DPS, Neighbors To Have Showdown With Potential Pot Dispensary
DENVER (CBS4) - Denver Public Schools has written to the city Department of Excise and Licenses opposing the reopening of a medical marijuana center just down the block from one of its schools.
The proposed dispensary is to be called Terps and Purps near the corner of Alameda Avenue and Pearl Street.
It looks like just another house on the block, but a sign on the door tells the story. It indicates an application is pending to turn the building back into a medical marijuana dispensary -- one operated there previously before moving to West Colfax Avenue.
Many neighbors like Mona Ahmed are opposed.
"Clearly when the owner transferred his license from this location to another one his entitlement to the grandfathering ceased," Ahmed said.
As she spoke the owner of the would-be marijuana center, Ross Vaisman, happened to walk outside. CBS4 reporter Rick Sallinger took the opportunity to speak with him.
"They don't want you opening a dispensary here again," Sallinger told Vaisman.
"I don't have a comment other than we sincerely hope that we will find a way to coexist peacefully and in harmony," he replied.
The key issue is the location. It's just down the block from the Denver School of Science and Technology Byers campus. Denver ordinances forbid dispensaries within 1,000 feet of schools.
Using a measuring device Sallinger walked the distance of just less than a block. The reading was 618 feet.
"Aren't you within 1,000 feet of the school?" Sallinger asked Vaisman.
"Yes we are, but the law allows us to do that," he answered.
Vaisman is maintaining because he operated there before moving he is grandfathered in. Some neighbors like Susan Sabol say there are plenty of issues.
"My child and others have walked by when his business was in existence and (saw) people smoking right here on the street," Sabol said.
With a 3-year-old girl in his arms, Chris Hughes said the dispensary "will bring an extra 50 to 100 cars a day, and they fly down the alley, so I am against it."
"We love our neighbors and we love our patients -- we do not want a fight," Vaisman said.
The two sides will face off in hearing soon. It's to be held at the Denver Department of Excise and Licenses on the second floor of the Webb Building downtown at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 10.
CBS4's Rick Sallinger is a Peabody award winning reporter who has been with the station more than two decades doing hard news and investigative reporting. Follow him on Twitter @ricksallinger.
