In a seemingly perfect union, Nevada embraced the legalization of cannabis well over a year ago and since, hundreds of thousands of tourists have descended upon Las Vegas to get their hands on a bevy of weed products. The market has been flooded, with dispensary after dispensary reporting high revenues even as the liquor lobby in all its fury set out to frustrate legalization efforts. Still, legislators and cannabis advocates were victorious in fiercely protecting the new measure and promptly promoted cannabis to incentivize tourists.
However, tourists wanting to get in on the action were immediately faced with a dilemma, as gaming establishments banned the use of cannabis at their properties. The state also banned public consumption of cannabis products, ensuring that the only way to legally consume would be on private property. Tourists would now be flocking to Nevada to buy a legal product which could not be legally consumed in any area where tourists tend to stay.
Pushing for Las Vegas Cannabis Consumption Lounges
To address this conundrum, cannabis advocates began raising the idea of Las Vegas cannabis consumption lounges to give both tourists and locals legal spaces to consume cannabis. State Senator, Clark County Commissioner-elect and staunch legalization advocate, Tick Segerblom (D) recently told the press he seeks to draft an ordinance that would get cannabis consumption lounges up and running by 2019.
“The goal is to get these pot lounges up and running, get weed out of our casinos and hotels, and get it off the streets,” says Segerblom. To be fair, police don’t appear to be overly strict in enforcing public consumption laws, however, law-abiding tourists must still feel the sting of potential penalties.
Segerblom recently took the matter to San Francisco to gain some insight into the city’s success with such lounges. San Francisco has taken a progressive approach teetering between local allowance and decriminalization of cannabis that keeps prohibition of such lounges away.
“More than ever, I just really want to get this thing going,” said Segerblom. “When it comes to Vegas, our experience is going to be, from my perspective, so much grander than what they’re talking about, that we just need to get it out there and learn.”
But, There’s a Catch
Yet, Nevada’s state authorities, coupled with the strongholds that gaming and the state’s liquor lobby has on its economy, it’s unlikely that even as a seemingly liberal city, Las Vegas Cannabis Consumption Lounges won’t be approached in the same way as San Francisco. Current regulations strictly ban cannabis lounges until 2020, and even the advertising and holding of cannabis-related events at private residences was banned in 2017.
Segerblom’s recent efforts to introduce a bill that would give local government the authority to regulate cannabis lounges gained no traction in the legislature. However, Segerblom says he will continue the fight to implement cannabis lounges on a local level if not permitted on the state level quite yet.