Yesterday we reported on what happened to Cookies on Melrose in Los Angeles. Unfortunately Cannabis dispensaries are becoming an easy target for looters which is somewhat of a shame, to say the least. Today it is Chicago.
As regulated cannabis is an industry which is attempting in one way or another to legislate proper structures for all to participate in the sector. Some may say too little to late, although we doubt that is utmost on the mind of the looters.
The other question is…… how many of the looters are actually from minority backgrounds ? We are reading both of Antifa looting but more ominously rightwingers using the chaos to take what isn’t theirs and we’d suggest cannabis is a business they’d try to curtail if they ever got any administrative power.
Our heart goes out to the owners and employees of these dispensaries…
The Chicago Tribune reports..
The bulletproof security glass inside Mission South Shore marijuana dispensary was supposed to be impenetrable. But it gave way Sunday afternoon to looters armed with crowbars and baseball bats.
They smashed through the front door first, then hacked away at the security glass, said Kris Krane, president and co-founder of 4Front Ventures, which owns the dispensary in the South Chicago neighborhood. Everything of value was taken, including the marijuana.
“The store’s been pretty much ransacked,” said Krane, who watched security camera footage of 30 or 40 people breaking into the dispensary. “Nothing was going to hold that many people back.”
Every dispensary in Chicago is closed indefinitely to prevent or clean up from weekend looting and vandalizing, fallout from George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis last week. The closures could cause problems for medical patients whose supplies run low.
All the staff members at Mission left before the looters arrived, Krane said. The dispensary shut down as neighboring businesses were looted and the situation appeared unsafe. It was boarded up Monday morning, and will be closed until further notice.
Krane said they are still assessing how deeply the loss of inventory will affect customers and patients.
Dispensary 33 in the Uptown neighborhood closed early Sunday and remained closed Monday. General manager Paul Lee said he hoped to reopen as soon as possible.
The dispensary’s storefront was broken and kicked down Saturday night, but no one entered the store.
Because of state regulations, marijuana dispensaries in Illinois have robust security systems. Many employ security guards, and, like Mission, have secured areas that customers must pass through before entering the showroom floor. Even there, marijuana products are not allowed to be displayed — they must be kept locked up, in a vault or secured room.
When looters on Saturday night shattered the windows and entered the Sunnyside dispensary in River North, which opened just last week, they did not penetrate the secure area and vault, where the cannabis is stored, said spokesman Jason Erkes.
Cresco Labs, which owns the dispensary, moved all the product out of its dispensaries in River North, Lakeview and Elmwood Park to a state-licensed, secure location. The stores are boarded up, and closed until further notice.
NuMed Chicago sent out a text alert letting customers know it is temporarily closing “due to ongoing protests in our area.” Illinois Supply and Provisions in Springfield also was closed Monday. MedMen, which operates dispensaries in Evanston and Oak Park, closed all of its stores nationwide Sunday.
