The recent death of Travis Mason, a Green Heart dispensary security guard who was slain last month during an attempted robbery, was devastating to those in the legal cannabis business, says Ricky Bennett, a former Aurora police chief who now heads Blue Line Protection Group Inc.
“I’ve taken a lot of calls from wives and girlfriends concerned about their employees,” Bennett says. “This is one of those things, even though we may be a competitor, we’re going to come together and we’re going to work together to ensure that legal businesses (like John Lord’s LivWell dispensaries) are properly protected.”
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The task becomes even more difficult considering businesses in the industry are forced to work primarily in cash and that the product they’re selling is sometimes viewed as more valuable than the cash, he says.
Bennett talks about the issues of security — and whether a tragedy of this nature could have been prevented — with Cannabist editor-in-chief Ricardo Baca on The Cannabist Show. Bennett joined Lord, who is the chief executive officer of LivWell Enlightened Health, on the show.
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