A robbery in the Nevada cannabis industry has local legal weed providers reconsidering the safety and security of licensed cannabis delivery drivers.
According to a pair of concurrent reports from Las Vegas’ Fox 5 and NBC 3, an unidentified marijuana delivery driver was assaulted and robbed earlier this month during a scheduled drop-off at a North Vegas apartment complex. Nevada industry authorities are now calling the incident the first such robbery since state-licensed businesses began legal cannabis deliveries in 2017.
Upon arriving at the apartment building, the driver could not find the correct apartment number and called the customer for help. Eventually, the customer met the driver at their car and began leading them into the complex before punching them in the face. At that point, a second assailant appeared and knocked the driver to the ground before the duo took off sprinting with the delivery order.
“Because we’re a cash-based business and because it’s cannabis, as well, there’s a lot more attention brought on us as an industry, instead of delivering pizza,” cannabis consultant Jason Sturtsman told Fox 5. “You can’t just show up to any business like a McDonald’s and have cannabis delivered.”
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To protect delivery drivers, Nevada’s mobile marijuana businesses are secured by verifying customer identification online and registering them through a state website. Drivers are also required to make deliveries at only legal residences and can carry up to five ounces of product at a time. But in the wake of this month’s strong-arm robbery, Sturtsman says he expects local ganjapreneurs to come together to construct more strict safety and security standards.
“There’s many things you may see the addition of, such as body cameras,” Sturtsman said. “You may see delivery drivers carrying non-lethal things like mace and possibly changes in procedures asking for verification beyond just an ID.”
No immediate changes have been implemented to local or state delivery regulations, but Sturtsman predicts that groups like the Nevada Dispensary Association could come together in the coming weeks to sort out a path forward. For Acres Dispensary assistant manager Nate Hinckley, the unfortunate incident is an opportunity for the cannabis industry to move forward and protect its employees as any other mainstream industry would.
“It’s something that we’d like to see an evolution of,” Hinckley told Fox 5. “It’s a big business and we’d like to be taken care of the same as any other business.”
The suspects in the Las Vegas delivery robbery are still at large.
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