Armed robbery incidents at cannabis dispensaries require coordinated response addressing employee safety, law enforcement coordination, regulatory reporting, insurance claims, and trauma support. Immediate response: ensure employee safety and obtain medical attention as needed; comply with law enforcement instructions; preserve the scene as instructed by responding officers; preserve all surveillance video before automated overwrite. Documentation: contemporaneous incident report capturing employee accounts of the event, the time and location, law enforcement response and case number, the products and cash taken with values, employee impact and injuries, and customer impact if customers were present. Notifications: state cannabis regulator per the state’s specific incident reporting requirements (timelines vary); insurance carrier per policy first-notice-of-loss requirements; corporate leadership and security leadership; legal counsel for any law enforcement coordination. Trauma support: provide affected employees access to employee assistance programs, time off as needed, and avoid pressuring quick return to the same shift type or location. Documentation supporting the insurance claim and any subsequent regulatory or legal matters should be preserved permanently — armed robbery cases sometimes prosecute years later when suspects are identified, and the contemporaneous documentation supports prosecution and any related civil matters.

Cannabis insurance is a specialized market with carriers familiar with the industry’s unique exposures. Typical coverages include: cannabis-specific commercial general liability covering retail and operational third-party exposure; product liability covering claims arising from cannabis products; workers’ compensation (some states have specific carriers or markets for cannabis workers’ comp); property coverage for facilities, equipment, and inventory (with cannabis inventory potentially requiring specific scheduling and valuation); crop coverage for cultivation operations; cargo coverage for transportation; cyber liability for data breach exposure; D&O coverage for governance matters; employment practices liability for HR-related claims; and various specialty coverages depending on operations (extraction operation coverage, edibles manufacturing coverage, delivery coverage where applicable). Federal banking limitations affect both coverage placement (some standard carriers won’t serve cannabis) and claim payment processes. Premiums for cannabis operators are typically substantially higher than comparable non-cannabis businesses reflecting the industry’s risk profile and limited carrier participation. Contact insurance brokers specializing in cannabis for current coverage analysis as the market evolves continuously with regulatory changes and industry maturation.

Inventory discrepancies in cannabis operations require careful handling because they may trigger both regulatory reporting obligations and potentially criminal investigation if diversion is confirmed. Initial response: document the discrepancy with the specific products, quantities, and the seed-to-sale tracking system records showing the gap; preserve relevant surveillance video before automated overwrite; conduct internal investigation per the operator’s compliance policies before reaching conclusions about cause; engage outside counsel familiar with cannabis regulation if diversion is suspected. Reporting: state cannabis regulator notification is typically required for confirmed diversion and may be required for unexplained discrepancies above specified thresholds; the state’s specific reporting requirements should govern timeline and content; law enforcement notification may be required depending on suspected criminal activity; insurance notification per policy requirements for any related theft claim. Internal handling: avoid making accusations against specific employees before investigation is complete; preserve employment records and access logs for the relevant period; coordinate with HR on any employment actions; maintain investigation confidentiality to support any subsequent law enforcement matter. The compliance and legal complexity of suspected diversion situations typically warrants outside counsel involvement from the early stages — the consequences of mishandling can include license consequences, civil litigation, and potentially criminal exposure.

IncidentVault tracks any incident in cannabis dispensary, cultivation, manufacturing, and transportation operations — including armed robbery and security breaches, theft and inventory discrepancies, employee injuries (cultivation, manufacturing, retail), CO2 exposure and atmosphere events in cultivation, chemical exposures and pesticide-related incidents, electrical events in high-load cultivation environments, fire and explosion incidents in extraction operations, slip-falls and customer incidents in dispensaries, customer disputes and adverse product experiences, transportation incidents involving vehicles, cash, and product, equipment failures (HVAC, lighting, irrigation, manufacturing equipment), regulatory inspection events and findings, near-miss reports from any operation, employee complaints and HR matters, and any incident triggering state cannabis regulator, OSHA, EPA, or other regulatory reporting obligations.