Chicago marijuana dispensaries close indefinitely

The bulletproof security glass inside Mission South Shore marijuana dispensary was supposed to be impenetrable. But it gave way Sunday afternoon to looters armed with crowbars and baseball bats.

They smashed through the front door first, then hacked away at the security glass, said Kris Krane, president and co-founder of 4Front Ventures, which owns the dispensary in the South Chicago neighborhood. Everything of value was taken, including the marijuana.

“The store’s been pretty much ransacked,” said Krane, who watched security camera footage of 30 or 40 people breaking into the dispensary. “Nothing was going to hold that many people back.”

Every dispensary in Chicago is closed indefinitely to prevent or clean up from weekend looting and vandalizing, fallout from George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis last week. The closures could cause problems for medical patients whose supplies run low.

All the staff members at Mission left before the looters arrived, Krane said. The dispensary shut down as neighboring businesses were looted and the situation appeared unsafe. It was boarded up Monday morning, and will be closed until further notice. [Read more at The Chicago Tribune]