Securing Cannabis

Introduction

The legal cannabis market offers substantial financial, professional, community and personal opportunities. Cannabis security is one critical factor for business success that is often overlooked, however. 

I founded CC Security Solutions with the mission and vision dedicated to disrupting, re-defining and significantly improving cannabis security for all licensed cannabis operators, including social equity operators and applicants. 

This Guide is a byproduct of that mission and vision. It is time to give back to the cannabis community – and back it up.

Security is a major concern in today’s constantly changing cannabis industry. It is essential to implement robust and cost-effective security measures that safeguard assets, protect employees and customers, and mitigate liability, among other objectives. Most legal cannabis businesses must confront a wide variety of costly and very real challenges, pain points, vulnerabilities, risks, and other security realities on a regular – and even a daily basis. Plenty of real world examples and case studies are provided. We refer to this state of being as the cannabis security “Status Quo”. 

We have learned an enormous amount since our founding, providing security services and solutions to the cannabis industry. This Guide is based upon a whole bunch of real world actual experiences confronted by Licensed Cannabis Operators (LCOs) and other industry professionals. We have worked with businesses of various sizes and license types, in various stages of development, across the State of California and in other legal markets. We have also worked and interacted with a number of municipal and state regulators in different jurisdictions. We want to share what we have learned and help you avoid the seemingly never ending landmines that exist when operating within the cannabis security Status Quo.

We strongly believe “Securing Cannabis” provides an essential guide for LCO’s, investors, board members, regulators and other industry professionals regarding security. It equips readers with tangible knowledge, industry insights and practical solutions to enhance security, reduce costs, and navigate the complex landscape of cannabis security – and avoid multiple landmines. 

By understanding the unique challenges and vulnerabilities of the industry, LCOs and others can develop comprehensive security strategies and solutions tailored to their specific needs. Whether addressing regulatory compliance, leveraging advanced security technologies, or implementing security solutions, this Guide offers a roadmap to safeguarding assets, protecting employees, and ensuring long-term success.

This Guide contains a comprehensive description of the security landscape, insights into alternative security approaches, and a focus on innovative security solutions, including  drones and unmanned aircraft systems. By increasing awareness around a wide variety of security challenges and pain points, and implementing the relevant knowledge and strategies presented in this Guide, readers can enhance their security posture, reduce risks, save money, and contribute to their individual growth and success – and that of the legal cannabis industry.

This Guide has three primary objectives related to licensed cannabis businesses: 

1. Strengthen security 
2. Reduce total security costs
3. Avoid multiple security “landmines”

Except for a few of the introductory Chapters, each Chapter concludes with a table presenting specific cannabis security calls to action, recommendations, ideas and/or discussion points. Those are intended to achieve one or more of objectives regarding that particular Chapter. They are all based upon real world experiences. 

Cannabis operators and other industry stakeholders are stretched extraordinarily thin on a daily basis. We know how busy you are and appreciate all you are doing to achieve your business objectives – and what you are doing for the broader industry and cannabis community. This Guide is designed to not only achieve the objectives above, but we want to help make you more efficient. By reducing your pain points, challenges, and time spent on cannabis security matters, you can focus more on – and be more effective with – your day jobs. 

We of course believe and strongly recommend reading the entire Guide. At a minimum, however, if you don’t have the time, we recommend you read the Chapter Summary on a particular subject of interest or importance to you – and then go straight to the recommendations, calls to action, ideas, and discussion points presented in a table at the end of the Chapter. You can then look back through the Chapter for additional context and examples as needed.

To be clear, this Guide is not intended and simply cannot always provide you with “the answer”.  Each licensed cannabis business is unique with different facts, circumstances and budget to name a few. The intention is to help define and identify specific problems, challenges and pain points so you are better armed with the right tools when you are ready to fix them. If one example, call to action, idea, recommendation, etc. of this Guide causes you to pause and reevaluate how you improve or view security versus today’s Status Quo – then “Mission Accomplished”. 

I sincerely hope you benefit from this Guide. 

Chris Eggers,

Author