A Los Angeles-area marijuana shop owned by comedian Bill Maher and actor Woody Harrelson was burglarized over the weekend in what appears to be part of a string of crimes targeting cannabis businesses in the region.
The burglary at The Woods, a retailer that the celebrities launched in partnership with tennis star John McEnroe in West Hollywood in 2022, took place on Saturday—with security cameras capturing the smash-and-grab that showed multiple people breaking windows to enter the facility and taking marijuana products before making their exit.
It’s unclear whether police have identified the alleged perpetrators at this point. But advocates and pro-reform lawmakers have repeatedly argued that, absent federal legalization and industry access to traditional banking services, state-legal cannabis businesses will continue to be at outsized risk of such incidences.
In this case, the burglary took place early Saturday morning before employees or customers were present, TMZ reported. Over recent years, however, there have been numerous examples of dispensary employees being injured or killed in robberies at marijuana retailers—underscoring the unique threat the industry faces under the current system.
Elliot Lewis, CEO of the cannabis dispensary chain Catalyst, shared the video of the burglary—as well as another in Santa Monica that he attributed to the same group that hit The Woods—in an Instagram post on Monday.
“Back-to-back robberies, shots fired, just another weekend in LA,” he said. “Does nobody care about the people trying to build something up and they seem to only care about those trying to destroy? Make it make sense. Please bring back some common sense.”
Harrelson, The Woods’s co-owner, was also recently involved in marijuana reform advocacy in California, calling on Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) to sign a bill legalizing marijuana cafes that passed last year. The governor did give the measure final approval last September.
With the enactment of that legislation, the dispensary became one of the first to launch a consumption lounge, called “Ganja Giggle Garden,” and Harrelson said in February that, if he could choose anyone to patronize the cafe, he’d pick a classic marijuana icon: Bob Marley. But the actor also conceded that he doesn’t think he could go “toke-for-toke” with the late reggae star.
Harrelson separately disclosed in 2017 that used cannabis to help get through a dinner with President Donald Trump.
Co-owner Maher, for his part, made headlines last month after describing Trump as “gracious and measured” during a recent private dinner they had at the White House, along with musician Kid Rock. And the well-known cannabis enthusiast insisted he “wasn’t high” for the meetup.
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