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Denver Police Not Allowed To Work At Pot Shops

Police Pot Shops
(credit: CBS)

DENVER (CBS4) – A notice from the Denver Police Department to its officers states that they will not be allowed to work at marijuana shops while off-duty.

The notice says that police won't be allowed to work in off-duty security roles in any location where marijuana is sold.

The memo went out to all sworn personnel on Thursday.

"The Denver Police Department and other city leaders continue to make fools of themselves by developing rules without thinking them through," said Mason Tvert from the Marijuana Policy Project.

Tvert says it's unreasonable and unfair.

"There's absolutely no logical reason why we wouldn't let police officers who are able to work off-duty in bars and in liquor stores simply work at a retail marijuana stores to keep people safe," said Tvert.

The department says while that's the policy now, there's always room to change it later on as retail marijuana stores become integrated around the city next year.

"It's a new industry, we don't know how it's going to work itself out, nobody can really say that. So rather than saying we're going to put officers in there right now, we're going to take a wait and see attitude," said Denver Police Spokesman Sonny Jackson.

Properly licensed stores will be allowed to sell marijuana to the public under state law starting on Jan. 1.

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