A report from Westword pointed out that the Colorado Tourism Office (CTO) has recently begun to feature information regarding a few cannabis businesses on its website.

Westword spoke with licensed cannabis party bus business owner, Sarah Woodson, confirming that the CTO contacted her last year about her The Cannabis Experience. According to CBS News, her business was the nation’s first licensed cannabis consumption bus as of February 2023.

The CTO website features some of Colorado’s best places to visit and check out, from snow-related activities, white water rafting, hot springs, dining recommendations, and an updated calendar of events on the front page. As of Feb. 5, the front page doesn’t showcase any cannabis-related businesses or activities.

A quick search yields just a few cannabis-related business profiles, which includes both The Cannabis Experience, Colorado Cannabis Tours, Speak Easy Vape Lounge & Cannabis Club, Ambers Alchemy, and a 420 friendly Bed and Breakfast called Arrowhead Manor. It also includes various advice articles about disposing of cannabis when leaving the state, tips for safe consumption, and more, in addition to a few older search results where the landing pages do not work or have been removed. The profiles don’t feature a date of publishing, so it’s unclear how long they’ve been up on the website.

Westword points out that Speak Easy Vape Lounge & Cannabis Club opened with a temporary local permit that expired this year and is now closed. Arrowhead Manor does not hold a hospitality license, so it must conduct business as a private venue.

As of July 2023, the CTO announced that in 2022, the state collected $27.7 billion in travel spending within the state from approximately 90 million tourists. This annual spending was a $5.6 billion increase, or 25% increase from revenue generated in 2021 ($22.1 billion), with an additional 5.8 million visitors more than those who visited in 2021. The press release included a variety of other facts and data regarding its growing tourism industry, which was shared from the Colorado Travel Impacts 2022 (Dean Runyan Associates) and Colorado Travel Year Report 2022 (Longwoods International). Neither of these reports mentioned cannabis.

The CTO is a division under the Governor’s Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT), that is managed by the Colorado Tourism Board, which includes 11 people appointed by both the governor and four Colorado legislators. As a government-run agency, cannabis-related hospitality opportunities and events might be tricky to advertise. Currently, public cannabis consumption is illegal, so tourists seeking legal cannabis-friendly tourism must do their own research to find private businesses that cater to that interest.

One of the people who was formerly on the CTO board of directors, cannabis dispensary owner Wanda James, stated that the CTO began allowing certain cannabis businesses to advertise on the Colorado tourism website after a state hospitality law (which was passed in 2019) took effect on Jan. 1, 2020. James added that progress on including cannabis on the website decreased after former director Cathy Ritter was let go by OEDIT.

Advertising a business on the Colorado tourism website is free, but interested business owners must apply on the website. “To get a free listing on Colorado.com, start by filling out the form below. Note: To appear on Colorado.com, listings must be tourism related and have a physical address in Colorado,” the application form states. Toward the bottom, it requires a short description of the business, “so that we can verify you are part of the tourism industry.”

Westword obtained a statement from CTO spokesperson Hayes Norris, who explained that The Cannabis Experience is very much a welcome part of the industry worth advertising. “The Cannabis Experience is a great example of that, as they offer a range of immersive cannabis tours and experiences,” said Norris.”…there have not been any formal changes to colorado.com business rules regarding licensed hospitality businesses and cannabis.”

While the CTO is not yet ready to begin the task of featuring more cannabis-themed venues and activities, organizations such as the Cannabis Travel Association International are more focused on putting the spotlight on cannabis-friendly destinations both in the U.S. and other international locations as well.

While Colorado was the first to implement recreational cannabis legalization back in 2014, many other states are building up their cannabis consumption laws and business as well. In New Jersey, cannabis consumption lounges were only recently approved by the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission (CRC) last month. “New Jersey’s cannabis industry is well on its way to being a billion-dollar industry, and consumption areas will likely bolster that—fostering a communal experience for those 21 and older around cannabis in a regulated and secure space,” said CRC executive director Jeff Brown.

In Nevada, the most batch of consumption lounge licenses was issued in November 2023, while a number of other license holders are eyeing 2024 for the year they hope they’ll satisfy all of the requirements to open. The Las Vegas, Nevada-based Planet 13 announced in November last year that it was eyeing an April 2024 opening, and in December 2023 it confirmed that the consumption lounge would also share a space with the Las Vegas SuperStore to Koolsville Tattoo Shop.

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The Denver Department of Excise & Licenses is continuing to serve warnings to event organizers who are hosting unlicensed cannabis-related activities. This past weekend on Aug. 19, the Stoner Cinema Pop-Up held an event featuring a cannabis-friendly movie experience featuring Grandma’s Boy (2006). The screening was held at Dreams Aren’t This Good, an event venue (which is also a salsa-making facility). These ticketed events offer free cannabis and novelty joints for attendees, which is paired with popular film screenings such as Half Baked or The Sandlot.

Stoner Cinema Pop-Up has been operating since 2022, and the events are ticketed and private, which organizers told Westword allows them to bypass city laws on social cannabis consumption, which requires a cannabis hospitality license.

The Denver Department of Excise & Licenses manages cannabis licensing, in addition to other licensing for residential rental properties, liquor, security services, alarm permits, and short-term rentals. According to the department, Stoner Cinema Pop-Up and other businesses like it are not allowed to operate events without a license.

Department Eric Escudero told Westword that neither Stoner Cinema Pop-Up or the Dreams Aren’t This Good venue have hospitality licenses, and that they’ve received a letter that’s “the equivalent of a warning letter” for holding unlicensed cannabis-related events. “It is a last resort for the city to take enforcement action,” Escuadero said.

While Denver’s cannabis hospitality rules were implemented in 2017, the city’s Department of Excise & Licenses has only approved one venue and three “mobile lounges” to be licensed and legal hospitality operators.

The licensed venue includes an upscale dining and consumption business, Cirrus Social Club, which is being built where a taekwondo studio once operated. “We’re going after a demographic of people who are not heavy cannabis consumers, but rather the out-and-about social person who’s older than 27,” said Cirrus co-owner, Arend Richard, told Westword. “If a date night for you is dinner and a movie, then it now becomes Cirrus and dinner. You come in, have a lovely sesh with us, and hear the jazz music in the background.”

Cirrus received approval from the Department of Excise & Licenses in March, but the business has not yet opened its doors. In order to open it must pass all inspections included in its operating plan, such as safety and ventilation, but it could take more than a year for those inspections to be conducted and approved. According to Westword, three more cannabis venues (Tetra Lounge, Patterson Inn Hotel, the headquarters of Colorado Cannabis Tours) are awaiting approval for a hospitality license, but are experiencing a pause in progress trying to meet city ventilation requirements.

The Coffee Joint is one exception. While it is the only operating cannabis lounge in Denver, it can only allow consumption of vaporizing and edibles on-site. Because temporary permits do not exist under the hospitality license regulations, this means that legally, Stoner Cinema Pop-Ups can only operate at The Coffee Joint, or one of the three mobile cannabis hospitality license holders. “There are three active licensed mobile hospitality establishment businesses that could potentially provide service to events if they provide the city the required route log and follow the rules as far as the 30-minute limit for parking and allowing consumption at one parking spot,” said Escudero.

In March 2022, Tetra Lounge was approved for a hospitality license, but won’t actually receive the license until all the criteria is met. The business originally opened in 2018 as a “private” cannabis venue, but the term has been the topic of discussion for years. The International Church of Cannabis took the city of Denver to court in 2019 in an attempt to redefine the term “private,” but no significant ruling was made.

In July, nine venues and event owners were targeted by both the Colorado Department of Excise & Licenses and Denver Police Department, who issued citations for permitting unlicensed cannabis consumption or organizing cannabis-friendly events. This included Ant Life, Marijuana Mansion, Rooted Heart Yoga Studio, Vape Loft, Clubhouse Collective, Meta Talent Group, Colorado NORML, and Psychedelic Club of Denver.

“Citations, fines and enforcement activity by the city and county of Denver are always a last resort after every effort has been made to educate businesses about licensing rules and regulations,” Escuadero said last month. “As part of that effort, the city has issued licensing bulletins detailing the rules for marijuana hospitality. This included information about if a marijuana business is conducting commerce, there is a requirement for licensing. We hope businesses that are operating marijuana hospitality without the city and/or state required license will take steps to get licensed.”

The Department of Excise & Licenses first sent out memos to cannabis business owners in January 2022 in regards to unlicensed consumption, however it didn’t begin to enforce this until this summer.

Meanwhile in Nevada, the state’s first conditional cannabis consumption licenses were awarded to Planet 13, Thrive Cannabis Marketplace, and The Venue at SoL Cannabis in June, followed by LA Loung LLC at the end of July.

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