Like any business, the owners of medical marijuana dispensaries face many challenges getting their businesses off the ground. Unlike more traditional establishments, these entrepreneurs often handle greater difficulties getting needed business services and handling negative public opinion.
In the greatest case of NIMBY - not in my back yard - purveyors of medical marijuana dispensaries find it difficult to obtain leases in more affluent areas and end up relegated to less desirable locations wavy bar mushrooms , increasing their likelihood of facing break-ins and robberies. People want medical marijuana to be available to card carrying patients, nevertheless they don't want to have the stores in their neighborhoods.
Break-Ins Can Occur Anywhere
In two recent incidents the motivation remained the same - obtaining marijuana. A dispensary in Colorado Springs has had its dumpster stolen many times in recent days. Thieves used bolt cutters to open the trash receptacle hoping to find marijuana debris. Trash has been left on neighboring trails and in parks.
In Langley, BC a person who grew medical marijuana legally at his home opened his door to simply help two men claiming to own car trouble. They pushed him into his home, brandished a blade and gun, tied him up and blindfolded him, and then proceeded to rob the home and cut down his marijuana plants. They left, stealing both his vehicles.
Legitimate Business Services Would Help Entrepreneurs
While there isn't much that banks or merchant account providers could do for domestic growers, for dispensaries, obtaining the same scale of business services available to other programs would reduce the attraction of such storefronts to burglars and petty thieves. Apart from the attraction of marijuana on the premises, it is usually the availability of so much untraceable cash that makes MMJ dispensaries so appealing.
Owners are finding that when they have the ability to process transactions by credit card, clients prefer to pay that way. With little cash on hand, vulnerability of an area decreases dramatically.
The problems behind getting such services lay in the fact that though some state governments have legalized the sale of medical marijuana to card carrying individuals, the federal government hasn't accepted marijuana as a state issue. On the federal level pot remains illegal, and banks are influenced by the FDIC to insure their account holders, and are expected to check out numerous federal regulations.
What Does the Future Hold?
There's really no method to anticipate how the fight to totally legalize marijuana will go. Some cities which already approved the sale of MMJ want to backtrack; others are striving to improve service and availability. The most effective exemplory case of such a scenario historically could be the re-legalization of alcohol after prohibition. Crimes surrounding the sale decreased dramatically.
Considering the potential tax base, it isn't hard to see why both the federal and state governments would be interested in completely legalizing MMJ. For business owners, that could signal the availability of needed business services, a really welcome change.