One robber got more than he bargained for attempting to rob a cannabis store in Canada. Kingsway Cannabis in East Vancouver, British Columbia posted a 20-second video on Twitter on March 14, showing a failed armed robbery attempt the night before.

CTV Vancouver reports that an armed robbery-gone-wrong was captured on video and shared online. The video shows a man—most likely not experienced in crime—bursting into the store on March 13 shortly after 8 p.m.

The man in the video points what appears to be a gun at a woman behind the counter, who flees. The man attempts to go behind the counter, but is stopped short by a locked half-door blocking his way. 

Then the guy tries to rip out the register, but doesn’t seem to try hard enough, gives up, and then runs out of the store empty-handed. It appears the man wasn’t prepared to break a cash register open.

The Vancouver Police Department (VPD) is investigating the incident. But since a firearm was likely involved, unless it was a replica, police are taking the incident very seriously.

“Whether this was a real gun or a fake gun, we don’t know. That’s something we’re investigating,” said VPD Cst. Tania Visintin. “Nonetheless, this is terrifying for everyone involved. Whether this is a cannabis store or a candy shop, it’s terrifying no matter where it happens.”

Kingsway Cannabis posted the video and also questioned if Health Canada’s requirements are actually helping.

Protecting Minors from Seeing Weed or Creating a Hazard?

Because the store’s windows were frosted, the employee who had a gun pointed in her face couldn’t see the suspect approaching. “Maybe it’s time for the government to re-think the mandatory window frosting,” Kingsway Cannabis tweeted.

Health Canada requires that stores prevent minors from viewing cannabis products, i.e. frosted windows, but it’s not good when an intruder is approaching. Health Canada requires that stores ensure no cannabis or accessories are visible from outside the premises in order to protect them from the view of minors. 

The British Columbia government already dropped the frosted window requirement, but Health Canada still requires cannabis stores to have frosted windows in order to stay compliant.

Other stores had the same issue, and they say it’s because the window coverings actually make things more dangerous.

iHeart Radio reports that recently, Nanaimo-based Mood Cannabis was subject to back-to-back robberies, and blamed the visibility clause. 

“I can’t provide a safe environment for my employees because of the regulations (right now),” Kingsway Cannabis owner Chuck Varabioff told iHeart Radio. “I’m going to rally a bunch of the store owners I know in the Lower Mainland and in the Interior because they say ‘You can’t fight the government,’ but we’re going to give it a helluva shot.”

“After the second time he came in we removed the window coverings for our staff and customers,” said Mood Cannabis owner Cory Waldron. A cannabis inspector told him to replace window coverings since cannabis was visible from the street. “This regulation was completely based on stigma and there’s no rationale behind it,” said Waldron. “I don’t see the appeal to our youth by seeing this (bland) packaging.”

Health Canada is currently reviewing if the rules and regulations in place are working, three years after retail sales were authorized in the country. 

The Cannabis Council of Canada is begging to repeal the visibility clause on the basis it makes stores targets for robbers, and it makes stores uninviting as well.

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Suspects are still at-large after C.R.A.F.T. Cannabis in Oakland in California was robbed at gunpoint and about $100,000 in product was stolen. Making things worse, eyewitnesses say it took hours for police to arrive at the scene—once everything was taken and the damage had already been done.

In the early hours of August 6, officers responded to reports of a burglary near the 2500 block of Willow Street in Oakland. Police say that around 2:30 a.m. on Saturday, three vehicles and three unknown individuals parked on the 2400 block of Willow Street, then broke into the business and cut the power.

KTVU Fox 2 reports that Alan Sorrentino, owner of C.R.A.F.T. (Citizens Research Alliance for Therapeutics) Cannabis was notified by his alarm company of the burglary early Saturday morning. The Oakland police were called multiple times. So Sorrentino checked out the situation but was forced to leave when a suspect pointed a gun at him. He continued to watch them from afar, looting the building, via surveillance camera.

“Like about 2:50 a.m. they cut the power to the whole building,” Sorrentino, owner of Craft Cannabis in Oakland, told KTVU Fox 2.  

According to Sorrentino, the intruders appeared to execute an elaborate plan in steps.

“Unfortunately they were able to get away with all of our inventory basically, so we’ve had to shut down,” Sorrentino said. Police were able to identify some of the vehicles from surveillance video.

“A white Toyota pickup truck, a small black sedan, possibly a Mazda or Toyota. Then there were a couple of other vehicles involved once they had made it into the vault area to help them unload,” said Sorrentino. 

Over the course of the next few hours, the suspects busted walls, broke door locks, and broke stair steps. Oakland police say they got to the location about 7:30 a.m. and explained they were unable to respond immediately because they simply didn’t have any officers available at the time.

C.R.A.F.T. Cannabis won numerous awards with offerings such as Dimepiece, winning High Times’ 2019 Bay Area Cannabis Cup 1st Place for Indica Flower, or perhaps the 2016 NorCal Medical Cannabis Cup First Place for CBD Flower.

C.R.A.F.T., as a processor, and Keepers of the Craft Gardens, as cultivators, boast Clean Green Certification since 2012.

No arrests have been made in this incident. Anyone that has information about the incident is encouraged to contact the Oakland Police Department’s Burglary Unit at (510) 238-3951.

Crime Waves in Oakland Dispensaries

It’s just the latest in a recent wave of crime. A man was shot at the Oakanna dispensary last February. Oakanna dispensary owner Joshua Chase was shot in the foot after a group of burglars tripped an alarm in the early morning hours at his relatively new retail facility.

The cannabis delivery industry in the area has also been hit hard.

Cannabis dispensaries a target? One reason in particular is due to the lack of the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act, which would protect dispensaries from carrying large amounts of cash.

Politico reported that the crime spree in Oakland—and the West Coast as a whole—caused enough commotion to trigger support for banking reform on Capitol Hill with bills such as the SAFE Banking Act.

Access to banking services could solve many of those problems and make dispensaries safer for the people who work in them.

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Warrants are out in Washington for a pair of teenaged boys allegedly involved in an armed robbery of a cannabis dispensary in the state that left an employee dead, as well as a number of other armed robberies in the area.

The Chronicle newspaper reports that Montrell Hatfield, 16, and Marshon Jones, 15, “are wanted in connection with a fatal shooting at a Tacoma marijuana dispensary and at least 10 armed robberies at pot shops in Pierce and King counties.”

On March 19, an employee at World of Weed in Tacoma, later identified as 29-year-old Jordan Brown, was fatally shot in the neck.

The Chronicle, citing court documents, reported that, during the incident, “Hatfield fought with an employee behind the cash register and Jones fatally shot the employee in the neck.”

“After ordering everybody to get on the ground, Hatfield allegedly fired a warning shot into the ceiling and approached the manager and other employees. He handed them garbage bags and ordered them to put all the money inside,” the newspaper reported. “Brown tossed the garbage bag back at Hatfield, put his hands in the air and stepped backward, records say. Hatfield and Brown then began fighting on the ground, according to witnesses and surveillance footage. Jones allegedly broke up the fight by shooting Brown in the neck. As the teens ran for the door, Jones told Hatfield ‘Don’t worry about them,’ records say.”

Prosecutors in Pierce County, Washington “have charged Hatfield with first-degree murder and second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm,” while “Jones has also been charged.” A “third man who acted as their lookout while they robbed the stores at gunpoint has not been identified,” according to The Chronicle.

The newspaper said that prosecutors “expect to file charges against the teens in the future for four marijuana dispensary robberies in Tacoma and one in Pierce County,” and that the teens are also “suspected in five similar robberies in King County.”

On the same day as the fatal robbery, Hatfield and Jones allegedly robbed a dispensary in Seattle, and tried unsuccessfully to rob another in Tacoma.

Armed robberies of cannabis dispensaries have risen at an alarming rate in Washington, which made history when it legalized recreational pot use for adults via a ballot initiative in 2012. Last week, citing data from the in-state trade group the Craft Cannabis Coalition, the Seattle Times reported that “there have been around 67 armed robberies so far in 2022,” up from 34 and 27 in 2021 and 2020 respectively.

The trend has prompted lawmakers and other officials in Washington to sound the alarm over the vulnerability of cannabis establishments, which typically have large amounts of cash on hand. Earlier this month, state treasurer Mike Pellicciotti traveled to Washington, D.C. to urge passage of the Secured and Fair Enforcement Banking (SAFE) Act, which would allow banks to provide financial services to cannabis businesses––something the federal prohibition on pot currently precludes them from doing.

“You rob the places where the cash is,” Pellicciotti said, as quoted by local television station KING5. “These robberies are tragic. But these robberies are also preventable.”

Last month, Republican state Sen. Jim Honeyford introduced a bill that would have added an extra year to the prison sentence of anyone convicted of first or second degree robbery of a cannabis shop, the same penalty that’s reserved for individuals who rob a pharmacy.

“When people would ask the infamous bank robber Willie Sutton why he robbed banks, Sutton simply replied, ‘Because that’s where the money is.’ Well, that’s why people rob marijuana retailers,” Honeyford said at the time. “Due to federal banking rules, these businesses are almost entirely cash-only operations, making them a target for robberies and a magnet for criminals.”

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