Weed lounges are coming to a city near you

November 25, 2021
AggregatedNews
Nevada
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Las Vegas hopes to become a pioneer in creating public consumption spaces.

LAS VEGAS — Planet 13’s cannabis “superstore” on the Strip has 30,000 square feet of retail space alongside a cafe, a bar and a marijuana processing center, all behind a glass wall where customers can see the various contraptions used for making cannabis products.

But there’s one thing missing: a place to smoke weed.

In a city where tourists light up cigarettes on casino floors and stumble out of bars carrying plastic cups filled with booze, public cannabis consumption is conspicuously restricted in Sin City. The masses of tourists buying cannabis products at Planet 13 have almost nowhere to smoke it legally — not on the sidewalk and not in their hotel rooms.

That will soon change. Nevada is the latest state to allow cannabis consumption lounges as the drug gains mainstream acceptance. As regulators grapple with how to oversee the businesses, dispensaries are already making plans to open the first state-sanctioned lounges by mid-2022.

The politics of pot lounges are changing along with shifting social mores around the substance. While Colorado and Washington were the first states to legalize adult use in 2012, it wasn’t until 2019 that Alaska first adopted a law on cannabis consumption lounges. Other states have since followed suit. [Read More @ Politico]