BC considering (smoke-free) cannabis consumption rooms. How would that look?

For the next month, British Columbians are invited to share their thoughts on cannabis consumption rooms with the provincial government.

According to an April 6 press release from the Department of Public Safety and the Attorney General, BC has launched a public engagement “to inform decisions about whether to allow these spaces and how they might be regulated.”

Provincial residents have until May 9 to provide feedback in two ways: by completing an online survey and/or by submitting a written submission via email setting out their views on consumption rooms.

Before you get carried away by smoky lounges and hazy cafes, there’s a catch: if allowed, all consumption spaces would need to comply with existing public health and safety goals, including BC’s Tobacco and Vapor-Free Places Act.

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It states that owners and managers are responsible for “ensuring that their public and their workplaces meet the requirements for creating a tobacco and vapor free environment” – meaning that even using desktop vaporizers like Volcanos would be taboo as that Indoor cannabis smoking and vaping would remain prohibited in consumption settings.

So what exactly is a “cannabis consumption room”? The provincial government defines the term as any business or special event offering cannabis for sale and use on-site, including cafes, lounges, concerts, festivals and ticketed events.

Consumption lounges could be:

● Spas and salons

● Cooking Classes

● Cafes and pubs

● A tour of an LP of samples

As part of the engagement process, British Columbia has released a discussion paper detailing what consumption rooms might look like and why the government is reconsidering its 2018 decision to ban them.

According to the newspaper, a cannabis consumption room could include anything from a paid tasting experience while on tour with a licensed producer, to a cannabis cooking class, to a lounge offering edibles and cannabis beverages instead of or alongside alcohol. Another example given suggests that a spa using topical cannabis products could be considered a consumption room.

The paper also notes that consumption rooms, where allowed, should encourage consumers to transition to regulated products, but “without [contributing] to a significant increase in problem cannabis use.”

The province also sees consumption rooms as an opportunity to further engage with indigenous peoples and communities, making it clear that local governments will have a say in whether or not such rooms are allowed in their regions.

In reviewing its decision, BC said that if consumption spaces are allowed, they would be implemented in a “phased approach,” beginning with less complex spaces such as music festivals and special events that could be used “to test different consumption spaces and learn about theirs.” know the impact.”

“We’ve heard from cannabis companies that consumption rooms could offer a way for the sector to become more economically viable and better serve the interests of the people who use cannabis,” said Mike Farnworth, Secretary of Public Safety and Attorney General, in the press release . “At the same time, others have raised public health and safety concerns that need to be carefully considered.”

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