California Considers the Benefits of Marijuana Consumption Lounges

Voters in California decided on November 8 last year to legalize recreational marijuana. Many ballot casters voting in favor may not know that it will only come into effect in January next year, which is when both new and pre-existing collectives and dispensaries will be able to acquire licenses to sell cannabis to adults recreationally.

By anticipating patronage growth and preparing for impending legislative changes, many retailers are making the required compliance adjustments in advance; some are already opening vaporizing and smoking lounges for the consumption of recreational marijuana, and still some are already pre-rolling joints for their clientele.

Under Proposition 64, any adult 21-years or older can carry and use marijuana legally and safely for recreational purposes in California, but there is just one major glitch: They have nowhere to go to consume it. It is illegal to smoke in public and doing so is subject to a fine. Marijuana lounges are among the very few sanctioned areas for patients and future recreational users to go.

There has been very little progress opening lounges for patients to medicate. It has been sporadic at best, with only six out of over 20 dispensaries offering a designated, legal space in San Francisco, and few are equipped or licensed for the use of hash oil and other concentrates, or smoking flowers via open flame. Now, though, lounges are promoting a classy, highly safe environment for medical marijuana.

Collectives and dispensaries are now recognizing the difference between what lounges represented in the past and what they could become in the future. Plans include vast dab bars with electric quartz nails, and no table will be complete without its own vaporizer. Like the bars of years gone, you will be able to pop in for a quick dab or recline comfortably in leather-clad booths for a sports game and maybe a meal.

There is huge demand for cannabis lounges. The idea is popular in polls, and it is becoming increasingly obvious that many would use them to pack a bowl and relax, whether it is at sunrise, during a late afternoon football game, or even late Monday nights after harried days at work. Investors picture budtenders shepherding happy consumers in the most comfortable settings possible.

Few people have ever visited a marijuana lounge. To grow the idea, California will need to draft operating procedures, regulations, and laws to oversee them. The state is full of a diversity of characters, to put it mildly, and 25.1 million tourists flocked into San Francisco last year alone. Soon, budtenders, connoisseurs, and specialists will be busy indeed.

Millions of adult users will need somewhere to consume the marijuana California is making legal. They will need medical relief, and many will be specifically coming recreationally too, perhaps not even knowing what an edible or vaporizer even is. There is massive industry in lounges alone, and there will be jobs for budtenders aplenty.

California’s lounges will offer a stark pace adjustment and fresh opportunities to get advice without the hurry of the next person in line. Currently, the few there in existence are for decompressing and it starts the moment they open at 8 a.m. Patients come at all hours of the day, before their work starts, before their classes, and after completing their graveyard shifts. Marijuana patients require all-hour sanctuary.

Some suffer the most severe illness, including cancer, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, behavioral disorders, and many other conditions. They need somewhere safe to medicate, and if they can do so in consumption lounges, then many more will join the many scientifically verified reports of patients getting better after marijuana treatment.

Facilitating medication for patients will be an experience far more intimate than transactions occurring in the main lounge space, though. They will enter beyond the bar, where experts will be able to monitor the results of their advice and guidance. These safe spaces are a haven for patients, most of whom cannot smoke in their homes or in public under some health codes, despite their intent being for tobacco use and not medical marijuana.

Most longtime cannabis consumers have been furtive about their activities, even using it secretly on their own. Under such conditions, patients across California would have common interests to bring them together. If the state opens lounges for recreational use, it would likely be separate from patients, but they would have the same magnetic interests and reasons to talk and interact with each other.

With patients having a consumption area, and eventually recreational users too, they not only have a place to relax and enjoy their experiences, but they also have a space to facilitate open discussion and education that, because of space and time limitations, did not exist previously. People will be able to sample concentrates and flowers in real time, and interact directly with the products.

Over a joint in the lounge, people will be able to confront their misconceptions about cannabis and finally dispel the myths surrounding it. Due to a lack of pre-existing guidelines for operational marijuana lounges, California will need to iron out growing pains as they arise and realize the full potential, both economic and medical, that spaces like cannabis lounges can offer both the state and its citizens.

Ann

Geez, there seem to be a lot of people named Ann who write marijuana blogs. Well, that’s my name too, and when I asked my mom why she decided to give me such a mundane label she explained that the name Ann meant God has favored me. My name took on a whole new significance and I no longer thought it boring. And God has favored me – he gave me the gift of the gab and he smiled his approval when I decided to move to San Francisco. I love this city, I love the people, and most of all I love writing about marijuana.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *