“Looking back, it was absolutely the wrong way of dealing with this societal issue.” “The messaging from the highest level of government was that drugs are bad and destroying the community, and law enforcement should have zero tolerance,” Mr. Blunt’s arrest 17 years ago, understands how ingrained drug prosecution is in law enforcement. In a statement, a spokesman for the Oakland Police Department said it “treats the cannabis businesses as it does all businesses in the city of Oakland” and added that the police were engaged in “ongoing meetings with cannabis business owners” over safety issues.
That rash of robberies followed burglaries and crimes at other cannabis businesses through the spring and summer of 2020. Over one 24-hour period in November, the police said, they investigated more than a dozen reported burglaries of cannabis businesses across Oakland, including several in which the thieves were armed and one in which officers were shot at as they responded. Senter estimates that the damage totaled $20,000.īut when she called the police, they told her to fill out a report online. Most of the cannabis product was locked in a cage, which the thieves couldn’t breach. The robbers broke through the first door easily, security footage showed, then a second door and a third. Stephenson is still planning to reopen his doors to customers late next month or in May. Stephenson’s insurer rejected most of his claims. Only a limited number of insurance companies are willing to cover the cannabis industry, she added, because of the federal prohibition, and the few insurers operating in the sector are still trying to understand the “unique risk” that the businesses pose. Some questioning, she said, could seem offensive to a business owner because adjusters were acting like investigators. Stephenson’s case, but that the claims process could be difficult. “It is my belief he would not have said that if I was a white male,” he said.Ĭhristy Thiems, a senior director at American Property Casualty Insurance Association, a trade group, said that she did not know the specifics of Mr. Stephenson believed the adjuster wanted to see if he could catch him in a lie. Minor said, the state recently authorized a $5.4 million grant to support Oakland’s equity program and was considering reducing the cannabis taxes.Īt one point, the adjuster falsely suggested that money had been taken from an A.T.M. “While not a panacea, this program is a meaningful step toward embedding fairness and justice in all we do to improve conditions for communities of color,” Greg Minor, an assistant to the city administrator, said in an email. But the city does not keep an ongoing tally of how many of those businesses are currently operating. Since the initiative began in 2017, Oakland has granted cannabis licenses to 282 equity applicants and 328 non-equity applicants. “States need to do a better job adjusting for the structural racism built into the system.” “You are giving licenses to people who would struggle in any industry, but in cannabis, the deck is further stacked against them,” said John Hudak, deputy director of the Center for Effective Public Management at the Brookings Institution. Others said they believe they were treated unfairly during the claims process because they were Black. Some owners said their claims were denied even though their policies indicated they would be covered. Insurance companies are also adding to the challenges. The police say a surge in crime during the pandemic has stretched their resources.
During a wave of robberies late last year, the police never showed up to some of the crimes, business owners say. Some say the police in Oakland, at times, have not switched their mind-set from arresting cannabis dealers to protecting their legal businesses. This is what to do if it happens to the young ones in your life.Īnother challenge is policing.