Security Culture

"Security Culture" refers to the importance of developing unbreakable unity amongst the medical marijuana 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.

Keeping an Eye Out for Surveillance

Take precautions. Assume you are under surveillance if you are in any way involved in providing medical marijuana to patients. Do not discuss sensitive matters on the telephone, through the mail, by email, or in your home, car, dispensing collectives, or office. Be cautious with who you discuss sensitive information. Keep written materials and lists of individuals in a secure place. If you are arrested, the police may investigate all your contacts. Police officers have the right not only to go through your phone book, but can also answer any calls made to your phone.

Implement a Security Culture

Take care of yourself and your community. Don’t gossip, brag or ask for compromising or unnecessary information about medical marijuana operations and activities. Although this may be entertaining, it also makes it easier for cops to bust you and to use personal splits to divide the community. When you are about to discuss personal involvement in medical marijuana operations, consider the following:

• Would this person repeat what I am about to tell them to anyone else? When you share information about your involvement in marijuana, 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. Many patients and care providers have been robbed because of the wrong person knowing sensitive information.
• Would I want this person to have to perjure him or herself for me? Think carefully: you may be giving people information that may cause harm to you or to them.

If someone you know is doing this, talk to him or her in private about why such talk can be hazardous. Be careful not to preach, injure the individual's pride, or raise defenses and prevent them from understanding your point. If someone repeatedly engages in gossip, bragging or seeking unnecessary information about inappropriate topics after repeated educational talks, the person should be removed from any position of trust in the movement. Such a person is a grave risk at best, and a police agent looking to provoke or entrap others at worst.