A<\/span>t one minute past midnight on July 1, recreational marijuana dispensaries in Las Vegas opened for business to much fanfare and long lines.<\/p>\n Denver has been America\u2019s go-to destination for international marijuana-driven tourism \u2014 that title is now at serious risk: With 42 million annual visitors and sanctioned culture of permissiveness \u2014 the \u201cWhat happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas\u201d\u00a0line comes from the official tourism bureau<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 Sin City\u2019s cannabis boosters are already dubbing the desert fun-times mecca a second Amsterdam.<\/p>\n And that would be true, if Amsterdam had no cannabis-selling coffeeshops and anyone caught smoking weed almost anywhere at all risked a fine in the hundreds of dollars.<\/p>\n American marijuana policy is changing quickly. Most of it is, at least. As it turns out, legalizing marijuana \u2014 overcoming decades of propaganda, overpowering entrenched special interests with significant influence over the political establishment and taking a first step toward atoning for profound mistakes touching criminal justice, race relations, and economic inequality \u2014 was the easy part.<\/p>\n Figuring out how to give law-abiding adults a place to actually use<\/em> legal cannabis without fear of running into legal trouble?\u00a0That\u2019s<\/i>\u00a0the tricky bit; finding somewhere to place ashtrays.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been almost five years since voters in Colorado and Washington first broke the green ceiling and decided to give legalized recreational cannabis a try. In that time, recreational marijuana has become legal for adults in six more states. Though rules differ somewhat from state to state, the 65 million people living in adult-use states all have something in common: They\u2019re not allowed to smoke in public.<\/p>\n Included in all legalization ballot measures to date \u2014 in order to placate honest citizens fearful of a world in which people smoke weed where they can cigarettes (spoiler: they already do) \u2014 is a prohibition on public marijuana consumption.<\/p>\n Aside from a cannabis aficionado\u2019s own home, there\u2019s virtually nowhere to consume cannabis at all \u2013 and if the landlord decides to ban it, not even there.<\/p>\n In Las Vegas, nearly every hotel is connected to a casino, and since accommodating cannabis means risking a gaming license, every marijuana-seeking tourist who stays in a Las Vegas hotel \u2014 and there are a lot of them \u2014 must by default break\u00a0the law once the flower, preroll or sheet of shatter is in hand.<\/p>\n Denver\u00a0has been the first place to tackle this conundrum<\/a>. So far, it is the only place: A few medical-cannabis dispensaries in San Francisco have on-site smoking lounges, but most do not, and in either case, they\u2019re open only to medical-marijuana patients. However, it will be a few more months at least until the first business in the city gets the OK to allow someone to smoke weed on the premises. And getting that far took another voter initiative.<\/p>\n Last fall, four years after legalizing weed, Colorado voters approved a plan to legalize \u201csocial consumption lounges.\u201d Seven months later, after intractable public debate and back-and-forth between city officials and backers over the rules, it appears businesses will be able to apply for a license to allow marijuana smoking on-site by the end of August.<\/p>\n But in order to actually win a weed-smoking license,\u00a0they\u2019ll also need a sign-off from the local business association. And patrons will have to bring their own weed \u2014 dispensaries won\u2019t get lounges. Neither will bars, as state liquor law forbids the mixing of cannabis and alcohol. That\u2019s a proscription ignored all over the country \u2014 like at Denver\u2019s Red Rocks Amphitheater, where weed smoking goes on with reckless abandon despite \u201cofficial\u201d prohibition.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s the issue.<\/p>\n \u201cThe city is largely overlooking what\u2019s going on at Red Rocks,\u201d said Emmett Reistroffer, a Denver-area marijuana businessman who ran the campaign to legalize public marijuana consumption. \u201cI think they should work with us to create designated consumption areas. I think the people want that and think it makes sense.\u201d<\/p>\n This is the era of legalization. Isn\u2019t it? We should be past the point of having to constantly break rules just to exercise what\u2019s now supposed to be a right. And cities should cop to the obvious: People are already smoking weed in public. They will continue to do so.<\/p>\n For most, nothing will happen. Others will get a ticket, or perhaps a warrant check \u2014 or a search. Either way, that\u2019s a risk, and one that alcohol and cigarette users do not have to run; neither should we.<\/p>\n TELL US,\u00a0<\/strong>where do you stand on public consumption of cannabis?<\/p>\n The post Buying Legal Weed Is Easy. Smoking It? Not So Much.<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Legalizing cannabis is a\u00a0massive challenge, but once it\u2019s legal and access becomes a (relatively) simple matter, an even bigger challenge presents itself \u2014 finding somewhere to (legally) smoke your legal weed. At one minute past midnight on July 1, recreational marijuana dispensaries in Las Vegas opened for business to muchContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,21,80,228,90,559,65,373,560],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17575"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17575"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17576,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17575\/revisions\/17576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Buying Legal Weed Is Easy. Smoking It? Not So Much.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"