13 people charged in Scott County after September searches of cannabis-related stores

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Thirteen people from Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee face drug charges in Scott County in connection to the sweeping searches of cannabis-related stores in nine counties last fall.

The 26 charges of distribution, intent to distribute and conspiracy to distribute were filed April 4 by the Scott County Sheriff’s Office, according to information obtained through the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.  A sheriff’s office investigator had twice refused to release the detailed information.

Those charged are from Gate City, Weber City, Appalachia and Clintwood in Virginia and Johnson City, Gray, Jonesborough and Rogersville in Tennessee.

These are the first known charges to be filed related to the searches. A spokeswoman for the Virginia State Police said in May that no arrests had been made in connection to the searches and called it an “ongoing criminal investigation.” Attempts to reach her this week have been unsuccessful.

The Sept. 28, 2023, searches involved multiple local, state and federal agencies. Two dozen search warrants were executed at stores, homes and financial institutions.

The stores, often called “adult share stores,” have proliferated across Virginia after the state changed its laws so that adults 21 and older can possess small amounts of marijuana for personal use and grow up to four plants per household.

However, efforts to establish a retail market have failed in the General Assembly. With no legal retail market outside the medical industry, some shops began “gifting” or “sharing” marijuana with customers who buy other products, like stickers and T-shirts.

The search warrants initially were sealed for 180 days. Some counties have released them recently while others remain under seal.

In Washington County, the recently unsealed court documents revealed that police allege that some of the targeted stores were involved in money laundering .

Unsealed search warrants in Lee, Scott and Pulaski counties described weeks of undercover buys and cataloged the seizure of ATMs, thousands of dollars in cash and containers of plant material.

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