For years, millions have stumbled upon the Rainforest Cafe downtown thinking that they are about to score the dankest kush of their entire life. Instead, they were given stale chicken tenders. Now that the Rainforest Cafe is gone, a battle for which dispensary is going to move in is taking shape.

Robert Brown, a neighborhood resident, had asked the board to reject the dispensary’s application, questioning Progressive Treatment Solutions’ role in its partnership with BioPharm to take over the former restaurant site at 605 N. Clark St. Illinois law bars dispensaries from opening within 1,500 feet of an existing weed shop except in the case of ownership by a social equity applicant, a legislative effort to increase minority ownership in the booming industry. Four dispensaries are now operating within 1,500 feet of the proposed shop, and PTS, which initially proposed the plan on its own, without partners, didn’t qualify as a social equity firm.

Would you support a dispensary downtown? The conversation lives on Facebook!