ABOVE: Seven Point of Illinois cannabis dispensary CEO Brad Zerman during a previous appearance before the Danville City Council.
With Tuesday evening’s (June 18th) Danville City Council approval of bringing a third cannabis dispensary inside city limits, the CEO of one of the two already existing dispensaries says the fair thing to do now is reconsider something he requested early on that was turned down.
Brad Zerman was looking to have a consumption lounge included at Seven Point of Illinois. He says now that the Council has approved Mariworks LLC’s plan to build a nuEra dispensary south of I-74 and Lynch Road, the city should consider giving him an assist to keep his operation competitive. Zerman says Seven Point versus nuEra is a simple case of the independent operator battling big business to try and stay alive. Therefore, the extra foot traffic a consumption lounge could bring to Seven Point’s location north of I-74 on the west side of Lynch would be a nice boost. And with the Parkway Dispensary in Tilton already having a consumption lounge, Zerman says giving Danville an equalizer certainly makes sense.
AUDIO: The City of Danville needs a safe place for people to smoke cannabis. There’s a bunch of motels in east Danville that do not want their customers buying cannabis and smoking in their rooms. Tilton has a smoking lounge, and that’s right by where everyone lives in Danville. What not let people smoke in East Danville, and support the businesses that you already have there?
Although Seven Point of Illinois has opened and had their ribbon cutting; a room is still available for various uses, including as a consumption lounge.
Zerman says if the city is worried about having a consumption lounge at Seven Point, with no residential areas around it; then why would they not be worried about putting a cannabis dispensary next to a truck stop; which Vermilion Real Estate Development is planning at the “south of I-74 and Lynch Road site.”
AUDIO: It doesn’t really seem right that you’re going to have a cannabis dispensary right next door to a truck stop, where truckers have their CDL licenses that could be taken away for using cannabis. You know, you’re not going to put a cannabis store next to a playground. Why would you put one next to a truck stop, where people aren’t supposed to be smoking either way?
The plan explained by the city, the developer, and Mariworks and nuEra Tuesday night was for the new dispensary to assist with the cost of putting in brand new infrastructure; with Casey’s having said in the past that they could not build a truck stop at that location because they could not handle the cost of the needed brand new infrastructure by themselves.
