What cannabis lounges could mean for the future of cannabis use

There is something special about a lounge experience. A consciously designed atmosphere where strangers can meet to enjoy atmosphere and interaction was something most of us took for granted before quarantine. The world is open again and so are your favorite bars and cafes. In fact, there might even be a cannabis hangout coming to a community near you.

As we did before reported, the Nevada Cannabis Compliance Board recently approved a measure that will allow cannabis use in lounges. While Alaska was the first state to sanction cannabis lounges, Nevada and Las Vegas in particular, along with some California cities, appear to have big and immediate plans for this new frontier. It’s almost as if cannabis entrepreneurs are trying to take the buzz and nostalgia of Amsterdam’s weed cafes and explode them into modern American times.

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This effort could prove to be a huge new growth market and even transform the way Americans view and consume their weed. While this is all exciting news, there are many unanswered questions about how to operate and regulate a marijuana smoke lounge. If this is the future of marijuana, how will states safely bring this concept into the mainstream?

Marijuana lounges are a relatively new idea in the US. For comparison, Colorado legalized marijuana in 2012 and Alaska legalized smoke lounges in 2019. However, as more states legalize marijuana and post-lockdown hungry for a piece of this new venture, interest in cannabis lounges is growing.

“Pot lounge politics are changing along with the shift in social mores around the substance,” he wrote Politicallywho interviewed Larry Scheffler, the co-CEO of a proposed cannabis lounge in Las Vegas. And this isn’t the boutique corner cafe you might think of when you think of a weed lounge, unless you’re imagining a space outfitted with a huge 5-inch deep splash pool.

“You take off your shoes. you dance in the water You use cannabis and 100,000 rooms look down on you from the Vegas Towers,” Scheffler said. This, my friends, is not a Central Perk, but a completely otherworldly cannabis experience. It all sounds fascinating, but how on earth do you regulate a company like this?

Take California for example. Several jurisdictions in California have begun legalizing forms of cannabis consumption lounges. But as more of these facilities emerge, just as many questions arise. “California law restricts smoking indoors, which could discourage customers from hitting a joint in a lounge,” said Brad Rowe said the New York Times recently. “And there are regulations designed to protect employees from working in smoky environments,” Rowe said.

Those aren’t the only questions people ask. In a recent article on consumption lounges, The National Cannabis Industry Association asked: “Can public consumption rooms lead to people consuming too much? Will there be restrictions on how much cannabis a person can consume when visiting a lounge? What is a ‘single serving’ of cannabis anyway?” These are all valid and mostly unanswered questions. But that hasn’t stopped seven states from making plans to legalize consumption lounges, according to the same article.

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Currently, Alaska is the only state with real history in this department. Its laws, according to the Marijuana Policy Project, allow you to purchase and consume up to one gram of cannabis or an edible containing up to 10mg of THC. The sale and consumption of alcohol and tobacco is prohibited. There are also strict regulations for staff and even strict ventilation regulations.

These are all understandable laws, and it is likely that these and many others will be implemented before cannabis lounges take off in other states. While you may not be able to have “happy hour” at these new consumption lounges, there will likely be many smiling faces at lounges and cafes across the country once these establishments open their doors.