[420 Girl]

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO - A medical marijuana dispensary may be moving into a quiet Colorado Springs neighborhood, right across the street from a head shop. Some of the residents who live there are trying to convince city council to put it somewhere else.

"I feel like our neighborhood is going to turn into a ghetto if the city doesn't step in," said resident Amy Daniels. She is concerned because a medical marijuana dispensary may soon set up shop in her neighborhood.

"The lessee of the potential medical marijuana facility told me that he would be dispensing oils, lotions, cookies, brownies," said Ann Devere, who has lived in the Brookwood neighborhood for decades.

The building is located on the corner of Brookwood and Academy. It's a restaurant that went out of business. "I understand (it) is being converted into a therapeutic massage parlor," said City Councilman Bernie Herpin. "And part of it then would also have a medical marijuana dispensary in it."

Daniels and Devere don't want that kind of business in Brookwood. "By all accounts this is a peaceful prosperous neighborhood," said Daniels. "And I just think that's going to change."

Right across the street from the site of the proposed dispensary is a tattoo parlor called Freaky's. Freaky's also sells drug paraphernalia, including pipes and rolling papers.

"Okay we've got a dispensary on this side and a head shop right here," said Daniels. "And it's these two buildings in close location to each other, I think that's going to change the demographic."

Daniels wants to send a message to the City Council. "It's people who are part of a drug culture that want to have the fancy paraphernalia," said Daniels. "And those are the people who I think are going to be drawn to this location. I think we are going to suffer. If our crime doesn't increase, at the very least our property values will decrease."

"We've asked the police department to give us a report on whether medical marijuana dispensaries have an increased number of crimes in their area," said Herpin. "We have not received that report yet. But I have not seen anything to indicate that that is happening. I'm fairly certain that if that was a big problem we would know about it."

Councilman Herpin said it is too early to tell whether or not the building will become a dispensary. City Council has written a draft ordinance with regulations on medical marijuana dispensaries. If the ordinance passes and the proposed business meets the requirements of the ordinance, medical marijuana may soon be available in Brookwood.


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