Beware Of Dispensary Scams CT Officials Warn Amid New Proposals For Cannabis Licensing Preferences

Connecticut's legal adult-use cannabis market officially launched on Jan. 10. Now, the Better Business Bureau of Connecticut is advising marijuana enthusiasts to be careful when purchasing online to avoid dispensary scams, which other states have already seen.

While the BBB officials confirmed they haven’t received any scam reports in Connecticut so far, they are focusing on prevention, reported NBC Connecticut. Other states that have experienced dispensary scams include New York and Massachusetts.

What to look for: To avoid marijuana sale scams purchasers should be careful when searching for a local dispensary online. Oftentimes, they might find a shop that looks licensed and legit but would request payment via a digital app like CashApp or Zelle. Fake dispensaries will often require a fee claiming it is to cover delivery insurance or a new-customer charge.

Usually, under these schemes customers are asked to pay a few hundred dollars with the promise of a refund upon completion of delivery, which is a fraud say officials, and you won’t get your money back. The most important thing to do is to properly research before buying online.

Social Equity Council Proposes Licensing Changes

Meanwhile, the Social Equity Council is proposing some amendments to the list of communities that are getting marijuana licensing preference, reported Stamford Advocate.

What is the current law? Under existing regulations, the council is obliged to re-certify the lists of census tracts labeled as disproportionately affected by the War on Drugs. People who live in these communities, which are determined by unemployment and drug conviction rates would get half of all new marijuana business licenses.

What is the council proposing now? It suggested that the metrics should be changed, that is to use poverty in combination with drug conviction rates, instead unemployment.

Communications and legislative program manager for the council, Kristina Diamond, explained that they believe poverty rates make a better indicator of disparity, than unemployment rates. The council also suggested that drug conviction rates matter more.

According to Diamond, the council wants to approve a new map in 2023 that would be formed using new metrics (poverty plus drug convictions), and then stop updating the list of tracts after that, as it would be unnecessary to update it every year, with the data being based on five-year estimates from the Census Bureau and 40 years for convictions, writes the Stamford Advocate.

Recent Cannabis Updates In CT

GOP lawmakers recently introduced legislation that seeks to ban the sale of marijuana edibles, among other things. The ten Republican House members behind H.B. 5434 say they are addressing the projected increase in impaired driving fatalities as well as pediatric cannabis overdoses and other health risks now that marijuana is widely available statewide, reported Stamford Advocate.

People are now realizing that it is no joking matter," said House Minority Leader Rep. Vincent Candelora on Tuesday at a press conference in Hartford.

"There's conversations of actually expanding the program and making it even more accessible to the public at a time when we haven't even gotten our arms around the enforcement and the safety pieces of this. [This] is looking to put some better guardrails around the system that we have in place."

Shortly after the adult-use cannabis launch, medical marijuana users expressed several concerns. 

"There's a little bit of concern because you do see a couple of changes, nothing too big, which were to be expected because of adult recreational," said Carmita Melendez reported News 8. "Second cut is something that used to be readily available, which isn't anymore, and I think that's just because of the demand they don't have that option anymore."

Employees at the Fine Fettle, which launched recreational sales at three locations said cultivators can't keep up with the demand.

Photo: Benzinga Edit with images from Nataliya Vaitkevich and Kindel Media on Pexels.