DENVER -- Denver police are exploring possible links between two armed robberies of nearby medical marijuana dispensaries in the Five Points neighborhood.

Robbery investigators are looking at whether they're related, Denver police Lt. Matt Murray said Wednesday.

"There are similar suspect descriptions and similar MOs," he added.

In both late night robberies, two young African American men wearing hooded sweat jackets and armed with at least one handgun hit the two dispensaries. The robberies occurred one block and four weeks apart.

Police and neighborhood residents are also concerned by a disturbing trend -- pot dispensaries becoming magnets for armed criminals.

"They’re going in there for two things: armed to take cash and to take drugs. And that’s a concern for us," said police spokesman Sonny Jackson.

Asked if robberies at medical pot shops cropping up across Denver pose a threat to the public, Jackson replied: "You can’t say what their actions are going to be or what it’s going to lead to."

"But obviously the fact that they’re using weapons and going in to rob these places concerns us, because it could be a very negative outcome." he added.

The latest Denver robbery occurred Tuesday night when two armed African American men wearing bandanas over their mouths and hoods over their heads, robbed the Elevated Medical dispensary at 3660 Downing St. in the Five Points neighborhood.

The gunmen locked two employees in a back bathroom, and made off with an undisclosed amount of medical marijuana, police said. One of the fleeing robbers accidentally dropped a gun.

Residents worry about shooting as children walk by the dispensary on their way to the nearby St. Charles Place Park recreation center and neighborhood schools.

"I think it’s potentially dangerous," said Faith Katz, a teacher in the adjacent Whittier neighborhood. "Here, especially in this neighborhood, there are a lot of people who walk. A lot of my students walk to and from school."

As for just having a pot dispensary in a residential neighborhood, Katz said, "I think it presents a danger to residents as well as an open invitation for young children."

Another pot dispensary robbery occurred just a block away four weeks ago.

Two African American men in their 20s wearing hooded sweat shirts robbed the "24/7 Health Care Center Medical Marijuana Dispensary" at 3535 Walnut St., police said.

The two men rang the dispensary bell 1:28 a.m. on Nov. 14 and were buzzed through the security door by an employee.

The men asked to see the dispensary owner, "Mack," saying they knew him, according to a police report.

When the dispensary worker told the men they'd needed proper medical marijuana "paperwork" to enter the back room where marijuana is kept, one man pulled a handgun and pointed it at the employee's face.

The robbers pulled the employee into the back room and demanded money and marijuana.

"The suspects stated that the robbery was nothing personal, but 'Jordan' had ripped them off and it was revenge," according to the police report. The dispensary worker told police "Jordan" was a former employee.

The dispensary worker had a 9 mm handgun in his pants pocket and a robber spotted it and disarmed him, the employee told police.

The gunmen were worried about being identified by the dispensary's security video system and asked where the video was recorded. They ended up taking the security-camera recording equipment, along with marijuana and money stuffed in a garbage bag, the police report stated.

As the gunmen left, they tried to abduct the dispensary worker. But he shoved them outside and pulled the security door shut, police said. After the robbers fled, a security guard from a neighboring business ran up to assist the victim.

In a third medical marijuana crime, Denver prosecutors on Tuesday charged a man for an armed home invasion robbery last month. He is accused of tying up a 24-year-old resident with duct tape and stealing his medical marijuana, a laptop computer and other items.

Fear that booming medical pot dispensaries attract crime in neighborhoods is not new.

Critics point to Los Angeles, where the number of unregulated marijuana dispensaries exploded from 186 two years ago to an estimated 1,000 today.

Along with the unchecked pot shop growth has come a wave of brazen armed robberies.

In the San Fernando Valley alone, Los Angeles police say there have been at least 200 robberies at medical marijuana dispensaries in the last two years. That's an average of two robberies for each of the estimated 100 dispensaries in the valley.

Los Angeles residents have been alarmed by a dangerous shoot out in busy Korea Town between pot robbers and an armed dispensary worker and the shooting death of an unarmed guard during another dispensary robbery.

One gang is suspected in a series of Los Angeles dispensary robberies, where gunmen have shot and pistol-whipped dispensary workers. Police believe the robbers are reselling the stolen medical marijuana on the street.

The Los Angeles City Council voted this week to cap the number of marijuana dispensaries and bar them from being within 1,000 feet of schools, libraries or homes. Supporters say the ordinance is needed to protect neighborhoods.