UPTOWN — Dispensary 33 is officially the first medical marijuana dispensary in Chicago.
The dispensary, at 5001 N. Clark St., was added to the list of Licensed Medical Cannabis Dispensaries Friday, the company said in an email Friday.
Patients can begin registering at the dispensary here. The dispensary will open after the state certifies the staff at the facility, which "should be the first week of December," the email said.
For a look inside the dispensary click here.
About a year ago, The Cannabis Group LLC applied for a special use permit hoping to open a medical marijuana dispensary in the former home of Pie Hole Pizza Joint, 5001 N. Clark St.
Since then, officials from the company have visited the Chambers of Commerce for Andersonville, Uptown and Ravenswood, aldermen for the 46th, 47th and 48th wards and neighboring block clubs seeking and receiving approval for their business plan.
Over the weekend, just days after medical marijuana sales opened in Illinois, the team repaid the neighbors who put their trust in the company by allowing anyone interested to take a tour of the facility.
"People have no idea what the inside of these places are going to look like and if you don’t have a card you may never know what the inside of these places are going to look like," said Richard Park, who's in charge of research and client education at the shop. "Since we got such good public approval, we thought we owed it to the community to be like, 'Come check us out.'"
Paul Lee, the agent in charge of Dispensary 33, said he experienced an eye-opening experience as the community and possible future patients flocked in and out of the dispensary during the open house over the weekend.
"It wasn’t until this last weekend, when we got to literally meet hundreds of people either from this community — who give their full support — or patients that come here and [told] us exactly what they need from Dispensary 33, that I realized it’s them that focuses us in terms of driving our research and every act that we do here in terms of helping them out, he said.
On Monday, the owners and staff of the dispensary along with a cast of politicians and medical marijuana advocates held a ribbon cutting for the business as they waited to clear final hurdles with the state.
Ald. Ameya Pawar (47th), who has been vocal on his support of the dispensary, thanked legislators "for leading on this issue and breaking down to socially constructed views."
"I think it’s time we moved past [those views] and also understand that they’re a lot of people who desperately need medical cannabis as a way to manage pain, as a way to manage issues when they’re dealing with a terminal illness," he said.
Before cutting the ribbon, Sen. Heather Steans said: "I think it was a long time coming."
"It was years of debate around getting this bill passed, which I think is very straightforward and humane. We have certainly one of, I think, the most restricted medical cannabis bills of any of the states, [but] I think many many people are going to benefit from it," Steans said.
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