Cannabis businesses in metro Detroit are getting robbed, smashed, and left to fend for themselves

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Update: After this story went to press, another cannabis business was targeted.

The calls almost always come in the dead of night.

For George Brikho, owner of Jazz Cannabis Club on Detroit’s west side, it’s become a nerve-racking routine — the blare of a security alarm, the heart-pounding scramble for firearms, and the frantic race toward a dispensary 28 miles away that is already under siege.

“Your heart sinks. You’re grabbing your clothes, trying to get dressed,” Brikho tells Metro Times. “I’m grabbing my rifle and my pistol, and I’m driving, and I just got the hell scared out of me, and all of that anxiety is for nothing. The mindfuck – it’s traumatic. I have anxiety attacks. I say, ‘George, calm the fuck down.’ But you can’t. Your unconscious mind goes into fight or flight mode.”

Jazz Cannabis Club has been broken into three times in the past year, with each hit more brazen than the last. A year ago, thieves used sledgehammers to punch through a wall. In December, a stolen U-Haul was smashed into the rear of the building. In March, burglars ripped the front door off with a pickup truck.

All told, Brikho says he’s lost around $100,000 in cannabis products, and that’s not counting the repeated damage to his building.

He’s far from alone.

Since January 2024, at least 53 cannabis businesses in Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties have been burglarized, according to records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and interviews with cannabis business owners. Of those, 40 were in Detroit. Hazel Park has been hit hard too, with at least six break-ins, making it the second hardest-hit city in the region.

The tactics are growing more aggressive. In the first three months of this year alone, at least 22 cannabis businesses were burglarized — 16 of them in Detroit. In about half of those, thieves used trucks to smash through buildings. Most got away.

Between Jan. 11 and Jan. 24, six grow facilities on Detroit’s west side were hit in rapid succession — some just blocks apart — causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage.

The latest break-in occurred overnight on Sunday at Epic Gardens on Detroit’s west side, where a truck plowed through a fence and then into the building.

The true number of break-ins is likely even higher. Metro Times filed a FOIA request with the state Cannabis Regulatory Agency (CRA), which requires licensed marijuana businesses to report any thefts or criminal activity. The agency initially provided records for about 12 break-ins since January 2023. After we pointed out numerous missing cases, the CRA sent a second, more complete response, showing about 30 break-ins. Through additional interviews and incident reports, Metro Times identified more than 20 others, raising questions about the state’s recordkeeping at a time when the industry is desperate for accurate data and solutions.

Asked to explain the discrepancy, a CRA spokesperson says the first omission was an error but he wasn’t sure why reports from additional break-ins weren’t disclosed. He says some records may not have been divulged because there was no stolen product during the break-in. The CRA offered to try to identify any missing records, but it was past our deadline.

A growing threat to a troubled market

The wave of break-ins comes at a time when Michigan’s cannabis market is struggling. Due to high supply, wholesale prices have collapsed with pounds of marijuana sometimes selling for less than $600, a fraction of what it fetched just three years ago. As a result, many operators are delaying security upgrades, laying off staff, or closing altogether.

Now thieves are making a bad situation worse, but in an unfortunate twist for them, they’re often leaving empty-handed or with a few garbage bags full of trim, which has an exceedingly low street value.

Left behind is the damage: gaping holes in the sides of recently renovated buildings.

“They’re doing a lot for very little,” says Jason Wilson, owner of Uncle J’s Joints on Detroit’s west side. “The street prices are way down. It doesn’t make any sense.”

His business has been hit three times in the past year, each time by burglars sending a truck barreling through his gates. One of those trucks smashed through three separate barriers before reaching the garage doors. The thieves made off with about 60 plants — roughly 25 pounds of flower. But the cost of repairs and damage? Close to $100,000.

“I think it’s going to get worse,” Wilson adds. “I hate to say it and think it. But as the economy gets worse, there are going to be a lot more break-ins based on that.”

Even when thieves walk away empty-handed, the consequences can be severe. At Granny Farm, a family-run grow facility on Detroit’s east side, burglars used a sledgehammer or similar tool to punch a hole into the building last May. A neighbor chased them off, but they returned two hours later with a U-Haul. Police responded around 4 a.m. and caught the thieves in the act, but the damage was already done.

“We got the product back, but it was compromised and couldn’t pass testing,” says co-owner Joanne Manning. “We lost way more money than we thought. Even though they didn’t get away with anything, it still cost us a lot.”

To make matters worse, Manning says the break-in let in pests that destroyed the next harvests.

She briefly considered quitting. Instead, she enrolled in Project Green Light, Detroit’s real-time camera surveillance program.

“Green Light is quite expensive, but at this point we understand it’s a huge deterrent,” she says. “We have to continue to be proactive.”

A patchwork of protection

Security upgrades have become an expensive necessity.

The cost to fully fortify a dispensary or cultivation site can be anywhere from $25,000 to $50,000, not including monthly spending on surveillance systems, private security, and overnight staff, cannabis operators say.

For some, it still hasn’t been enough.

“I’ve basically built a bunker and still got hit,” Brikho says. “And good luck getting insurance unless you’ve built your place like a bank.”

State regulations require cannabis businesses to install commercial-grade security doors, alarms, and a surveillance system with at least 30 days of video storage. But enforcement and protection fall on local police, not the state.

With break-ins on the rise, companies that make metal doors, steel shutters, and concrete barriers are seeing a surge in demand. At Detroit Door Services, owner Nadav (David) Frieder says cannabis businesses are increasingly reaching out, but often after they’ve already been hit. He recently installed hollow metal doors and steel frames at a grow facility that had been burglarized twice in Detroit. For dispensaries with windows, he recommends adding metal shutters.

“There are a lot of break-ins,” Frieder says. “It’s crazy.”

Still, most clients call him too late.

“Nobody wants to spend money until something bad happens,” he says. “Things are already expensive, so they aren’t necessarily wanting to spend money.”

But he urges business owners to act before it’s too late.

“Time is the key,” Frieder says. “You want to make it as hard as possible to get in so it’s too much work to even mess with.”

To keep thieves out, some cannabis businesses are fortifying their buildings with reinforced walls, steel doors, anti-ram barriers, and vault-style rooms to protect their businesses.

“We joke that this place is turning into Fort Knox,” says James Rissi, head grower at M&T Ventures in Detroit. “We’re putting vault locks on everything.”

When the police don’t come

But all the steel and concrete in the world won’t help much if police don’t respond, and that’s where many operators say the system is breaking down.

Rissi’s grow operation was burglarized twice in one week in February. After the first incident, he says he handed Detroit police a license plate number, surveillance footage, and even a crowbar left behind by the burglars. No one followed up, he says. Days later, the thieves returned and struck again.

“The police have done absolutely nothing,” Rissi says. “It’s crazy out there. They’re hitting everything.”

Then, at another Detroit building Rissi was preparing to open, thieves broke in and stole 84 high-end lights and most of the equipment he had already installed.

“That’s an all-nighter,” Rissi says of the heist. “And we still haven’t heard from the police.”

He’s not the only one frustrated.

One Detroit cultivator, who asked not to be named for fear of being targeted again, says his business was hit twice in two months. The first time, the thieves failed to get inside. The second time, they used a truck to ram through a steel door in search of cannabis.

“We felt very defenseless,” he says. “They’re stealing vehicles and using disguises. You feel a bit helpless about it.”

After filing a report, he says police gave him the wrong case number, then stopped returning his calls. He tried enrolling in Project Green Light, the city’s surveillance program, but no one followed up.

“They don’t care,” he says. “They just don’t care.”

At least four other business owners repeated the same complaint: Detectives never called them back after the break-ins.

“It’s like the system’s overloaded or just not interested,” says one dispensary manager who asked not to be named.

Detroit police, however, say they are taking the break-ins seriously.

“We do hope there will be a break in some of these,” says Anthony O’Rourke, commander of organized crime for the Detroit Police Department. “I tend to believe it’s a smaller group of people doing a majority of these locations.”

He says the department is using surveillance technology to identify and catch suspects, and that police regularly audit their own work to ensure cases are being properly investigated.

“It doesn’t mean we are a perfect organization,” O’Rourke says. “Probably some things have fallen through the cracks. But we have mechanisms in place to minimize that.”

O’Rourke adds that some cannabis businesses may not be cooperating because they are operating outside the law and are hesitant to share surveillance footage or internal documentation. (Metro Times has not come across an owner who said they declined to cooperate with police.)

“From a logical standpoint, if you have that much value in that location, what are you doing to solve the problem of security?” he says. “We don’t have cars driving through banks.”

O’Rourke also points to Detroit’s still-thriving black market as a major incentive for burglars.

“This is a money-driven product,” he says. “There is a huge black market based on the difference in prices. The cost of the legalized market is significantly higher than the black market. So there is some motive for these guys to get these very profitable products. The black market is definitely out there, alive and well, and has probably grown since the legalization and decriminalization in the state of Michigan.”

Project Green Light: Help or hurdle?

Some cannabis business owners are turning to Project Green Light, the city’s widely touted public-private surveillance partnership. Businesses that enroll are connected to Detroit police through live high-definition video feeds. They’re also promised priority response when crimes are reported.

But that protection doesn’t come cheap.

According to city data, enrollment costs up to $4,100 for installation and cameras, plus another $1,000 for signs and green lights, and monthly fees between $100 and $200.

And only a small fraction of Detroit cannabis businesses are enrolled — just 9 out of roughly 70 licensed locations.

Some operators have hope in the program. After thieves struck Granny Farm twice last year, co-owner Manning applauds DPD’s efforts but says more can be done.

“We want to know if there’s something more the Detroit Police Department can do to keep us a little more protected,” Manning says. “The burglars are still at it.”

The burglary tactics have become more destructive, more deliberate — and more surreal.

At The Refinery, a dispensary on Detroit’s west side, security cameras first caught someone jumping a fence. Hours later, the footage showed a group cutting through a concrete wall from a neighboring property. Nearly two hours later, they passed racks of cannabis through the hole like contraband in a prison break.

At Liberty Cannabis, one crew rammed a truck through the wall. A few months later, masked suspects used crowbars to try to pry open the front door.

And at Supergood, a newly opened dispensary, burglars used a dumpster for cover, then sawed through the back wall. Another crew returned days later and used what appeared to be a branch trimmer to sever the store’s internet connection before slipping inside. They left with bags of flower — and left behind thousands of dollars in damage.

Similar scenes have played out in Hazel Park, Warren, and Ferndale, where stolen pickup trucks, U-Hauls, and minivans have become battering rams. Many thieves come equipped with crowbars, grinders, bolt cutters, and often seem to know exactly where to go once inside.

In Warren, a one-week stretch in February was particularly wild. A truck plowed through three separate cultivation and processing facilities, causing significant damage and making off with large amounts of cannabis.

In the second incident, a truck slammed into the garage of a facility on Dequindre Road. Two thieves ran inside, grabbed bins and bags of marijuana flower, and took off. Police later spotted the vehicle and attempted a traffic stop, but the truck sped off.

The chase ended in Detroit’s west side when the driver, 29-year-old parole absconder Dijon Tyree, lost control and crashed into a vacant house.

Two days later, while Tyree was in jail awaiting arraignment, an SUV crashed into another cannabis processing plant just a block away from the previous hit. The thieves got away clean, again.

Scenes like this have turned metro Detroit’s cannabis market into something closer to a crash-and-grab battleground — where police chases, repeated hits, and empty responses are becoming all too common.

And despite the scale of the damage, they’re often stealing only small quantities — trim, pre-rolls, or a few pounds of flower. In many cases, the cost of the damage far exceeds the value of what’s stolen.

The CRA’s role and its limits

The Cannabis Regulatory Agency says it’s trying to help, but it has limited tools.

“We’ve issued bulletins to warn businesses,” CRA executive director Brian Hanna tells Metro Times. “We view this as, ‘We’re all in this together.’”

But the agency can’t redirect cannabis tax dollars to help patrol or protect businesses because that would require legislation, Hanna says.

“If people are talking about reallocating tax dollars for this kind of issue, they need to talk to lawmakers,” Hanna says. “We don’t have the authority to dictate where the money goes.”

He agrees the industry’s heavy reliance on cash, which is a consequence of federal banking restrictions against cannabis companies, creates an additional layer of risk.

“We have been calling on banking reforms because this is an all-cash business,” Hanna says. “It’s an inherent danger to the industry to operate like this.”

Some cannabis operators also take issue with the CRA’s online public licensee directory, which lists the names and addresses of every licensed marijuana business in the state.

They say it’s making them easy targets.

“I don’t understand why they have to put all that information up,” says Jason Wilson, owner of Uncle J’s Joints. “In California, they kept grow locations secret because they knew these things would happen.”

Others in the industry say the directory helps them network, share contacts, and build wholesale partnerships, and transparency advocates say the public has a right to know where these businesses are located.

But some suggest a compromise: restrict the full address list to licensed operators and trade members only.

“It would be nice if this information wasn’t just out there for anyone to use, especially people trying to rob us,” one grower says.

A city organizing to fight back

After enduring four break-ins at his dispensary and cultivation sites, Stuart Carter, owner of Utopia Gardens, decided it was time for cannabis businesses to stop acting alone.

This spring, he launched the Detroit Cannabis Industry Association, a 501(c)(6) nonprofit trade group that aims to bring together cultivators, processors, and retailers across the city to share intelligence, push for policy changes, and develop security strategies.

“I’m extremely concerned about the future of the cannabis industry, particularly in Detroit,” Carter says. “Let’s band together. Let’s share strategies. My goal is to make it too hard for thieves to break into our buildings.”

Carter envisions the association as a way to coordinate responses to break-ins, pool ideas for fortifying buildings, and advocate as a unified voice.

But Carter says that even with smart planning, survival is getting harder. With prices plummeting, operators can’t afford thousands of dollars in repairs, let alone major security overhauls.

“We need affordable solutions,” he says. “Not every operator has $50,000 to spend on fortifying a building. But if we share what works — what slows them down, what stops them — we’ve got a better chance.”

The association also hopes to lobby city officials for support, including increased patrols in burglary hotspots and more cooperation with state agencies.

But even with every camera installed, every gate reinforced, and every door locked down, business owners say the break-ins haven’t stopped. And neither has the anxiety.

Before bed, Brikho says, he braces for the sound of his phone ringing.

“When I close my eyes at night, I’m just waiting for that call,” he says. “Every single night.”

And yet, he hasn’t walked away. Like many others in the industry, he’s still fighting and opening the doors every day, hoping it won’t be his turn again.

“This is weed we’re talking about. We joke that it’s just that good,” Brikho says. “But the truth is, it’s our livelihood. And we’re not going anywhere.”

Correction: An earlier version of this article included a photo of damage to the Liberty Cannabis building that was not related to a robbery.

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