Unlicensed Cannabis Stores Fueled Increase in LA Dispensary Crime Reports Since 2010

In the days before California legalized adult-use cannabis sales, gun-toting robbers preyed on the quasi-legal dispensaries of Los Angeles. They seemed ready and willing to pull the trigger, knowing that shops often had ample cash and product guarded by armed security. And because City Hall at the time didn’t recognize any of the stores as fully lawful, operators were often hesitant to dial 911.

In a one-week span in the summer of 2010 four dispensary employees, including two security guards, were shot in a string of robberies in the city of Los Angeles. In one of the heists, Matthew Benjamin Butcher, the 27-year-old son of Los Angeles labor leader Julie Butcher, was slain.

Many in the cannabis community have argued that full retail licensing and regulation would help solve the problem. But data from the city of Los Angeles show that the number of reported crime incidents connected to retail cannabis stores doubled between 2010 and 2018. Legalization seems to have calmed the crime problem—but only for legal stores.

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