Pot dealers attract an inordinate amount of crime because they typically aren’t viewed as hardened criminals willing to resist attackers, Freedman said.

“The profile of many of our dealers, they’re noncriminals in every other way,” he explained, noting that many pot dealers are young, college-educated men with no criminal records. “They’re attracting predators, who figure they have a lot of money and figure it’s not going to be that difficult to go in and pistol whip them and take their cash.

“These people know that if I rip you off of $10,000 of marijuana money, a) you’re not going to report it because you don’t want to be arrested and b) you’re probably not going to put up much of a fight."

The number of marijuana busts and the amount of pot seized has fluctuated significantly in recent years. In 2011, 20 charges specifically referenced marijuana and in 2008, $458,000 of the drug was seized.