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Another Medical Marijuana Permit for Wicker Park Sought

By Alisa Hauser | October 20, 2014 4:27pm
 Professional Midwest Dispensary, LLC is seeking a special use permit to open a medical marijuana dispensary in a building at 1811 W. North Ave. in Wicker Park.
Professional Midwest Dispensary, LLC is seeking a special use permit to open a medical marijuana dispensary in a building at 1811 W. North Ave. in Wicker Park.
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DNAinfo/Alisa Hauser

WICKER PARK — The owner of a proposed medical marijuana dispensary headed by three pharmacists is seeking a special use permit to operate out of a former wine shop about two blocks east of Wicker Park's main hub at Milwaukee, Damen and North avenues.

"It's a perfect location; we have good visibility and are easily accessible by public transportation," said Tami Marron, president of Professional Midwest Dispensary LLC.

Professional Midwest Dispensary has applied for a special use permit to open at 1811 W. North Ave. in the former Cellar Rat wine shop, which closed earlier this year.

The 750-square-foot location is at the base of a four-story retail building that counts a Thai/Korean restaurant and floral company among its neighbors. 

Marron said she believes having three dedicated parking spots will differentiate her company's application from Modern Medicine Dispensary, which received a special use permit from the city's Zoning Board of Appeals on Friday.

The Zoning Board of Appeals has been assigned the task of issuing special use permits for the 13 possible dispensaries in the city limits.

"The parking lot is an advantage and the fact it is not around a lot of bars. Our location might be better suited, and we think we have an incredibly strong group that is pharmacist focused," Marron said.

Marron said she has close to 30 years of experience as a pharmacist and currently works for Comprehensive Pharmacy Services, which runs two pharmacies inside Mercy Hospital, 2525 S. Michigan Ave. 

A Lakeview resident, Marron said that three of the seven people involved in her dispensary are second-generation pharmacists, including herself and Amit and Priyanka Dhingra, a husband-and-wife team that ran a pharmacy in suburban Chicago Heights.

Marron said everyone on the management team, which includes her husband and sister-in-law as as well as a company lawyer, are Illinois residents with the exception of Greta Carter, founder of the Seattle-based Cannabis Training Institute, who will serve as the dispensary's education partner.

Marron is scheduled to meet with members of the Wicker Park Committee's preservation and development subcommittee (P&D) at the group's monthly meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Wicker Park Field House, 1425 N. Damen Ave.

Ed Tamminga, chairman of the P&D subcommittee, said Monday he is unsure if the group will vote on whether to support the special use permit request. The concept of medical marijuana dispensaries is "all new territory" for the community group and they may not take a position, he said.

The group did not meet with another company interested in selling marijuana in Wicker Park, Modern Medicine Dispensary at 1368 N. Milwaukee Ave., prior to that dispensary's special use permit being approved the city. There was "not enough of an outcry" to oppose the permit, Tamminga said.

"We would have preferred if [the Modern Medicine Dispensary team] had come to the neighborhood to get feedback, but it is what it is," Tamminga said. "It seems like it's going to be a very tightly regulated industry. If these dispensaries live by what they are supposed to, it's not a bad thing."

Tamminga did add, however that he was "a little perplexed that we have all of these proposals to set up shop in the middle of Wicker Park entertainment district."

Professional Midwest Dispensary's proposed location is currently in the 1st Ward but will be in the new 2nd Ward when the remap takes effect next year.

Ald. Joe Moreno (1st) previously said that he supports the special use permit for Modern Medicine Dispensary.

Moreno's chief of staff, Raymond Valadez, was not immediately available for comment on Professional Midwest Dispensary's special use permit request.

Illinois plans to grant up to 60 medical marijuana dispensary licenses statewide by the end of this year. Professional Midwest Dispensary's proposition is one of 211 applications statewide that officials are currently reviewing.

On Sunday, Doug Marks, one of the co-owners of the proposed Modern Medicine Dispensary said that while "it was great that the special use permit was approved" the final decision is "still up to the state."

In addition to Modern Medicine Dispensary, another dispensary, operated by IL Grown Medicine, also seeks a special use permit to operate at 1300-08 W. North Ave, in a 3,500-square-foot storefront across from Home Depot.

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