a Colorado Springs home that grew marijuana, but these are not isolated incidences, according to the local NBC TV station.
To add to the increase in crime, in late February Colorado Springs police arrested a man for burglarizing three medical marijuana dispensaries in a half-hour time period. Meanwhile, in mid September of last year a woman and her young child were beaten when robbers invaded their home for the medical marijuana she grew inside her house. All this, of course, makes security a top concern for people in the medical marijuana business.
“There’s things in here people would want that could easily turn into cash,” says Mike Kopta, owner of Natural Advantage medical marijuana dispensary.
Before Kopta opened his business, he says he spent $30,000 on security systems – locks, cameras, lights, bars, and barbed wire. Every employee, including himself, wears a panic button on a chain around their neck.
“We can hit that and there would be all kinds of noise, plus the police would be on their way,” says Kopta.
The marijuana crime issue received even more attention in mid March after a prominent medical marijuana activist in a Seattle suburb nearly killed a robber in a shootout – the eighth time thieves had targeted his pot-growing operation.
Critics say this criminal activity proves that marijuana and crime go hand in hand. However, on the other side of the proverbial coin, marijuana advocates argue that further legalization is the answer. The debate comes as California and Washington advocates push to pass legal measures to allow all adults, not just the chronically ill, to possess the drug.
“Whenever you are dealing with drugs and money, there is going to be crime. If people think otherwise, they are very naive,” Scott Kirkland, the police chief in El Cerrito, California, told the Associated Press.
“People think if we decriminalize it, the Mexican cartels and Asian gangs are going to walk away. That’s not the world I live in,” Kirkland said.
Meanwhile, back in Colorado Springs, District Attorney Dan May says he’d rather see medical marijuana treated more like medicine and less like a commercial business. Perhaps that is the answer.
“The dispensary model brings crime with it,” says May. ”You’re seeing burglaries, robberies, home invasions.”
May says people are abusing the system, and it is up to lawmakers and law enforcers to decide what kind of system should be set up to keep the crimes to a minimum.
Filed Under: Articles • Business Security
Dear, Dan May,
Saying the dispensaries bring crime is like saying Subway Shops bring crime.
In the last year, Subway Sandwich shops have been robbed, some of them more than once.
Furthermore, as the DA, it is your sworn duty to protect the Colorado Constitution.
Although you personally may not agree with Article XVIII section 14, it is our Constitution.
For every legally registered MMJ patient and every legally grown MMJ plant, we take one more drug dealer off the street.
American ingenuity and free market should be allowed to thrive.
Together we can provide safe, affordable and legal access to MMJ for our legally registered patients.
But to paint our patients and our dispensaries with such a simple and broad brush as “dispensary model brings crime” only shows a lack of concern for our Constitutional rights and our patients.
The average age of my patients is 51 years old.
They are NOT criminals. They are Americans. They are Coloradans. They are adults, many of them war veterans, and have the RIGHT to MMJ from legally registered MMJ dispensaries.
Dan May, let’s work together. Let’s not try to use fear and outdated stereotypes.
Best regards,
KC
That’s quite a comment! Thanks for your input.
Annie,
Thank you for bringing this issue to light. The Montana legislature and its citizens are currently struggling over our “medical marijuana” law. I put that it quotes because the truth is, that while the good hearted voters of Montana voted in this law so that people who were severely suffering would have some pain relief, we had no idea that we were really voting to legalize marijuana without any real regulation. We did not have any idea that bus tours would go through our towns with pro-marijuana legalization Doctors handing out “green cards” to anyone with $50.00.
Chief Kirkland is absolutely right. If you put residences full of drugs and money all around your neighborhoods with a sign in the window that states exactly that, then only an abosolute idiot could not see that there is going to be crime.
We currently have facilities with high security, and we have facilities with small children and no security whatsoever. This is an antiregulation crime against our citizens. To tell people they can be “caregivers” (our states current b.s. term for drug dealers) for just a $25.00 license fee is baiting poor people and drug users to become drug dealers.
In Montana it is illegal to bait an animal, but not a struggling family with small children.
We currently have legislation being considered that will either regulate it much more closely, or repeal it all together. One of these is likely to pass, but not necessarily be signed by our Governor.
I personally believe it should be legalized, closely regulated, heavily taxed, and distibuted just like alcohol. This is the only way I can see to “win” the war on marijuana for both sides. Marijuana users do not have to be criminals, and criminals will move on to things they really should be arrested for.
I know it is not that uncomplicated but I challenge anyone to come up with a better solution to a problem that is not going to go away and we have already proved cannot be won by making it criminal.
Sincerely,
JW
I own a private security company that provides our services to MMC’s as they are now being called here in Colorado and I can tell you this. The reason an MMC is targeted is because Marijuana is profitable for drug dealers, if it wasn’t they would be going through the expense that they are to ship it across our borders from Mexico. What complicates this is that most security companies and consultants won’t touch the medical marijuana industry, causing people to be at greater risk. What further complicates the risk is that most in law enforcement look down on MMCs so when a crime does happen an MMC is less likely or less willing to report the crime. Our society has as a whole needs to change their views and the way MMJ is treated in order for the MMCs out there to be able to operate in safer and more profitable conditions. MMC owners also need to pick up the ball and research basic security measures and principles related to pharmacies and retail establishments to ensure that they are protecting their clients and their product.