Is legalization what you imagined it to be? Because lounges — where activism and cannabis culture were fostered — are either closing or at-risk

At San Francisco’s Barbary Coast Collective, visitors can buy flower, concentrates, edibles, topicals, and vape oil cartridges. Then, they can rent cool accessories they’ve always wanted to try or can’t afford to buy. And then they can sit back and relax, charge their phone, watch TV, hang out with some friends — and get baked.

They even have an upscale dab bar to vape concentrates, complete with all-quartz dab rigs! I want to make a trip back to Cali just for this experience alone. It’s one of my cannabis fantasies for 2020 — imagine, everything you could ever need for a quality sesh under one roof.

Cannabis lounges are already popular in Amsterdam, where lounge culture originated, drawing a steady stoner pilgrimage since the 70s. That’s when cannabis laws were relaxed and, as a result, “coffeeshops” began to pop up.

When I imagined what legalization would look like in Canada, I thought we would build on the already existing culture. I envisioned that we’d license the BYOB (Bring Your Own Bud) consumption lounges that were already open, operating in a legal grey zone.

But sadly it has not been the case. And now, cities in the United States, where cannabis isn’t even legal federally, are getting there first.

Cannabis legalization has brought a lot of new things to Canada: regulated, online dispensaries and brick-and-mortar shops are selling legal recreational pot. Soon, we will see the introduction of infused edibles, concentrates and topicals. But it’s arguable that we’ve regressed when it comes to cannabis consumption lounges — they’re closing, or at risk of closing.

I talked to Abi Roach, owner of the iconic Hotbox Lounge in Toronto about the situation, she has been at this for 20 years and while it’s never been an easy, ironically, legalization may be the final nail in the coffin.

“If something doesn’t change, we won’t last much longer,” she told me.

While her lounge has official Toronto Public Health papers and has been around since the early 2000s, without provincial legislation that clearly outlines what she can do and what she can’t do (like sell cannabis, food and drinks) coupled with new Cannabis Act and restrictions about advertising and vape products, Roach says she’s stuck in an endless, paralyzing cycle of expensive red tape.

And what we know about future plans doesn’t fill me with much optimism: without being able to sell products, lounges aren’t a sustainable business model. And I’m clearly not the only person dreaming of dispensary-lounge hybrids.

Full disclosure: I have some personal experience with consumption lounges. I worked at one for years when I first moved to Toronto. I can attest to how they normalize consumption for medical and recreational consumers alike; they build community and become places where people can share knowledge.

That’s where I learned that my own cannabis use was nothing to be ashamed of, and I passed that on to people from all over the city and to tourists from all over the world! We taught people how to consume cannabis safely and responsibly. We guided visitors through their first experiences, calmed people if they “greened out” (consumed too much) and created a comforting and fun atmosphere. Lounges are also where activists organized — they are truly part of the reason cannabis is legal in the first place.

If we let them disappear, we will do a great disservice to the cannabis industry and consumers. And that is a disservice to the whole country.

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