He said that when he arrived at the shop, the number of law enforcement personnel there made it look like a scene from a movie. The Little Elm Police Department was there with a search warrant for the shop. Pollak said the Drug Enforcement Administration was also there, but the agency wouldn’t confirm or deny its involvement, instead directing the Observer to the Little Elm Police Department, the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
The raid on Happy Hippies mirrors a raid in Garland in late June. That shop, bee Hippy Hemp, was raided after undercover police bought THCa products there. The store's owner and a long-time employee were both arrested as part of the raid and had to pay $45,000 in bonds to be released. The Garland shop has since reopened, but Pollak isn’t sure when his business will be back up and running again.
When Gage Gonzales, one of the Little Elm shop's managers, arrived that morning to open, the police were already outside. They initially told him that they were pulling someone over who ran in the direction of the store. But he said as soon as he opened the doors of the store, officers entered and said they had a warrant to search the place before taking him to the back to question him. They asked how long he’d been a manager, if he’d ever gone to resupply the store and how he knew what products were best. He said it felt like the police were trying to get him to incriminate himself, and he's still shaken up by the whole situation.
"I'm nervous when I go around," Gonzales said. "I was just going to my job, clocking in and doing my work, and I was treated like a criminal."
Pollak, the owner, said the shop had already been ransacked by the time he arrived. When he entered he found that the police had removed all of his THC products and placed them on the counter and were examining them. The warrant for the search said the police were there to look for THC.
Federal and state laws that legalized hemp in 2018 and 2019, respectively, permit cannabis with 0.3% delta-9 THC or less. Delta-9 THC is the chief psychoactive component in cannabis that gets users high. Cannabis with more than 0.3% delta-9 is considered illegal marijuana. Since hemp was legalized, people have been making and selling products with other forms of THC, like delta-8 THC, delta-10 THC and THCa. There are even products with legal amounts of delta-9 on the market that can get users high. As long as these products are derived from hemp, not marijuana, the understanding has been that they’re legal, though state and law enforcement officials often don't see things that way.
The state of Texas is currently in a court battle to deem the products illegal. But while that battle is waged, the products are allowed to be sold. These are the kinds of products Pollak was selling at his store before it was raided, he said.
The police broke his cash register trying to get it open, he said, and removed about $250, according to an inventory list of everything that was seized. They also confiscated delta-8 edibles, THC drinks and pre-rolls. The shop had Mike Tyson nicotine vapes that the police opened up to examine."I was just going to my job, clocking in and doing my work, and I was treated like a criminal." – Gage Gonzales, Happy Hippies store manager
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Pollak has tried to differentiate his store different from a typical smoke shop by selling clothing and shoes, and offering an arcade with video games. He was selling official Supreme merchandise and Nike shoes. Following the raid, most of the Supreme merchandise was still in its packaging, but the police had broken open the packages of clothing, Pollak said.
He told the police that he had invoices for all of his products, which all came with lab reports that showed the products tested within the legal limit for delta-9. Pollak goes to Dallas once a week to purchase products from wholesalers. “Nothing is bought from a freaking back alley,” he said.
Pollak carries only well-known, brand-name products to try to ensure that everything he sells is legitimate. At the end of the day, the police confiscated some $45,000 of his product, according to the shop owner. The police then told him that they needed to search his house. At first, he declined but when the police said they could get a search warrant for his house, he relented and let them in. “Man, I’m not hiding anything. Let’s go,” he told them.
At his house, Pollak said the cops used a scare tactic by saying, “We’ve got you right now on about three state jail felonies. You’re looking at about five years. How are you going to be able to help us?” the cops asked.
According to Pollak, the police said they’d be in contact with him in the next couple of weeks with some money to start making purchases from wholesalers. He said it sounded to him like they wanted him to be an informant, but he doesn’t plan to cooperate and expects to eventually get arrested.
Happy Hippies has been closed since the raid, leaving Pollak with no other way to earn money, he said. He maintains that what was done to him is illegal, and he has since reached out for legal assistance. He pointed to House Bill 1325, which says that if a retailer is in violation, he should be notified and given an opportunity to correct the violation. But he was never given a notice or time to rectify any violations. “I’m a legitimate businessman. Everything I do is legit,” he said.
Erin Mudie, a spokesperson for the town of Little Elm, said she was limited in what details she could share because there is an ongoing criminal investigation. But she said the town has pulled the business' certificate of occupancy until there's a resolution to the criminal case.
