Business
Armed Robbery Attempt Fails at East Vancouver Weed Store
Kingsway Cannabis posted a video of a failed armed robbery and questioned Health Canada’s window requirement.
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.
Source: https://hightimes.com/news/armed-robbery-attempt-fails-at-east-vancouver-weed-store/
New Mexico regulators fined a cannabis operator nearly $300,000 and revoked its license after the company allegedly created fake reports in the state’s traceability software.
The New Mexico Cannabis Control Division (CCD) accused marijuana manufacturer and retailer Golden Roots of 11 violations, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Golden Roots operates the The Cannabis Revolution Dispensary.
The majority of the violations are related to the Albuquerque company’s improper use of BioTrack, which has been New Mexico’s track-and-trace vendor since 2015.
The CCD alleges Golden Roots reported marijuana production only two months after it had received its vertically integrated license, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Because cannabis takes longer than two months to be cultivated, the CCD was suspicious of the report.
After inspecting the company’s premises, the CCD alleged Golden Roots reported cultivation, transportation and sales in BioTrack but wasn’t able to provide officers who inspected the site evidence that the operator was cultivating cannabis.
In April, the CCD revoked Golden Roots’ license and issued a $10,000 fine, according to the news outlet.
The company requested a hearing, which the regulator scheduled for Sept. 1.
At the hearing, the CCD testified that the company’s dried-cannabis weights in BioTrack were suspicious because they didn’t seem to accurately reflect how much weight marijuana loses as it dries.
Company employees also poorly accounted for why they were making adjustments in the system of up to 24 pounds of cannabis, making comments such as “bad” or “mistake” in the software, Albuquerque Business First reported.
Golden Roots was fined $298,972.05 – the amount regulators allege the company made selling products that weren’t properly accounted for in BioTrack.
The CCD has been cracking down on cannabis operators accused of selling products procured from out-of-state or not grown legally:
- Regulators alleged in August that Albuquerque dispensary Sawmill Sweet Leaf sold out-of-state products and didn’t have a license for extraction.
- Paradise Exotics Distro lost its license in July after regulators alleged the company sold products made in California.
Golden Roots was the first alleged rulebreaker in New Mexico to be asked to pay a large fine.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/new-mexico-cannabis-operator-fined-loses-license-for-alleged-biotrack-fraud/
Four marijuana companies, including a multistate operator, have filed a lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in which they allege the federal MJ prohibition under the Controlled Substances Act is no longer constitutional.
According to the complaint, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, retailer Canna Provisions, Treevit delivery service CEO Gyasi Sellers, cultivator Wiseacre Farm and MSO Verano Holdings Corp. are all harmed by “the federal government’s unconstitutional ban on cultivating, manufacturing, distributing, or possessing intrastate marijuana.”
Verano is headquartered in Chicago but has operations in Massachusetts; the other three operators are based in Massachusetts.
The lawsuit seeks a ruling that the “Controlled Substances Act is unconstitutional as applied to the intrastate cultivation, manufacture, possession, and distribution of marijuana pursuant to state law.”
The companies want the case to go before the U.S. Supreme Court.
They hired prominent law firm Boies Schiller Flexner to represent them.
The New York-based firm’s principal is David Boies, whose former clients include Microsoft, former presidential candidate Al Gore and Elizabeth Holmes’ disgraced startup Theranos.
Similar challenges to the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA) have failed.
One such challenge led to a landmark Supreme Court decision in 2005.
In Gonzalez vs. Raich, the highest court in the United States ruled in a 6-3 decision that the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution gave Congress the power to outlaw marijuana federally, even though state laws allow the cultivation and sale of cannabis.
In the 18 years since that ruling, 23 states and the District of Columbia have legalized adult-use marijuana and the federal government has allowed a multibillion-dollar cannabis industry to thrive.
Since both Congress and the U.S. Department of Justice, currently headed by Garland, have declined to intervene in state-licensed marijuana markets, the key facts that led to the Supreme Court’s 2005 ruling “no longer apply,” Boies said in a statement Thursday.
“The Supreme Court has since made clear that the federal government lacks the authority to regulate purely intrastate commerce,” Boies said.
“Moreover, the facts on which those precedents are based are no longer true.”
Verano President Darren Weiss said in a statement the company is “prepared to bring this case all the way to the Supreme Court in order to align federal law with how Congress has acted for years.”
While the Biden administration’s push to reschedule marijuana would help solve marijuana operators’ federal tax woes, neither rescheduling nor modest Congressional reforms such as the SAFER Banking Act “solve the fundamental issue,” Weiss added.
“The application of the CSA to lawful state-run cannabis business is an unconstitutional overreach on state sovereignty that has led to decades of harm, failed businesses, lost jobs, and unsafe working conditions.”
Alabama regulators are targeting Dec. 1 to award the first batch of medical cannabis business licenses after the agency’s first two attempts were scrapped because of scoring errors and litigation.
The first licenses will be awarded to individual cultivators, delivery providers, processors, dispensaries and state testing labs, according to the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC).
Then, on Dec. 12, the AMCC will award licenses for vertically integrated operations, a designation set primarily for multistate operators.
Licenses are expected to be handed out 28 days after they have been awarded, so MMJ production could begin in early January, according to the Alabama Daily News.
That means MMJ products could be available for patients around early March, an AMCC spokesperson told the media outlet.
Regulators initially awarded 21 business licenses in June, only to void them after applicants alleged inconsistencies with how the applications were scored.
Then, in August, the state awarded 24 different licenses – 19 went to June recipients – only to reverse themselves again and scratch those licenses after spurned applicants filed lawsuits.
A state judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Chicago-based MSO Verano Holdings Corp., but another lawsuit is pending.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/alabama-plans-to-award-medical-cannabis-licenses-dec-1/
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