The Tetra Lounge in Downtown Denver is on track to become the city’s first social equity applicant approved for a marijuana hospitality establishment license, city officials announced Monday.
Once Tetra completes required inspections, it will be cleared to open for business as a location where folks can legally consume marijuana in a public place now that it has received final approval from the city’s Department of Excise and Licenses.
Department spokesperson Eric Escudero said Denver used to have a different kind of cannabis hospitality program that allowed folks to only smoke outdoors, and with this there was only one operator in the city, The Coffee Joint. After an overhaul of marijuana regulations last year, the new hospitality program came to fruition.
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Escudero said the social equity aspect of the program is to make sure there’s equitable access to the cannabis industry, because there are many communities disproportionately and negatively impacted by marijuana prohibition who have not benefitted from legalization.
“For the first six years of the program, only people designated as social equity applicants are authorized to apply for a hospitality establishment,” Escudero said. “… We want to achieve the full promise of legalization, and that in our mind is making sure there’s equitable access so more people can benefit economically — not just those who have financial advantage or advantage of connections.”
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The city has two other social equity applications: one for another hospitality establishment and one for a hospitality/sales establishment. Escudero said there were other private clubs that would allow folks to consume marijuana, but these were made illegal with the new regulations taking effect Jan. 1. He said the goal is to get these businesses into compliance before starting enforcement and ticketing.
The Coffee Joint was grandfathered in because it has a license to operate as a hospitality establishment previously, Escudero said.
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