"Security Culture" refers to the importance of developing unbreakable unity within the medical cannabis community. If everyone involved maintains this unity, the entire community will be safer. Law enforcement agents frequently aim to turn people against each other and disorganize or disband the community.

Implement a Security Culture

Take care of yourself and your community. Don't gossip, brag or ask for compromising or unnecessary information about medical cannabis operations and activities. Although such behavior may be entertaining, it puts you at greater risk of arrest and law enforcement officers may use personal splits to divide the community. When you are about to discuss your personal involvement in medical cannabis operations, consider the following:

(1) Would this person repeat what you are about to tell them to anyone else? When you share information about your involvement in medical cannabis, you are sharing information that may be used against you in court if this person is ever interrogated as a witness. You should also be cautious of theft—patients and providers have been robbed so it's best to limit the dissemination of sensitive information.

(2) Would you want this person to have to perjure (lie under oath) him or herself? Think carefully: you may be giving people information that may cause harm to you or to them.

If someone you know is giving out sensitive information, talk to him or her in private about why such talk can be hazardous. Someone who repeatedly engages in gossip, bragging or seeking unnecessary information about inappropriate topics after repeated educational talks is a grave risk at best, and a police agent looking to provoke or entrap others at worst.

Keeping an Eye Out for Surveillance

Take precautions. Assume you are under surveillance if you are in any way involved in providing medical cannabis to patients. All licensed medical marijuana business can be surveyed by the state at any time. Be cautious with whom you discuss sensitive information. Keep written materials and lists of individuals in a secure place. If you are arrested, law enforcement officers may investigate all your contacts. Law enforcement officers not only have the right to go through your phone book, they can answer any calls made to your phone.  Keep in mind that electronic data such as emails and text messages still exist even after they've been deleted, and your phone company or ISP may be willing to turn them over to law enforcement without even being subpoenaed. 

Adapted from "Security Culture," Slingshot Issue #72, slingshot.tao.ca.