Business
Mayor’s Wife Opens Pot Dispensary Next to Her Very Own Strip Club
Strip Club Dispensary
There’s no shortage of outlandish cannabis-related stories coming out of Colorado these days. But this scoop about a mayor’s wife who is about to open a marijuana shop next to her strip club is certainly attracting lots of attention.
In Glendale, Colorado, the wife of Mayor Mike Dunafon recently opened a cannabis store which happens to be right next door to a strip club which she also owns.
Mike Dunafon’s wife, Deborah Dunafon, thinks that the two audiences will appreciate crossover between her two businesses she’s catering to.
In fact, Deborah is hopeful that cannabis will transform the environment in the area of her businesses into something safer and more relaxed.
Deborah’s marijuana business, The Smoking Gun Apothecary, is opening doors adjacent to Shotgun Willie’s, the strip club Deborah owns.
There will be cross-marketed promotions running between both of the businesses, encouraging people to have a taste of what both establishments have to offer.
While it’s still illegal for a company to sell marijuana and alcohol in the same place, Deborah Dunafon has found a kind of loophole based simply on the proximity of her two businesses to each other.
Cyrus McCrimmon, Denver Post
Patrons can simply walk back and forth between each separate building, getting the best of both worlds in what is effectively the “same” place.
Deborah Dunafon can boast that she’s the only person in the country who owns both a legal cannabis shop and a strip club. Others, however, are calling foul play. They accuse Mayor Dunafon of a conflict of interest since she was the one who ultimately granted approval to the Smoking Gun Apothecary’s permit.
“This is a clear conflict of interest,” Luis Toro of Colorado Ethics Watch said. “The concern isn’t about the shop opening. It’s about him voting,” he added.
In his defense, the mayor has cited the fact that he was not married to Deborah at the time he approved the permit for her cannabis apothecary.
“They were rookie council people who just happened to say, ‘I don’t like marijuana.” I said, ‘You don’t get not to like marijuana. It’s a legal business,’” Mike Dunafon said.
Lawyer Jeffrey Springer agrees, and recently told reporters that there is no legal conflict of interest because Mayor Dunafon had no stake or financial interest in the Smoking Gun.
While Deborah’s relationship with Glendale’s mayor may have greased the wheels for getting her new cannabis business off the ground, most residents have no issue with the presence of the businesses in their community.
