5 Cannabis Store Security Measures Required by Law

Cannabis store own­ers have a lot to con­sid­er before open­ing their shops, but secu­ri­ty must­n’t become an after­thought.

Pro­tect­ing your inven­to­ry, staff, and cus­tomers is a vital pri­or­i­ty for any shop own­er. But also, it’s against the law to go with­out such pro­tec­tion. Local laws require you to imple­ment a range of cannabis store secu­ri­ty mea­sures before open­ing your doors to the pub­lic.

In this post, we look at some of those require­ments in clos­er detail to help you iden­ti­fy the right solu­tions for your store.

Cannabis Store Secu­ri­ty: What the Laws Say

Canada’s provinces and ter­ri­to­ries have reg­u­la­tions for how cannabis is sold and con­sumed. This post will look at Ontario, whose laws pro­vide a good frame­work for cannabis store secu­ri­ty.

Ontar­i­o’s laws are set forth under the Cannabis Licence Act, 2018 (CLA) and Reg­u­la­tion 468/18, which is reg­u­lat­ed by the Alco­hol and Gam­ing Com­mis­sion of Ontario (AGCO).

Here’s a quick overview of the rules regard­ing store secu­ri­ty:

1) Stores must have video sur­veil­lance

The law dic­tates that “a secure, high-res­o­lu­tion sur­veil­lance sys­tem must be in place at all times.”

Addi­tion­al­ly, it mat­ters where your cam­eras are locat­ed and what they cap­ture:

• Cam­eras must cap­ture the inte­ri­or and exte­ri­or of the cannabis store 24 hours a day, includ­ing entrances & exits, pickup/delivery areas, sales floor, stor­age and point-of-sale areas.
• All video record­ings must be retained for 30 days or more.
• Store own­ers ensure these cam­eras are “func­tion­ing prop­er­ly at all times.”

2) Store access must be secure

The CLA states that “all access points to the premis­es must be secure and pro­tect­ed against unau­tho­rized access.”

While the rules do not go into details here, cannabis store own­ers may want to con­sid­er mea­sures such as:

• Heavy-duty, com­mer­cial-grade locks
• Access con­trol sys­tems
• Entry sys­tems and inter­coms
• Secu­ri­ty bars for doors & win­dows
• High-strength win­dow film
• Mon­i­tored alarm sys­tems and glass-break detec­tors

3) Cannabis stor­age must be secure

Where cannabis is stored or han­dled, it must remain secure and be acces­si­ble only to keep employ­ees.

The law spec­i­fies that this applies to every aspect of stor­age, includ­ing:

• Dis­play con­tain­ers
• Point of sale
• Receipt of prod­uct
• Destruc­tion of prod­uct
• Return of prod­uct to the pro­duc­er or the Ontario Cannabis Retail Cor­po­ra­tion

4) Cannabis can’t be vis­i­ble from out­side the store

Laws require cannabis store own­ers to ensure that “cannabis and acces­sories are not vis­i­ble from the exte­ri­or of the premis­es.”

The store lay­out can par­tial­ly solve this chal­lenge. How­ev­er, licensees may also want to con­sid­er addi­tion­al secu­ri­ty mea­sures, such as tint­ed win­dow film and oth­er cov­er­ings that pre­vent peo­ple from see­ing prod­ucts out­side the store.

5) Dis­play con­tain­ers must be secure

Stores can use “sen­so­ry dis­play con­tain­ers” that allow cus­tomers to see and smell cannabis.

How­ev­er, these cas­es must be kept locked and tam­per-proof to pre­vent cus­tomers from actu­al­ly touch­ing the cannabis.

Choos­ing suit­able con­tain­ers with secure lock­ing mech­a­nisms is crit­i­cal for store own­ers to remain com­pli­ant.

Need help with your cannabis store secu­ri­ty?

Con­tact our experts at Pro­tec­tion Plus for more infor­ma­tion on secu­ri­ty solu­tions that pro­tect your cannabis store and keep you in com­pli­ance with all applic­a­ble laws.