I have been a security guard at the medical cannabis dispensary for six years now, and never once did I carry a gun.
I am not an anti-gun person by any means, but as a former military man I believe that bringing a gun into any situation only serves to escalate it. I do carry a low-voltage taser, just in case, but I’ve never used it on anyone. As you would imagine, there aren’t a lot of riots at the medical cannabis dispensary, because our customers tend to be very low key. That said, every legit medical cannabis shop will employ some kind of bouncer or security guard due to the value of their inventory. Sometimes a customer will try to shoplift, or run out of the store without paying for their medical cannabis products. That’s why they hired me, an ex-Marine who played four years of college football. The biggest security risk for a medical cannabis shop is not the customers, it’s after-hours thieves who want to hit the safe. Due to federal laws about the sale of medical cannabis, most of the transactions are made in cash. At the end of a busy weekend, a cannabis dispensary might have over twenty thousand bucks in cash on hand, which makes it a tantalizing target for thieves. Every night after the cannabis dispensary closes I hang up a big sign on the front door reading “Armed Security Guard on Premises.” I figure it’s easier to lie to potential thieves and not carry a gun, because I can still keep the cannabis dispensary safe.
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