Denver Police Close 26 Legal Cannabis Businesses

Now that Colorado has some of the most realistic and logical cannabis laws on Earth, a gigantic cannabis raid is the last thing you expect to read about there. Still, some people will always find a way to break the law. The retail cannabis chain known as Sweet Leaf was involved in a practice known as looping, where it sold more cannabis out of one given location than is allowed, leading to an enormous raid. Considering the size of the raid, it’s probably safe to assume they were selling a lot more cannabis than they were supposed to.

The raids took place on December 14, and 13 arrests were made the following day. Sweet Leaf’s 26 producing, processing and retail licenses are now closed. All of those arrested were entry-level employees such as budtenders. The four co-owners of the dispensary have not been charged in this case.

It appears that all of the arrests were made by local police exclusively, and that no federal agencies were involved. The Denver Police Department made a statement regarding the investigation of Sweet Leaf.  “The operation is the result of an extensive, year-long criminal investigation into illegal distribution of marijuana at those locations,” the statement read. “The alleged criminal actions are related to the sale of marijuana in excess of allowable amounts established by Amendment 64. Amendment 64 allows for the personal use of marijuana, and specifically allows the possession, use, display, purchase, and transport of one ounce or less of marijuana.”

The stores affected and closed had signs posted by the city of Denver on the door that read: “Medical and/or retail marijuana licenses for these premises have been suspended by order of the Denver Department of Excise and Licenses for alleged violations of Colorado law,”

Dan Rowland, the Denver Police Department Spokesman, told reporters that all of the 26 affected businesses “can’t sell or produce any cannabis products while the order is in place. There will be a city-held public hearing within 30 days of the December 15th arrests.

“This is a way for us to put a hold on things so we can figure out what’s going on,” Rowland told the media.

As of now, the co-owners are cooperating with police, and there appears to be no wrongdoing on their end. Sweet Leaf owners released an official statement to the press:

“This morning, Sweet Leaf was surprised to receive notification from the Department of Excise and License suspending all of our city licenses in the City and County of Denver. It is unclear at this point exactly what actions, if any, Sweet Leaf took to cause the city to issue this order. Sweet Leaf is cooperating with the authorities to resolve this issue and hopes to have all of their stores back in operation as soon as possible.“

It appears, that despite this hiccup, and the very first arrests of their kind, Colorado’s regulatory system worked as intended. Sweet Leaf’s break in the well-oiled chain that is Colorado cannabis, was repaired.