SEATTLE — Three pot shops were broken into three days in a row this week across Seattle. The repeated crime highlights efforts to address the issue which failed to result in any legislation this past session.
Early Tuesday morning, a car smashed into the front of Cannazone in Seattle's Sodo neighborhood, where the owner said five suspects stole upwards of $15,000 worth of merchandise.
On Wednesday, Reef Cannabis in Seattle's Georgetown neighborhood had a truck ram through the front of the shop. Then Thursday, a marijuana processing facility that is next to Clutch Cannabis on Rainier Avenue South was struck in a crash-and-grab.
The owner told KING 5 at the scene that suspects fit a small car between the bollards in order to crash into the business.
"We're trying to make a living here and its draining, its draining. I think they got to come up with stronger laws that they need to pass, more consequences make them accountable," said Juliette Jreig, the owner of Cannazone, moments after the store was broken into.
That is what lawmakers were trying to do this past session.
"I'm pretty frustrated. We had several initiatives underway for this session of the legislature, but none of them really succeeded," said Sen. Karen Keiser, (D-33rd).
Keiser co-sponsored Senate Bill 6133 which was sponsored by Sen. Jim McCune. The bill would have added an extra year of jail time for someone convicted of robbing a pot shop in a smash and grab. It would also require those businesses to report robberies or attempted robberies to the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board.
The board can't track how often robberies or attempted robberies are happening because reporting isn't required.
The bill passed the Senate unanimously, but failed in the House.
"There is a resistance to increasing penalties for property crimes when no one is injured or assaulted. And that continues to be an issue that we have to deal with," said Keiser.
The second effort would have created a grant program to help retailers including pot shop owners pay for security improvements like bollards to stop people from crashing into the business.
"It's so frustrating, it's tough," Jreig said of legislation not passing. "It makes me want to get out of this industry, it's getting harder and harder."
It also passed the Senate, but failed to make it through the House's final budget.
"I do think we do need to have action on this. It continues to occur and occur over and over again, not only in Seattle, but in other cities as well," Keiser said.
Efforts to tackle the problem made their way to Capitol Hill. Last month U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell announced she's cosponsoring the "Safer Banking Act" which would give marijuana, hemp, and cannabidiol (CBD) businesses access to banking and financial services.
Sen. Cantwell said that last year, there were more than 50 robbery attempts at marijuana dispensaries in Washington.
"This bill will take the target off the backs of our state’s dispensaries by updating federal banking laws so they don’t have to do all their business in cash," Cantwell's statement said in part. The Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board said it does support legislative measures like "safe banking."