GARFIELD RIDGE — The City Council's harshest regulator of medical marijuana could see two of the city's 13 dispensaries in his Southwest Side ward.
Ed Burke — the powerful alderman of the 14th Ward who has been a vocal proponent of strict restrictions on the clinic — has nevertheless backed applications from two new companies looking to open dispensaries along a stretch of busy Archer Avenue: Maribis of Chicago and Alternative Health Centers.
Both of those companies recently won special-use permits to operate from the city's zoning board, but will still first have to earn state approval before they can open their doors to customers.
If the state gives it the go ahead, Maribis of Chicago wants to open its dispensary at 4568-70 S. Archer Ave. in the southwest tip of Brighton Park.
Patrick Brosnan, who heads up the grassroots Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, said "no one has solicited the community's input" on whether the dispensary was a good fit for the neighborhood.
"Nobody has asked us whether we'd be in favor or against it," he said.
Brosnan said he didn't want to speak on behalf of the council, but said that area has had trouble in the past, including the operation of an illegal strip joint and frequent drunk driving near a neighborhood bar.
"That area has had issues with this kind of stuff ... so the perception would be that [a dispensary] would somehow make it less safe and I could appreciate that," he said.
Records show Maribis is led by Laurel Dineff, an attorney who runs a Downtown law firm specializing in trademarks. Reportedly out of the country, she could not be reached for comment.
Less than three miles away, Chicago Alternative Health Center would open a dispensary at 5648 S. Archer Ave. in Garfield Ridge, right next to an office for the Securitas security outfit.
The company is partially owned by Neal McQueeney, an attorney and co-founder of the Chicago Bar Association's Gaming Law Committee, a group that pushed for more gambling in the city.
He referred questions to Alexa Tetzlaff, an attorney with the Tetzlaff law group — founded by Ted Tetzlaff, a former top lawyer for McPier and one-time owner of one of Chicago's most expensive homes — which is representing the Garfield Ridge dispensary.
Patients there would be subject to multiple ID checks, ushered through secure steel doors to select their marijuana and escorted out to the parking lot, all under the watchful eyes of security guards and surveillance cameras.
"Safety and security for patients, employees and the neighborhood is the highest priority for Chicago Alternative Health Center, and [they] plan to not only meet but exceed the state and local regulatory requirements for security," Alexa Tetzlaff said.
Those rigid plans are probably at least partly what led to the dispensary's approval by Burke, who has been one of the most vocal council members as the city developed its nascent medical marijuana laws and who has said he wants to limit the businesses to "an extreme degree."
He's cited security concerns for the cash businesses — at one point invoking a bizarre, brutal robbery of a California clinic owner — and he's called for 24-7 private guards for dispensaries and regulations that would have required marijuana and its associated products to be hidden from sidewalks and windows.
Burke recently backed off an amendment to the city's law that would've forced the pickup and dropoff of marijuana products to be out of public view. He did not return calls seeking comment.
State law already requires medical marijuana users to face strict scrutiny, beginning with the application and fingerprinting process that's open to patients battling one or more of 37 serious illnesses.
If approved by the state, patients will receive a registration card, which, along with a valid state ID, would have to be presented to an agent at the dispensary before they could buy up to 2.5 ounces of cannabis every two weeks.
So far, about 8,000 people have started the application process and about 230 have been approved. That number is expected to grow when the state's department of public health releases new figures Wednesday.
As the dispensaries inch closer to opening, Southwest Side civic and business groups are taking a wait-and-see approach on the issue.
A member of one local business group said the issue is "so controversial" that they didn't have an opinion yet, and members of the Garfield Ridge Neighborhood Watch said they're going to discuss the medical pot issue at an upcoming meeting.
"I know this is a hot topic right now," one member said, "but it doesn't seem to be causing too much drama in the neighborhood."
Anita Cummings, director of the United Business Association of Midway, said the group "hasn't given much thought" to having two new pot dispensaries on Archer Avenue, even if they're heavily regulated and only for ailing patients.
"I will tell you that we're a very conservative group, so I'm going to venture a guess and say that the proximity doesn't seem necessary," Cummings said. "Two places in close proximity doesn't bode well for the area."
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