cannabisnews.com: Pot Club Robbery Highlights Protection Loopholes





Pot Club Robbery Highlights Protection Loopholes
Posted by CN Staff on December 29, 2003 at 09:34:18 PT
By J.K. Dineen and Ethan Fletcher 
Source: San Francisco Examiner 
The brazen pistol-whipping and robbery of a pot club during the blackout last weekend underscores the vulnerability of medical marijuana dispensaries, the head of The City's narcotics unit said this week.Just after 8 p.m. on Saturday, two hours after a substation fire knocked the power out in one-third of The City, five armed and masked men burst into the Alternative Herbal Health Services clinic in the 400 block of Haight Street, according to owner Jason Beck.
As a handful of medical marijuana patients and clinic employees looked on in horror, the robbers waved guns, ordering everyone to the ground. All five robbers wore black "wave caps" over their heads; they appeared to be young and African-American, Beck said.The robbers grabbed 28 eighth vials of weed from behind the counter, worth as much as $1,500. They then demanded Beck open the cash register. Ironically, he couldn't, the blackout had killed the register along with the lights.Meanwhile, Beck leaned over to see what the suspects looked like and pressed the alarm behind the counter. He said he was then pistol-whipped in the head five times by different suspects, as they tried to get him to stop pressing the alarm and open the cash register. The robbers stole whatever money Beck had on him and also robbed the patients. Before they left, one of them said: "Pop one of them and let 'em know we're for real."But no shots were fired, Beck said. He was treated at the hospital and received three staples for head injuries. He already suffers from seizures. Capt. Tim Hettrich, The City's head of narcotics, said he has long worried about potential robberies at medical marijuana clubs. Because the federal government doesn't recognize the legality of medical marijuana in California, there is not much the police can give in the way of protection. Most of the clubs deal in cash."One of my major concerns has been that these people are vulnerable and there is a tremendous amount of cash on hand," he said. "As far as the federal government is concerned, the sale of marijuana is illegal and we in Narcotics basically leave them alone. We don't interfere."In the Haight Street case, The City's police can investigate the robbery of money and the pistol-whipping, but not the theft of the medical marijuana."It would be a touchy area for The City to provide any type of security to the pot clubs because we rely on the federal government for so much money," he said.Beck said he wasn't scared, just angry. The robbers, he said, were taking advantage of the blackout."They were trying to capitalize on the opportunity, you know it's Christmastime and everybody's broke," he said. Source: San Francisco Examiner (CA)Author:   J.K. Dineen and Ethan Fletcher Of The Examiner StaffPublished: Thursday, December 25, 2003Copyright: 2003 San Francisco ExaminerContact: letters sfexaminer.comWebsite: http://www.examiner.com/Related Article & Web Site:Medicinal Cannabis Research Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/research.htmRobbers Invade Oakland Pot Clubhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17771.shtml
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Comment #1 posted by OverwhelmSam on December 29, 2003 at 16:08:59 PT:
So What.
MM dispensaries are not the only businesses that get robbed. Compared to convenience stores and banks and this incident is relatively minor.
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