ReLeaf’s Brandt bouncing back from State Fair theft

Lori Brandt waited three years to be a vendor at the Alaska State Fair. She was the first cannabis business to be granted a booth. She’s the owner of ReLeaf, a medical marijuana business that issues legal cards to those in need of using cannabis as medicine.

ReLeaf also has a website on which they offer various CBD products, ranging from gummies and lollipops to topical creams. Brandt is in the business of healing. She first got into medical marijuana when she lost her father to cancer and saw other patients turning to cannabis for help. Although it was too late for her dad, she learned about Rick Simpson Oil, known as RSO for short, and CBD oil and she began researching for herself.

From that, ReLeaf was born.

She was excited to be a pioneer in her industry, representing a new frontier in healing and medicine. Her exhibit was in Raven Hall at the fairgrounds in Palmer. The fair requests that vendors keep their goods in locked cabinets, which they provide. Looking forward to the last two days of the fair, she stocked her cabinets full of inventory and locked them. It was Labor Day weekend. She was expecting quite a crowd. Her booth contained $100,000 worth of inventory.

Her booth was in a locked building. A security company had been employed to protect not only the building but also the contents as well. Despite that, video cameras captured two individuals entering the building at 4 a.m, on the second-to-last day of the fair. Their faces were covered. There was no forced entry. They seemed to target Brandt’s booth, wrapping up her goods in the clothes that covered the displays, stealing everything.

Besides CBD oils, Brandt also had pipes, bongs, and other various paraphernalia items for sell. All of it, gone.

Three weeks ago, she received a call from the police. Some of her items had been recovered at a stash site, out in the woods in the Mat-Su Valley. What she was able to recover, she is certainly not able to resell, as the products have been damaged and the integrity compromised due to improper storage in outdoor conditions.

The police suspect younger people were behind this crime. There is no black market for CBD. Although it is a cannabis product, it contains only trace amounts of THC, not enough to get anyone high. Brandt wonders if the thieves were confused and perhaps thought they were stealing something more along the lines of a cannabis tincture. Basically, they took a whole bunch of vitamin oil, which seems like something only a naïve thief would do.

Perhaps the thieves thought they could sell the pipes and bongs to their friends, as it is highly unlikely any legitimate cannabis business would be purchasing stolen inventory.

Interestingly, many vendors around Brandt had far more valuable inventories and yet theirs remained untouched, again suggesting her booth had been targeted. Mad Hatter also had items stolen. It seemed the thieves were looking for cannabis-related items.

To be clear, nobody is allowed to sell cannabis at the fair. It is required to be sold in highly regulated environments. Vendors are allowed to sell accessory items, but nothing contain THC, the psychoactive cannabinoid responsible for the “high” one gets from weed. Because CBD oil does not contain THC, Brandt was able to sell it.

Brandt has been patiently waiting for the police to finish up their investigation. Until then, there isn’t much she can do. They won’t release the name of the security company, as it is an ongoing investigation. She suspects it might have been an inside job. Until it gets wrapped up, she is unable to be compensated for the loss. Despite this misfortune, Brandt is dedicated to her work and says she’ll return to the fair again.