{"id":10804,"date":"2025-08-08T18:40:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T18:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/?p=7240359"},"modified":"2025-08-08T18:40:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T18:40:13","slug":"denver-employee-no-longer-with-the-city-after-incident-at-cannabis-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/denver-employee-no-longer-with-the-city-after-incident-at-cannabis-club\/","title":{"rendered":"Denver employee \u2018no longer with the city\u2019 after incident at cannabis club"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/denver-employee-no-longer-with-the-city-after-incident-at-cannabis-club\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<div><img src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/denver-employee-no-longer-with-the-city-after-incident-at-cannabis-club.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>A 4\/20 incident at a Denver cannabis club has cost one city employee their job and could <a href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2025\/08\/08\/tetra-cannabis-lounge-license-denver\/\">cost the venue, Tetra Lounge, its license<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This week, the Denver Department of Excise and Licenses issued Tetra Lounge an \u201corder to show cause,\u201d alleging that the business, at 3039 Walnut St., violated the terms of its license during parties on April 20 and July 10 when vendors appeared to be selling and sampling cannabis products. Investigators believe one of the vendors was not a legally licensed marijuana company, among other allegations.<\/p>\n<p>Tetra\u2019s license doesn\u2019t permit cannabis sales. Patrons who visit bring their own weed and pay an entry fee to smoke outside on its patio. The lounge also hosts events, such as joint-rolling classes.<\/p>\n<p>The business, which opened in 2018, will have to defend itself in court this fall and prove why its license \u201cshould not be suspended or revoked,\u201d according to the city order.<\/p>\n<p>But the city also claims that on April 20, its inspectors witnessed a vendor located just outside of Tetra\u2019s licensed premises giving away psilocybin-infused gummies.<\/p>\n<p>And that\u2019s where things get complicated. Tetra Lounge owner Dewayne Benjamin told The Denver Post he was onsite that day and saw two men from the Excise and Licenses department enter the building. He said the men visited the vendor\u2019s booth and that one of them consumed a mushroom gummy. The other city representative saw him do so, Benjamin said.<\/p>\n<p>When asked about the incident, Excise and Licenses spokesperson Eric Escudero initially encouraged Benjamin to file a formal complaint so the incident could be investigated. On Friday, however, Escudero told The Post that the employee in question no longer works for the city.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe city believes in accountability when an investigation uncovers employee misconduct. The employee is no longer with the city. I can\u2019t comment on specifics regarding the employee or the city investigation,\u201d Escudero said in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n<p>An inquiry to the city\u2019s human resources department wasn\u2019t immediately answered.<\/p>\n<p>Benjamin opened Tetra seven years ago as a private cannabis club, before Denver developed the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2022\/01\/30\/denver-businesses-seek-hospitality-licenses-to-let-patrons-smoke-weed\/\">marijuana hospitality establishment license<\/a> under which he currently operates. Over the years, the business has faced <a href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2023\/08\/01\/denver-ticket-warning-unlicensed-marijuana-hospitality-businesses\/\">previous enforcement actions<\/a> as it sought to update its building\u2019s air filtration system and license to meet the city\u2019s evolving standards.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"related right\"> <\/aside>\n<p>Benjamin <a href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2025\/08\/08\/tetra-cannabis-lounge-license-denver\/\">disputed many of the allegations<\/a> outlined in the city\u2019s order to show cause in an interview with The Denver Post on Thursday. He believes the detail about psilocybin gummies was included to paint Tetra Lounge in a negative light, even though the order states they were being given away \u201cby individuals not associated with the Respondent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve been going on with Denver for so long,\u201d Benjamin said. \u201cThey\u2019re obviously going to the extreme to make sure my business doesn\u2019t flourish.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tetra Lounge will be permitted to operate while it awaits its Oct. 10 hearing.<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/myaccount.denverpost.com\/dp\/preference\">Get more Colorado news by signing up for our Mile High Roundup email newsletter.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<p>A 4\/20 incident at a cannabis club has cost one city employee their job and could cost the venue, Tetra Lounge, its license. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5062,52,6811,376,1547,7947,7938,7524,77,5577,6815,6886,9,5019,8147,1,3,7072,6923,61,1736],"tags":[5063,2632,6816,2954,4115,7949,7939,7527,2655,5580,6820,6889,5022,8152,7073,6924],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10804"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10804\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}