The Cannabis Cash Crunch Is Back In Session

By Warren Pulley, VP Project 7 Security Group
Twitter: @p7securitygroup
California is preparing to open up its marijuana business market in 2018 and reduce the fear of the police state in and around the cannabis industry. However, the Federal Government and U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, in the form of the Department of Justice, has decided to take a different approach by ramping up the ability of Federal and local law enforcement agencies across the country to continue and expand current Civil-Asset Forfeiture practices.
If you are unaware of exactly what Civil-Asset Forfeiture is or how it works, it can be best explained with a quote from the Atlantic’s Matt Ford. Matt stated that asset forfeiture is “a controversial process through which state and local police agencies can seize assets, then transfer those seizures to federal control. In doing so, local agencies can skirt some state-level regulations limiting forfeitures. Law-enforcement officials like Sessions defend modern civil forfeiture as a way to limit the resources of drug cartels and organized-crime groups.”  
Keep in mind the Federal Government still considers Marijuana a Schedule I drug. Therefore, the DOJ under Jeff Sessions (who has already stated his intent to continue enforcing Marijuana prohibition) has placed a bulls-eye squarely on the backs of cannabis cultivators, producers, and sellers even in the States that have created laws to allow legally operating cannabis businesses to thrive.
Our position is that although The State of California has opened up markets and has begun to educate local law enforcements agencies across the State on how best to interact with the fledgling cannabis industry, business owners in the space should not be lulled into complacency. Especially when it comes to dealing with the Federal Governments right to seize, disrupt, and enforce Federal laws against the very statutes that States like California are seeking to codify. Statutes that qualify cannabis as a legal industry within the State.
You can expect that the DOJ under Jeff Sessions will invoke Article VI, Clause 2, and The Supremacy Clause under the Constitution and continue to enforce the Federal Marijuana prohibition currently in place.
The Supremacy Clause states very simply that “This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.”  
Simply put, Federal Law supersedes California State Law.
In the interim, it is in your company’s best interest to ensure that you are in strict compliance with all State of California laws regarding the cultivation, packaging, sale, distribution, and transport of any and all cannabis related products.  I recommend that you hire and retain licensed, insured and competent security professional to help you navigate the coming uncertainty.
No law enforcement scrutiny is good scrutiny.
Business owners should ensure that these security operators are licensed PPO operations in the State of California and employees with a background operating in high threat, high stress, and high-tempo security operations.  
If you would like information on how to engage Project 7 Security Group in your security protocols, feel free to contact us at (800) 560-3103, www.project7security.com or wp@project7securitygroup.com.