A group of retired Chicago police officers has faced significant opposition in their attempt to open a Chicago marijuana dispensary, with local officials citing fundamental justice concerns about former law enforcement profiting from cannabis sales.

Furthermore, Alderman Andre Vasquez of the city’s 40th Ward has effectively blocked the proposal by the Kaneh Group, which includes 10 former Chicago police officers as members. Additionally, the decision follows substantial community pushback regarding the ownership structure of the proposed marijuana dispensary.

Justice Concerns Drive Opposition

The progressive alderman expressed support for opening a cannabis outlet in the ward but ultimately decided to halt the bid after residents raised concerns about the retired police ownership. Moreover, Vasquez articulated a central ethical dilemma facing the proposal.

“I have questions and concerns about people who were paid to arrest people who might still be in jail for selling cannabis, selling cannabis,” Vasquez explained. “There’s just something fundamentally unfair and unjust about it.”

Consequently, Vasquez will not ask the City Council to approve the zoning change needed by Kaneh to operate its Releaf dispensary at 2415 W. Peterson Avenue, effectively preventing the business from opening at that location.

Ownership Team Defends Their Right to Operate

However, the company’s ownership team maintains they deserve the opportunity to launch the cannabis business in Chicago. Partner Damone Richardson emphasised that the group represents ordinary entrepreneurs pursuing a legitimate business opportunity.

“Our team is comprised of people who have spent decades serving the city being members of their communities,” Richardson stated after Vasquez’s rejection. “They served their communities for hundreds of years between all of them, so I just feel like it’s their right as citizens to be able to do it.”

Moreover, Richardson’s father and Kaneh partner, John Richardson, ended his 33-year Chicago Police Department career as deputy superintendent, bringing substantial leadership experience to the venture.

Community-Focused Business Proposal

During a community-driven zoning meeting in July, the group pitched their vision for the marijuana dispensary to 40th Ward residents. Specifically, the ownership team comprises 85% Black individuals from neighbourhoods that the state designated as particularly hard hit by marijuana criminalisation, the younger Richardson noted.

Furthermore, the group shared comprehensive plans to improve the building they sought to lease with a new mural, avoid loud signage, prevent loitering and install a robust security system, consultant Paul Gustafson explained.

“Our goal truly is to beautify this building,” he said before addressing typical resident concerns about zoning changes, such as parking and noise. “We really want to make this fit in … we are not looking for this to stand out.”

In addition, Gustafson highlighted the company’s plans to place 5% of the business into a “community trust” partly controlled by neighbourhood residents, giving the community a degree of ownership and even some of the cannabis outlet’s profits.

Meanwhile, in an additional space attached to the building, doctors involved in the ownership team would host seminars on specialties like pain management, postmenopausal health and orthopaedics, he said.

Addressing Equity Questions

When Vasquez shared a resident’s question about the “fundamental inequity” of retired police profiting from marijuana sales, Michael Collins, a property solicitor working with the group, answered that past cannabis criminalisation “hit home” for the group.

Notably, one owner’s son is currently incarcerated for a cannabis-related offence, he revealed.

“They feel that direct effect, and I would encourage you not to hold the fact that they were doing their job as it was told to them (against them),” Collins argued.

Additionally, he added that “bad prosecutorial discretion” played a more critical role in the harms of marijuana criminalisation, whilst the older Richardson noted many drug-related policing actions officers took stemmed from calls made by safety-concerned Chicago residents.

Social Equity Licence Holders Face Setback

The group won a coveted state social equity licence in July 2023, a designation meant to help people with low-level cannabis offences or who come from poor neighbourhoods open dispensaries partly as a way to correct the harms done to Black people, who faced disproportionate prosecution for cannabis-related offences.

Nevertheless, to secure the zoning change needed to operate as a Chicago marijuana dispensary, Kaneh needed Vasquez’s support, largely because of the tradition of “aldermanic prerogative,” whereby City Council members almost always follow the will of a local alderman when voting on zoning issues.

Subsequently, around half the community input Vasquez received supported the proposal, the alderman said. A quarter opposed it to prevent any cannabis outlet from opening, and another quarter opposed it because of issues with the police connection, he said.

Personal Experience Shapes Decision

The alderman recalled his arrest as a teenager when two Black friends were smoking cannabis near Lake Michigan. However, the police barely noticed Vasquez, a Latino, until he told them he was with his friends, though he was not smoking at the time, he said.

Meanwhile, Vasquez added that he had been open to further negotiations with Kaneh over community benefits.

“My job is to represent our community, and our community had a problem with it,” he said.

District Council Member Echoes Concerns

Similarly, Deirdre O’Connor, a police district council member whose area includes the proposed dispensary site, said her opposition had nothing to do with anti-drug sentiment. Instead, she cited witnessing undercover police throwing teenagers against cars and arresting them for cannabis during her childhood in Chicago.

“It didn’t sit well with me to know that a bunch of former police officers were going to profit off of something that folks are still very much locked up and still criminalised over,” said O’Connor, who also works in Vasquez’s ward office overseeing public safety and infrastructure.

Furthermore, she added that the plans Kaneh presented to address equity concerns failed to impress her. They did not do enough to win community trust and should have made better proposals to support people harmed by cannabis criminalisation, she argued.

“It should be different. It should be more equitable. It shouldn’t be former police officers,” O’Connor stated.

Nevertheless, she welcomed another marijuana dispensary to open at the site.

Shortly after Vasquez’s decision, the younger Richardson acknowledged the setback puts his team “back to the drawing board.” The group has been trying to open a cannabis outlet for six years, he said.

“We obviously don’t like it, but we’re going to keep moving forward,” Richardson said. “I’ve been in business for a long time, nothing is a straight line up, there will be setbacks, but we have to be persistent.”

Overall, the case highlights ongoing debates about equity and justice in the legal cannabis industry, particularly regarding who should profit from marijuana sales after decades of disproportionate enforcement that primarily affected minority communities in Chicago and beyond.

Source: Chicago Tribune