Colorado Dispensary Owners Sentenced to Jail for Selling 5000 Pounds of Pot Illegally

Colorado officials closed the books on the three owners of the Sweet Leaf cannabis dispensary chain late last week, ending a year-long investigation into the practice of “looping,” or selling more marijuana to a single customer than is allowed by state law.

According to the Denver Post, Christian Johnson, Matthew Aiken, and Anthony Sauro were each sentenced to one year of jail time and fined $125,000 after pleading guilty to illegally distributing cannabis and violating the Colorado Organized Crime Act.

Johnson, Aiken, and Sauro, the owners of the 11-location Sweet Leaf chain, admitted to frequently selling customers more than one ounce of weed per day — the maximum allowed under state law. But more than just looking the other way on a few extra ounces, prosecutors say that Sweet Leaf owners, budtenders, and looping customers pushed some 5,000 pounds of pot onto the black market.