A group that includes several former Chicago police officers wants to turn an empty restaurant at the corner of Western and Peterson avenues in the West Ridge neighborhood into a dispensary.
But the alderman there says some neighbors have expressed concerns about former officers being involved in the business.
It took six long years for the group of Chicagoans to get a state license to sell marijuana. With the hard part behind them, the business partners thought they were close to their dream of owning a dispensary when they leased the shuttered restaurant.
"This is a great location; I mean, we've got heavy traffic on Western Avenue as well as Peterson," said Damon Richardson, with the Kaneh Group.
The 15-member diverse group is called the Kaneh Group. It includes several Black retired police officers. The group worked with 40th Ward Alderman Andre Vasquez on finding the location. He was originally supportive, but now Vasquez has decided not to approve a zoning change for the dispensary.
"It ain't happening," Vasquez said.
Vasquez says while the majority of his ward supports a dispensary, some residents have concerns about retired officers owning one.
"There is, in their belief, a fundamental injustice when the folks owning a dispensary were the same people arresting people for selling the exact same product, people who are currently incarcerated," Vasquez said.
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Michael Ward was a Chicago police officer for 30 years. During his career, he says he made arrests for large quantities of marijuana because he was sworn in to follow the law.
"I shouldn't be penalized just because I served the city of Chicago honorably for 30 years, and now I'm penalized for something that I did for a city," Ward said.
Ward says he has personally been affected by the injustices of past drug laws.
"My son was actually one of the persons that was arrested for marijuana. So, I thought it'd be fit for me to have my family benefit from something that, you know, traumatizes by him being arrested for it," Ward said.
Ward and his team's proposal included a community component where profits would be put back into the community.
"Five percent of the profits would go into a trust that would be jointly run by members of our team and members of the community," Richardson said.
Vasquez likes the idea of a community trust, but it's not enough to convince him to allow the Kaneh Group to move forward
"We had enough pushback from people, not because it was cannabis, but because who the owner was. We had to take that into account," Vasquez said.
Unless Ald. Vasquez changes his mind, the Kaneh Group plans to withdraw its application for the location.
The owners say they are confident they will find another location, even if it means outside of the city.