WEST ROGERS PARK — A former trader and kidney transplant patient plans to open a medical marijuana dispensary near Devon and Western avenues.
Bob Kingsley, whose 420 Capital Management was granted a coveted license from the state last month, said he planned to invest $400,000 into a building somewhere near the busy intersection.
He declined to identify exactly where he planned to set up shop until he submitted his proposal for approval from the city's Zoning Board of Appeals in May. He said he planned to send out letters to nearby property owners and hold community meetings.
"We'd like full support of the community, as well as the political leaders in the area," Kingsley said Wednesday. "It's an important thing for us. We want to be accepted. We don’t want to be someplace we’re not wanted."
Kingsley said he planned to hire off-duty law enforcement officers as security at the dispensary when it opened. The dispensary would also include a fingerprint scanner and two waiting areas — each with an armed guard — that patients would need to pass through before paying for their pot.
The dispensary, like the rest planned for the state, won't resemble the recreational marijuana stores in Colorado and Washington.
"It's not like a meat market where you pick out a steak," Kingsley said, adding that each patient's drugs would be prepackaged.
He said he planned to hire employees from the neighborhood, especially veterans and the disabled.
At night, Kingsley said, the dispensary would have "casino-like security," with night-vision cameras and weight sensors in the floor.
He expects the 3,500-square-feet dispensary, called 420 Windy City, to be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Kingsley said he first became interested in the medical marijuana industry after kidney failure ended his career at the Chicago Board Options Exchange in 1995.
Since then he's received two kidney transplants, the most recent from his son.
Dialysis treatments over the years caused residual, intermittent pain in his feet — and pot helps, he said. He said he traveled to Colorado as much as possible for marijuana treatment.
"This is going to bring business to the area," Kingsley said of the planned dispensary. "We’re not going to offend anybody. You’re not going to smell anything."
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