Summary

King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn introduced legislation that would create a Marijuana Safety Taskforce to address the recent slate of marijuana store robberies across King County and the greater Puget Sound Region.

Story

King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn on Tuesday introduced legislation that would create a Marijuana Safety Taskforce to address the recent slate of marijuana store robberies across King County and the greater Puget Sound Region.

“There is a perception that marijuana shops are easy targets because they are known operate on an all-cash basis. This has resulted in very dangerous situations that have quickly escalated and have resulted in deaths,” Dunn said. “Like so many other areas of our criminal justice system, we need to be sending the message that this type of lawlessness will not be tolerated and give our law enforcement the support they need to apprehend those responsible. Letting these brazen crimes continue is not an option — we must act for the safety of our communities, before more lives are lost.”

The legislation comes after a spate of high-profile shooting deaths in both King County and Pierce County, most recently an attempted robbery at a pot shop in Covington and another in Factoria where both resulted in the death of a perpetrator. According to the Washington Cannabusiness Association, roughly 70 robberies have been recorded at marijuana retailers across the state of Washington since the beginning of 2022. This uptick in robberies has been widely attributed to the publicity of cases and the fact that federal banking regulations have resulted in shops operating as all-cash businesses.

The King County Sheriff’s Office is continuing to work with the community to address security concerns and increase the presence of both uniformed and plain clothes deputies.

The Marijuana Safety Taskforce would bring together the King County Sheriff’s Office, the King County Prosecutor’s Office, marijuana shop retailers and local community members. The goal of this group, if the legislation is approved, would be to identify resources necessary to aid law enforcement in the prevention of criminal activity targeting marijuana retailers, deepen interjurisdictional cooperation and data sharing to, and coordinate emphasis patrols by law enforcement. This would include an analysis of the roughly $4.6 million in marijuana tax revenue that was removed from the Sheriff’s office budget in the 2021-22 biennial budget. A report would be due to back to Council by August 31, 2022, before consideration of the 2023-24 biennial budget.

This legislation will be referred to the Law, Justice, Human, and Health Services Committee in the coming weeks.