According to owner Dewayne Benjamin, Tetra's back patio should be licensed and open for social cannabis use by Tuesday, May 16, and that includes smoking, vaping, dabbing and edibles. Cannabis sales won't be allowed at Tetra, so guests must bring their own flower, hash and edibles, but the lounge can sell or rent out smoking accessories like joint papers, pipes, bongs and vaporizers.
Benjamin's venue still needs state approval, which he expects to receive over the next couple of weeks, but getting the go-ahead from the city was the real challenge.
The Colorado Marijuana Enforcement Division wouldn't comment on pending licensing actions regarding Tetra. Last year, the MED suspended Tetra's state cannabis hospitality license after a dispute with Denver's licensing authority — but now that he has the city's seal of approval, Benjamin is confident the MED will lift Tetra's suspension soon.
"The state was just waiting on this from the city. My suspension should be lifted by Tuesday," he says. "I never thought it wasn't going to happen. I went through so much more than any small business should have to go through."
Only Tetra's outdoor patio area will be open and accessible to guests, who must prove they're 21 or older before entering. The building still isn't approved for indoor cannabis use by the Denver Department of Excise & Licenses, and Denver Community Planning and Development hasn't issued an occupancy license for the building yet. Until Tetra's zoning is approved, visitors can't go inside to use the bathroom or for any other purpose.
Benjamin says that he and his staff are securing mobile bathrooms to place near the patio, and he's in talks with the owner of the warehouse next door so Tetra patrons, event sponsors and vendors will have an indoor space to congregate without cannabis use. He hopes to have Tetra's zoning issues taken care of by June "at the latest," but the building must pass Denver's indoor ventilation requirements before indoor vaping is allowed.
Benjamin is no longer pursuing a permit for indoor smoking, he says, because the requirements are too burdensome. Still, he adds that he's grateful to "be able to generate revenue again."
"It's what I needed: my license was issued. Now I'm going to sit down with everybody on my team and talk about what's next. My main focus is re-establishing my relationships with sponsors and the community," Benjamin says.
Tetra first opened in 2018 as a private marijuana lounge, allowing people 21 and over to sign up as members before entering. Operating in this legal gray area was occasionally disputed by the city, but Tetra managed to remain open for the better part of four years as long as members brought their own marijuana and no pot sales took place. Benjamin applied for a city permit in 2021 so that he could open to the public; he says he hasn't operated Tetra as a private club since last year, for fear of hurting his application's chances.
Benjamin's original application for Tetra to become an indoor smoking lounge was approved by Excise & Licenses over two years ago, but he never actually received his license. The department later explained that Tetra still needed to pass building and ventilation inspections before opening — but that was after an elaborate ribbon-cutting ceremony for Tetra in March 2022 at which Governor Jared Polis and then-Mayor Michael Hancock praised Colorado and Denver's cannabis regulations and touted Benjamin as a success story.
A handful of other Denver lounges have received initial approval for a pot consumption permit since then, only to remain unopened as they attempt to pass indoor ventilation requirements. The city's lone licensed and operating cannabis lounge, the Coffee Joint, was grandfathered in under previous HVAC regulations and only allows electronic vaping and edibles.
Tetra's outdoor consumption license is the first in Denver history, according to Excise & Licenses.
"The city is not a barrier anymore. We've issued the license," says communications director Eric Escudero. "Once he's cleared up with the state and if his state license suspension ends and his license is restored, then he can begin legally operating the outdoor consumption area."
Escudero says Excise & Licenses has worked with Tetra for years to get permitted, as the licensing department would with any other business under its purview. It wasn't always a team effort, however.
In 2018, undercover officers with the Denver Police Department were sent to Tetra around two months after it opened. The police wrote citations for various violations regarding public marijuana use and the Colorado Clean Indoor Air Act, a law that applies to smoking in public. Those citations were eventually dropped, but Tetra and Benjamin continued to operate as a private lounge, leading to more run-ins with city enforcement in 2020 and 2021.
Benjamin says he closed Tetra in 2021 but has allowed other cannabis event organizers to lease the space. Last July, he was served a general violation ticket for not having the necessary license to operate. That case is still ongoing with the Denver City Attorney's Office.
Despite the pending case, Escudero says licensing officials have no plans to impede Tetra as long as no other alleged violations occur.
Marijuana Hospitality in Denver — or Lack Thereof
Recreational cannabis was legalized over a decade ago in Colorado, but the state's options for cannabis consumption outside of a private home are slim. Denver is one of only a few local governments to have opted into cannabis hospitality, but local restrictions have kept the number of lounges low.Denver voters first adopted a cannabis hospitality licensing program for businesses in 2017. Implementation by Excise & Licenses added a handful of new restrictions to the measure, and in the first four years of the program, only two cannabis lounges opened. Denver City Council scrapped the I-300 program in 2021 and opted for language that aligns more closely with the state's pot hospitality law, but location and ventilation restrictions remain.
All versions of Denver's hospitality rules have included location requirements prohibiting any licensed marijuana hospitality venues to be within 1,000 feet of any daycare center, drug treatment center or city-owned park, pool or recreation center, as well as any other hospitality licensees.
The majority of cannabis-friendly events in Denver, including the annual Mile High 420 Festival, aren't licensed under the city's hospitality program.
A handful of business owners and event promoters have argued that their events are private, not public, if they have a pre-approved guest list and perform ID checks at the door to ensure that no one under 21 enters the venue. Denver licensing and law enforcement officials have consistently disagreed, with citywide crackdowns on cannabis-friendly events in the past.
The 420 Fest, an event sanctioned by Denver Parks & Recreation for Civic Center Park, has seen zero cannabis-related arrests or citations for three years in a row. Although the 420 Fest is limited to 21-and-up attendees and general admission is free, there are VIP tickets for sale, too, as well as food, beverage and vendor sales on festival grounds.
Last year, Excise & Licenses claimed that any event with ticket sales is public commerce and therefore requires a hospitality license, but an April 18 memo from the department concerning the 420 Fest was more lax, saying that it is illegal to consume cannabis in Denver "in a place that is observable by the public or to which the public has access without restriction."
Denver's interpretation of public and private has been challenged in court before by the International Church of Cannabis, but the 2019 case failed to change any legal precedent. Last year, the city sent a memo to business owners reaffirming the city's municipal code ban on pot-friendly events held without a permit.
Mobile marijuana hospitality has been slightly more successful in Denver, with three different businesses licensed and operating pot-friendly buses and vans. Despite the permitting victories, however, mobile pot hospitality services have struggled to get off the ground.
