Opponents of medical marijuana sometimes speculate that medical marijuana dispensaries will lead to increased crime rates in surrounding areas.1 These dispensaries, they claim, will attract thieves and robbers to the facilities and breed secondary crimes in surrounding areas. Such claims have prompted empirical and statistical analyses by researchers and law enforcement agencies. In what should not come as a surprise, given the robust security at most medical marijuana facilities, these studies have routinely shown that, contrary to these concerns, dispensaries are not magnets for crime. Instead, these studies suggest that dispensaries are no more likely to attract crime than any other business, and in many cases, by bringing new business and economic activity to previously abandoned or run-down retail spaces, dispensaries actually contribute to a reduction in crime.
top of page
bottom of page