Do Dispensaries Increase Crime? What the Research Shows (2026)

By James Buddsey · Updated October 30, 2026

Dispensaries do not appear to increase crime on the blocks where they operate, and some of the strongest studies find they lower it slightly. The research is mixed at the edges: a few Denver and California studies found small increases in property crime nearby or in neighboring areas, especially soon after legalization. Overall, the evidence does not support the old claim that licensed pot shops are crime magnets.

This question has followed dispensaries since the first storefronts opened in California. In 2011 The Weed Street Journal covered a RAND study suggesting that crime went up when Los Angeles closed hundreds of medical dispensaries. That study had a rocky history, and a much larger body of research has been published since. Here is what it shows as of 2026.

The Short Answer: What the Studies Found

The 2011 RAND Study and Why It Was Pulled

In June 2010, Los Angeles ordered hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries to shut down. Researchers at RAND, led by economist Mireille Jacobson, compared crime reports near shops that closed with those near shops that were allowed to stay open. Their 2011 report found crime was up to about 60% higher in the days after closure around the shuttered dispensaries than around the ones still open.

The Los Angeles city attorney’s office attacked the study, and police officials argued it missed low-level problems like loitering and noise. RAND withdrew the report pending further review a few weeks after release, as NORML reported at the time. That left the question open.

The analysis did not disappear. Jacobson and economist Tom Chang reworked it and published “Going to Pot? The Impact of Dispensary Closures on Crime” in the peer-reviewed Journal of Urban Economics in 2017. The published version reached the same basic conclusion: crime jumped around dispensaries ordered to close compared with those allowed to stay open. The increase was concentrated in crimes that bystanders tend to deter, and it was larger in walkable neighborhoods. The authors found the same pattern when restaurants were temporarily closed for health code violations.

Why a Dispensary Might Reduce Crime

Researchers point to a few mechanisms, none of them unique to cannabis:

• Eyes on the street. An open business brings steady foot traffic, staff and customers who notice and report trouble. Chang and Jacobson’s restaurant comparison suggests this is the main effect: any busy storefront helps, and closing one removes that informal guard.
• Security requirements. Licensed shops run cameras, lighting, ID checks and often guards. A 2012 Sacramento study by Kepple and Freisthler found no link between dispensary density and crime and suggested doormen and video cameras may deter offenders. Washington requires licensed retailers to keep a surveillance system under WAC 314-55-083.
• Displacing illegal markets. In Denver, Brinkman and Mok-Lamme found each added dispensary reduced crime in its own neighborhood, by about 17 crimes per month per 10,000 residents in their estimates. The detailed crime categories pointed toward disruption of illicit drug dealing as the reason, along with a policing or security response.

Why Some Studies Find More Crime

Not every study is reassuring, and the honest answer includes them.

Spillover to nearby blocks. Bridget Freisthler’s team found that dispensaries were unrelated to crime on their own blocks in Long Beach and Denver, but both studies saw small increases in crime in adjacent areas. In Long Beach the adjacent-area increase was about 2.5% for violent crime and 1.7% for property crime per additional nearby dispensary. In Denver, outlet density was also tied to more marijuana-specific offenses, which is partly expected once there are more places that handle cannabis.

Property crime near recreational shops. A John Jay College team led by Nathan Connealy compared Denver street segments before and after 2014 and found about 18% more property crime on segments with recreational dispensaries, with no change in violent, drug or disorder crime. Medical dispensaries showed no significant change. The same study estimated the shops generated far more in sales and tax revenue than the cost of the added crime, according to the Crime and Justice Research Alliance summary.

Early-market effects. A University of Colorado Denver study by Lorine Hughes and colleagues in Justice Quarterly found higher crime in Denver neighborhoods with dispensaries from 2012 to 2015, but the strongest associations faded over time. The authors noted the results came from a young, unsaturated market and relied on police data, which can reflect where officers choose to patrol (summary).

Why the Studies Disagree

• Location choice. Dispensaries tend to open in commercial areas, which have more crime to begin with. Simple comparisons can mistake the neighborhood for the store’s effect. Studies with a natural experiment, like the L.A. closures, or a strategy for this bias, like Brinkman and Mok-Lamme, tend to find neutral or protective effects.
• Policing data. Crime counts come from police reports. Extra patrols near new shops can raise recorded crime even if actual crime did not change.
• Market age. The first months of legal sales, when shops were scarce and cash-heavy, look different from mature markets.
• Cash. Because most banks still avoid the industry, many shops handle large amounts of cash, which makes them targets for robbery and burglary. See our explainer on why dispensaries are cash only.

What It Means for Washington and Oregon

None of the major studies were done in Washington or Oregon, so the findings are an indirect guide. Both states have mature, tightly licensed markets with security rules, which resembles the conditions under which crime effects were neutral or faded. Break-ins and robberies at shops do happen, and the industry has pushed for banking access partly for that reason. For residents weighing a new store nearby, the research suggests the store itself is unlikely to change neighborhood crime much, while a vacant storefront can be worse. For the broader policy debate, see our guide to the pros and cons of legalizing marijuana, and our Washington and Oregon law guides. More studies are collected in our cannabis research section.

Dispensaries and Crime FAQ

For adults 21+ in legal states. General information, not medical advice.