More than six years after recreational sales launched, the state is still struggling to eradicate the unlicensed market.
ARCADIA, California — Law enforcement officers from the California Department of Cannabis Control converged on a shabby off-white storefront in the Los Angeles suburb of Arcadia around 7 a.m. on a Tuesday in June, clogging up traffic with a half dozen mostly unmarked police cars. Within half an hour, two of the storefront’s employees were in handcuffs, while officers used a set of pliers to break open its safe.
Inside, they found cash and unlicensed marijuana products like counterfeit “Nerds Rope” edibles.
What was advertised outside as a tax office was actually an illegal dispensary, its windows boarded up from the inside so nobody could peer in. The two detained employees both claimed it was their first day on the job, and didn’t know the shop was unlicensed — despite its location directly beside a preschool, a blatant violation of California’s cannabis licensing rules.
California legalized recreational cannabis in 2016, with hopes it would bring illegal operators out of the shadows. But the unlicensed market was already robust and the regulated market set high taxes and fees that made it hard to compete with unlicensed growers and sellers. To make matters worse, it was unclear from the start which agencies were supposed to enforce the new rules. [Read More @ Politico]