Entertainment hosts in Las Vegas are noticing a significant decrease in Gen Z (those born between 1997-2012) drinking alcohol. Paired with an overall increase in cannabis use by younger consumers, this shift could lead to great success for consumption lounges.

Las Vegas-based promoter of Pulsar Presents, Patrick Trout, has 20 years of experience promoting local music. Trout recently spoke with Las Vegas Weekly about the trend of Gen Z drinking less alcohol. “It’s something I’ve observed since the shutdown ended, but especially in the last year,” Trout said. “I’ve seen a dramatic increase in people not drinking at shows or drinking non-alcoholic stuff, but then simultaneously also wanting to smoke more. We are really seeing a generational, cultural shift.”

Trout’s observation is also reflected in a 2023 Billboard article, which cited a shift in alcohol consumption when businesses reopened after the pandemic. One Tucson, Arizona-based club manager noted that especially with shows that catered to Gen Z, alcohol sales dropped by 25%. Some researchers believe that this is partially because people pre-game, or start drinking alcohol prior to their arrival at a bar or entertainment venue, which is also a way to save money on a night out. Venue owners have attempted to switch their strategies to appeal to Gen Z attendees, such as expanding their non-alcohol options. In 2019, Global Market projected that the non-alcoholic industry could reach a value of $30 billion by next year.

Psychiatrist Akhil Anand, MD, told Cleveland Clinic that an increase in mental health awareness deters Gen Z from imbibing. “Alcohol is a depressant and never the answer to a bad day,” Anand said. “Gen Z seems to understand that concept and they’ve moved in a different direction.”

A New Frontier Data report from 2022 shows that 69% of people between 18-24 prefer cannabis over alcohol, while the same preference is seen with 70% of those 25-34, 68% of 35-44 year olds, 55% of people 45-54, 52% of 55-64, and 44% of those 65-74.

Christopher LaPorte, Vegas-based manager of Reset, a cannabis hospitality group, told Las Vegas Weekly that cannabis is becoming highly preferred over alcohol. “Everyone has the pot brownie story that was horrible. But everyone also has a lot more of ‘Oh my god, that one night with tequila,’” said LaPorte. “People are more educated now because we are out of the closet. More people know about cannabis. More cool people are very open about their cannabis-smoking habits.”

Nevada’s first consumption lounge, Smoke and Mirrors, which is owned by Thrive Cannabis, opened in late February. LaPorte helped design the consumption lounge, which made him think of listening cafes in Japan and New York, some of which only offer non-alcoholic drink menus. “There was this buzz, I would say three years ago, about this new culture of non-alcoholic spirits, and we saw that there were bars actually dedicated to that. It wasn’t just an Alcoholics Anonymous kind of center. We [thought] this might be something,” said LaPorte. “We saw a lot of products like Lyre’s and Seedlip … they were starting to percolate. And, again, it was like, how can we tie this into a cannabis lounge?’”

That thought culminated into Smoke and Mirrors’ non-alcoholic, THC-infused drinks, which LaPorte described as a way to “attract another market into the cannabis space.”

Las Vegas Weekly was given a tour of Planet 13’s new cannabis lounge, led by Frankie Anobile, who has had an extended career as a DJ and developing Vegas nightlife entertainment, but is now Planet 13’s entertainment director. While he explained that he doesn’t expect “bong service” to replace “bottle service,” he stated that offering both services is the best way to go.

Planet 13’s consumption lounge, Dazed!, opened on April 5, but the company is also planning on building a three-story, 60,000 square-foot nightclub that only serves alcohol sometime in 2025.

While Nevada state law prevents cannabis businesses from selling alcohol, and vice versa, Planet 13’s nightclub plan would allow club goers to walk next door to the club after the consumption lounge closes. “You can stay all night drinking for hours; you can’t stay all night smoking. It’s a totally different culture, from what they want musically to what their stay time is,” said Anobile. “A lot of these people don’t usually like to leave their house. They’re not the ones who want to spend an hour getting ready to go out there and be seen like they’re doing an Instagram post.”

Trout added that he’s excited to see how consumption lounges will alter the music scene. “One thing I’m really interested to see with the pot lounges that decide to utilize live music is seeing what the spread is, what genres they go after,” Trout said. “There’s some sub genres of metal like doom and stoner rock and desert rock where I think it would absolutely appeal to them to have a place like that where you can smoke and watch music.”

According to the Nevada Independent, there are 38 more cannabis consumption lounge license holders currently working on their businesses at various stages.

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The city-sanctioned version of the famous 4/20 Hippie Hill event in San Francisco has been canceled, but it’s not the end of 4/20 celebrations in San Francisco. SF Weed Week, will feature a variety of events beginning with an art opening featuring cannabis mylar art on April 5 and a schedule of events running April 13-21. Instead of just one day of celebration, the event spans an entire week of all things cannabis, featuring cultivators and breeders at cannabis lounges throughout the city and unique strain premiers, such as releases of Rainbow Belts, Blue Lobster, Pink Jesus, Chikitaz, The Butcher, Sherb Haze, and Peppermint Sleighride.

SF Weed Week creator David Downs is an award-winning cannabis journalist and author. Downs is the senior editor at Leafly and the former cannabis editor at the San Francisco Chronicle. According to the event website, Downs created SF Weed Week after thinking about what an event like SF Beer Week would be like if it was cannabis-themed instead. 

“Weed growers are rock stars, and strains are celebrities,” Downs said through a press release. “I want to give these strain releases the same rock star treatment that album releases get at Amoeba Records. And we’re going to. It’s going to be dope.”

While SF Beer Week features unique new beer varieties and flavors, SF Weed Week boasts strain releases in participating lounges, including Mission Cannabis Club, Meadow, SPARC, Moe Greens, Solful, The Vapor Room, and Flore. 

Ali Jamalian, owner of Sunset Connect, is a founding advisor of SF Weed Week who is proud to be a part of an event that puts the spotlight on San Francisco weed. 

“San Francisco’s cannabis culture has so much to offer,” Jamalian said in a statement. “It only makes sense to showcase the cannabis epicenter of the world in a week-long celebration spread across the city with an array of amazing events and activations. All for free of course.”

Especially in the wake of the cancellation of this year’s Hippie Hill event, fellow founding advisor Ben Grambergu, director at 7 Stars Holistic Healing Center, feels that SF Weed Week offers an alternative celebration that lifts up the community. 

“The organizers of Hippie Hill deserved a break, and SF Weed Week is here to extend the celebration across the entire city with the best cultivators in the world sharing their gift with the most dedicated enthusiasts in the world,” Grambergu said. “Look, the Bay Area has and always will be an epicenter of cannabis culture. SF Weed Week is proving to the doom loop haters that the scene is thriving. With a week full of incredible activations, world-class cannabis, and meet and greets with the rockstars who produced it; this event has something for everyone.”

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The New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission (CRC), which manages the rules and regulations of cannabis in the state, met on Jan. 17 and unanimously approved regulations for consumption lounges.

According to a CRC press release, the rules would need to be approved by the New Jersey Office of Administrative Law, but after that occurs, dispensary operators would need to seek municipal approval in order to be endorsed by the CRC to have a consumption lounge (endorsements last for one year and must be renewed every year).

CRC executive director Jeff Brown said in a statement that consumption lounges would contribute to the success of New Jersey’s cannabis industry. “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,” Brown said.

The primary rules state that a consumption area can’t be a standalone business, but that it must be attached to a retail store. If a dispensary owns multiple dispensaries, they are only permitted to have one consumption space.

Consumption lounges would be required to have ventilation that is “robust enough to ensure proper ventilation and prevent smoke or vapors from affecting neighbors.” On-site sale of food, alcohol, tobacco, and nicotine products are not allowed, but customers can bring in their own food or non-alcoholic beverages. In addition to this, medical cannabis patients would be allowed to bring their own medical cannabis or cannabis items, “so long as the on-premises consumption of that cannabis is authorized.”

A consumption lounge would cost $5,000 for the initial fees, followed by an annual fee (with microbusiness only paying $1,000).

The CRC stated that potential consumption lounges would be allowed to make their own rules about operation hours, consumption area fees, medical cannabis patient priority access, or initiating paid events. However, they would also have to adhere to rules established by their local municipality as well, “including but not limited to restricting the number of consumption areas allowed in their town, business signage, and communication with municipal emergency services.”

CRC chairperson Dianna Houenou also provided a statement, expressing the importance of allowing a safe place for people to consume. Having space to consume cannabis is not just about recreation. It is also about providing equitable access and offering people a safe place to consume legal cannabis products,” said Houeno. “This move holds particular significance for communities that are limited in where they can enjoy cannabis—most notably, renters who cannot consume cannabis at home, unlike homeowners who enjoy greater freedom.”

Houenou added that “a couple more steps need to happen” before the CRC officially begins to accept lounge applications.

The New Jersey Monitor spoke with Alyza Brevard-Rodriguez, owner of a two-story building that will open soon in Jersey City. The first floor will be her dispensary, called The Other Side Dispensary, and the second floor will be reserved for smoke-and-yoga events or comedy nights, ideally if/when she is endorsed by the CRC. “I think it’s really critical for us to create those safe spaces to consume,” said Brevard-Rodriguez. “But the other part of it is connecting with people … I think it’s really important for the culture of cannabis.”

Legal cannabis sales took effect in New Jersey in April 2022. The CRC’s proposal for consumption lounge regulations was approved in December 2022, which was followed by a 60-day public comment period.

Scott Rudder, New Jersey Cannabusiness Association president, also said that the topic of consumption lounges was among some of the first conversations he had with New Jersey legislators. “That’s how the conversation started, and there’s been an evolution to where we are today,” Rudder said. “Patients will have a nice place to consume their medication, but now consumers in general will have the opportunity to go and unwind, talk to friends, maybe have lunch or watch musicians. We’re going to start small and see how things go.”

Rudder’s expectation is that a few consumption owners will open, but many more will choose to wait and see how things play out before investing. “I think you’re going to see some consumption lounges open here and there, and people will wait and see what they’re doing,” Rudder added. “Are they making any money? Are they free of safety issues or are other concerns being realized? People are going to look at this smartly.”

Rudder, who owns a dispensary that has not yet opened in the city of Riverside, and Brevard-Rodriguez agree on one thing in particular—they want their businesses to turn a profit before embarking on consumption lounge expansions.

Nevada is one of the states that is farthest along in consumption lounge progress, with numerous licenses approved. Many of these lounges are still either building their lounges or fulfilling strict rules for proper ventilation or other important requirements. Planet 13 in Las Vegas, Nevada released a press release in November 2023 touting an April 20, 2024 release date.

While the state legislature legalized cannabis consumption lounges back in 2021, Clark County commissioner Tick Segerbloom told 8NewsNow that 2024 is going to be “the” year. “It really is going to be a big year. And a big part of our economy,” Segerbloom continued.

Nevada Cannabis Association executive director Layke Martin added that this is new territory for business owners, and they’re learning as they go. “Remember no one has really done these before. Certainly not here,” Martin said. “It’s ventilation, it’s security, it’s safe consumption and driving, it’s training. Those are the types of regulations that we’re talking about.”

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Nevada officials are continuing to approve more consumption lounge applications, with six more conditional licenses approved by the Nevada Cannabis Compliance Board (CCB) for various cannabis companies.

On Oct. 24, the CCB discussed approval for a variety of consumption lounge applications. The chosen businesses in this round include Curaleaf Holdings, Inc.; Green Thumb Industries, Inc.; Desert Evolution, LLC; Higher* Archy, LLC; NevadaPure, LLC; and TGIG, LLC.

Curaleaf Holdings, one of the biggest cannabis companies in the world, received one of the licenses for its subsidiary, Tryke Companies, which controls Reef Dispensaries. Curaleaf acquired Tryke in October 2022.

Green Thumb Industries is also a large multi-state operator in the cannabis industry, which received a license for its subsidiary, Integral Associates. The company plans to open up a lounge on The Strip.

In June 2022, the CCB announced their decision to approve new regulations for consumption lounge regulation, to “lay groundwork for greater inclusion within Nevada’s cannabis industry.” At the time, they stated that they would eventually issue up to 65 licenses (up to 45 would be connected to existing dispensaries, while the rest would be awarded to independent consumption lounges). In October 2022, the CCB announced that there were 20 prospective consumption lounge applicants in the running for a license. Once approved, licensees have one year to get all of the necessary adjustments and regulatory requirements taken care of in order to open.

In June 2023, the CCB initially approved the first three conditional licenses to Planet 13 Holdings, The Venue at Sol Cannabis, and Cheyenne Medical Sammy Davis dba [doing business as] Thrive Cannabis Marketplace. In July, LA Lounge LLC was awarded another license as the first consumption lounge not tied to a dispensary. By August, three more were approved, including Deep Roots Harvest, Global Harmony, and KV Group.

That brings the current number of approved conditional licenses to 15.

Thrive Cannabis Marketplace CEO Mitch Britten said in September that they’re excited to begin working on their storefront location on The Strip. “We are thrilled to be among the first in the state to do so,” said Britten. “This is a huge milestone for us, and we can’t wait to finish this incredible new offering in the Vegas valley.”

On Nov. 1, Planet 13 Holdings published a press release detailing the progress and concepts for its consumption lounge, called DAZED!. Decorated with “bong chandeliers” and VIP booths for exclusive cannabis-infused cocktails, the venue will have 3,000 square feet of space used to sell food, allow consumption, and feature entertainment. “We’re thrilled to share our exciting plans for our trailblazing cannabis consumption lounge. From day one, our goal has been to out-Vegas-Vegas, and this is another big step in that direction. It’s an extraordinary space for cannabis novices, connoisseurs, tourists and locals to enjoy cannabis while experiencing world-class entertainment,” said Planet 13 Co-CEO, Larry Scheffler. “One of the main goals for this year was to increase the utilization of the SuperStore to drive more traffic, and revenue while improving cost structure and operating margins. We are executing on that goal while continuing to define Planet 13 as a differentiated retail brand with national recognition.” Unsurprisingly, the venue is setting its sights on opening by April 20, 2024.

A few other cannabis consumption lounge licensees intended to begin operation by this summer, but experienced multiple delays.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority stated that 38.8 million people visited Las Vegas alone in 2022, and legal consumption lounges are poised to become a big attractor for many tourists. Other facets of the Nevada cannabis industry are also growing, including the entrance of musician Future and his cannabis line, Evol by Future, which is created in partnership with Redwood Cultivation.

In other states, consumption lounges are not progressing at the same pace as Nevada. Michigan is home to a few consumption lounges, including Kalkusha (located in the city of Kalkaska), Hot Box Social (located in Hazel Park), and Rolling Embers.

In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom recently vetoed Assembly Bill 374 which would have allowed cannabis cafes similar to the way that they have previously operated in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The bill was initially introduced by Assemblymember Matt Haney earlier in 2023, and would have permitted lounges to sell non-infused, pre-packaged food and drinks to customers. “Lots of people want to enjoy legal cannabis in the company of others. And many people want to do that while sipping coffee, eating a scone, or listening to music,” Haney said in February 2023. “There’s absolutely no good reason from an economic, health, or safety standpoint that the state should make that illegal. If an authorized cannabis retail store wants to also sell a cup of coffee and a sandwich, we should allow cities to make that possible and stop holding back these small businesses.”

After vetoing the bill, Newsome explained that the bill conflicted with current California law to provide a smoke-free workplace to any employees in the state. “Protecting the health and safety of workers is paramount. I encourage the author to address this concern in subsequent legislation,” Newsom said. “For this reason, I cannot sign this bill.”

Haney posted a response on X. “The voters of California have already decided to legalize the smoking of cannabis in public dispensaries. AB 374 just allows businesses where smoking is already happening to sell coffee and food and hold live shows,” Haney wrote. “I appreciate and respect the Governor’s concerns about worker’s health. And I’m looking forward to working closely with his office and with labor leaders to make sure we get this right when I introduce the bill again next year.”

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More than any big city in America, San Francisco has always been on the cutting edge of cannabis consumption––from the beats and poets smoking “mezz” while inhabiting the 1950s North Beach “beat scene” to the openly stoned hippies of 1960s Haight-Ashbury. Cannabis consumption in the “City by the Bay” continued with the groundbreaking use of medical marijuana in the Castro District to treat those affected by HIV and AIDS, leading to America’s first dispensaries. San Francisco has likewise been the vanguard for providing consumption lounges to dispensary customers, offering a place for pot patients and weed aficionados to consume in a relaxing, safe environment.

Big Top Pot

Marijuana was always a big part of gay culture in San Francisco, but it was purely for pleasure in those hedonistic, liberating days of the 1970s. That is, until the very first cases of AIDS were reported in the city in 1980. By the mid-’80s AIDS had developed into a genuine crisis in the SF gay community, with thousands of men being infected with HIV (the virus that leads to AIDS), and developing “wasting syndrome,” also called cachexia, characterized by an involuntary loss of body weight, with prolonged diarrhea, weakness, and fever.

But hope arrived with Dennis Peron, who began dealing weed out of his apartment in the Castro, dubbed the “Big Top Pot Supermarket.” In the mid-’80s, Peron’s partner, Jonathan West, was diagnosed as HIV-positive, and cannabis helped West deal with the symptoms. Weed’s appetite stimulating phenomenon was an obvious fit to combat AIDS wasting syndrome. People with AIDS want to avoid or delay the loss of appetite from wasting syndrome because it’s a calling card that the body’s shutting down.

West passed away from AIDS in 1990, and buoyed by San Francisco’s 1991 pro-medical cannabis initiative Proposition P, Peron opened the first public medical marijuana dispensary in America, the Cannabis Buyers Club (CBC) on Church Street in the Castro in 1994. Peron later moved the club to a more high-profile Market Street location in downtown San Francisco, where it was raided and became the subject of headlines and controversies throughout the mid-’90s.

Peron co-authored California’s Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act of 1996. In August 1996 then-California attorney Dan Lungren authorized a raid on the CBC pot club and lounge in a move that some maintained was politically motivated. Lungren’s cynical ploy failed to dissuade voters, as Prop. 215 passed with 56% of the vote on Nov. 5, 1996, making California the first state to formally legalize any form of cannabis.

In October 2003 California Senate Bill 420 was passed, along with San Francisco’s Article 33: Medical Cannabis Act, establishing guidelines for regulating medical cannabis dispensaries.

David Goldman, president of the Brownie Mary Democratic Club of San Francisco, along with his husband, Kenneth Michael Koehn, secretary of the Brownie Mary Democratic Club, remember the revolutionary times at the CBC.

“In 1994 Michael and I started going to the Cannabis Buyers Club, located at 194 Church Street in San Francisco, which was a very pleasant experience,” Goldman said. “I know that Dennis [Peron] always wanted to have a safe consumption space for people, where they could socialize. And so the need to have a safe space for consumption was apparent to Dennis, and that motivated him to start at 194 Church Street.”

Goldman explained that about a year later the club was moved to 1444 Market Street within “a building that had four floors, which was a big step up in terms of use of space and the number of people it could accommodate.”

“We started going to that Market Street CBC lounge location every Friday after work,” he said. “They had two different floors for the cannabis; one floor had some of the higher quality cannabis they’d call either ‘A-plus’ or ‘A-double plus’—they didn’t give them strain names back then. And patients could hang out there, and they offered snacks, and people would sing and play music. It was a very relaxed, chill environment; a wonderful way to spend our Fridays after work.”

Koehn added a sobering perspective reflecting on those uncertain years.

“There was also an element of fear in the dispensary lounges during that time,” Koehn said. “The fear of getting busted, that the AG [former Attorney General Dan Lungren] would raid the dispensary. We weren’t personally there when it was raided in 1996, but every time you went there, there was this fear hanging over your head, that this could be the day that trouble starts.”

Ultimately, Goldman associates positive memories with Peron’s club.

“There was a sense of community at the CBC because during that era of HIV, the gay community and the cannabis community highly intersected and we were able to contact and connect with one another,” he said.

Continuing the Tradition

The 2003 SB-420 legislation paved the way for benevolent bud entrepreneurs like Martin Olive to open up his pioneering medical pot dispensary known as Vapor Room, which still exists to this day.

“We opened in late 2003 in the SF neighborhood known as Lower Haight,” Olive said. “I worked at another dispensary prior to this and it was like a lot of dispensaries back then, most of the lounges were just folding tables and plastic chairs, and not very comfortable for people.”

Olive said he outfitted the Vapor Room with 1970s furniture; big, plush couches, gaudy pyrex ashtrays, and wood paneling.

“We made it like your cool uncle’s stoner basement apartment. And it was a hit! It really was the first of its kind in San Francisco, along with the CHAMP dispensary, they had a beautiful lounge.”

CHAMP opened at the Market Street location after the CBC departed in 1998 and closed in 2002. In opening the Vapor Room, Olive sought out to build community through cannabis.

“We had a couple tables set up, so it was about 1,500 square feet, not super-big but big enough,” he said. “And [the lounge] really created a communal aspect; medicinal cannabis was this great unifier of all different types of people.”

Even after Vapor Room was forced into a change of location, Olive adapted and made the lounge experience even better.

“Due to some city regulations, we had to move in the building next door around 2006-07,” Olive said. “We took that opportunity to up our game a little bit, so we created a French cafe/apothecary atmosphere; marble tables, nice wooden chairs, with really nice subdued color pallets. It was a little bit more sophisticated than the typical lounge. We had Volcanoes on every table, bongs available, fresh water, hot tea, things like that. So we were giving people more than just a place to access medical cannabis, we were giving them a safe, clean comfortable space in a community setting.”

Even though medical marijuana continued making great strides in San Francisco, this was not acceptable to the federal government.

“In 2012, we got caught up in the Department of Justice crackdown on dispensaries throughout the state of California, and we were evicted without much compassion,” he said. “Leaving Lower Haight was a deep loss for the community, not only for the patients, but for the local businesses that were being supported by the 300 to 400 people we brought into our dispensary on a daily basis. That’s why I think dispensary lounges are so important, they really do support the neighborhoods they’re in.”

Over half of a decade passed until Olive resurrected Vapor Room.

“When we finally reopened in 2018, we found a location in a downtown ‘corporate corridor’ where Twitter, Uber, and Dolby are. So we definitely miss the residential community small business aspect of Lower Haight, but this is what was available. It’s about 700-800 square feet and we are making it work, with a couple of benches for people to smoke at. We do have a beautiful location; it’s nice, clean, and crisp with a big window, and a lot of sunlight and plants.”

But the fact that the club is located within a business district means people generally aren’t hanging out all day.

“It’s more like people on their lunch breaks or in for a meeting,” Olive said. “They’ll come in to buy a joint, take a few puffs and be on their way. Usually we’ll have anywhere from five to 15 people hanging out and chatting. And it is a really good communal atmosphere because you’re basically sitting right next to another person consuming cannabis, regardless if they’re a stranger or not, so you’re buddied up by default.”

The Continued Transformation of Social Consumption

Goldman and Koehn have seen the dispensary lounge landscape morph over the years.

“After CBC closed we didn’t go to dispensary lounges till at least 2006, when I became a medical cannabis patient because I was already using it medicinally and I wanted access to the highest quality cannabis,” Goldman said. “We began to see each lounge had a different vibe. Lounge 847 above the Green Door, on Howard street in SoMa [South of Market district], was our favorite lounge and easy to get to.

“Lounge 847 opened in 2012 and Michael and I held meetings there for Americans for Safe Access and the Brownie Mary Democratic Club. We had a lot of politicians visit there and they were impressed that we had such a great space to hold meetings.”

The Green Door is currently closed but may be reopened pending a multi-million dollar renovation.

“I’m glad we have a diversity of lounges in the city, but most of the new dispensaries don’t get a lot of business, so the lounges are going to waste in that they aren’t being used, which is a shame.”

One Commonality

For Olive one top aspect a cannabis lounge should provide is a comfortable and safe atmosphere for all.

“There’s no room in this concept for any kind of bigotry or racism or classism,” he said. “You can have your fancy Apple store style dispensary and lounge, but if you’re not making the regular guy and girl on the street and low-income people feel comfortable and safe and valid for being there, then you’re doing something wrong. A lounge should contribute to the culture of the cannabis community where people are meeting one another. The one commonality they all have is their love for cannabis, that’s the key element.”

In terms of what’s next Olive wants to go back to the future.

“Remember what the lounge is for amidst all the spreadsheets and profit margins; to provide high quality weed for people who use it for a variety or reliefs, be it symptoms issues, or for just feeling better about their day,” he said.

This article was originally published in the June 2023 issue of High Times Magazine.

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Cannabis advocates and business owners in Las Vegas are calling on city leaders to ease distance requirements between weed businesses, saying the move would foster the development of a cannabis district similar to Amsterdam. At a meeting of the Las Vegas City Council on Wednesday, entrepreneurs also called for a reduction in the fees for cannabis business licenses, arguing that the high costs are an unreasonable “roadblock” to starting a new enterprise.

The city council was considering a proposed ordinance to regulate cannabis consumption lounges, which are businesses that offer cannabis for patrons to purchase and consume on the premises. In September, the council cleared the way for cannabis lounges to open in Las Vegas with a 5-1 vote against a motion that would have prevented the businesses from opening in the city.

At Wednesday’s meeting, several cannabis industry advocates and business leaders addressed the council, telling members that regulations that require licensed cannabis businesses to be located at least 1,000 feet away from each other make it difficult for entrepreneurs to secure a compliant property.

“It is absolutely unreasonable to make somebody walk more than three football fields to the next bar, restaurant, shops or casinos,” Tina Ulman, president and founder of the Chamber of Cannabis, said at the city council meeting on Wednesday. “Why would we ever want them to do that for consumption venues?”

Five licensed cannabis dispensaries in Las Vegas have plans to open cannabis consumption lounges as part of their businesses. Another 10 businesses are expected to operate consumption lounges independent of a dispensary, including seven social equity applicants who were negatively impacted by marijuana prohibition prior to the legalization of cannabis in Nevada in 2016.

The proposed ordinance allows the city to waive the distance requirement between consumption lounges, although not in some parts of the city including the Symphony Park District, the Las Vegas Medical District or the casino-resort district.

Dani Baranowski, vice president of the industry group Chamber of Cannabis, said that the distance requirement forces applicants to “find expensive, out of the way, and non-profitable locations that will be hard pressed to get business.”

Business leaders told the city council that if the distance requirements are eliminated or relaxed, the downtown Arts District could become a “New Amsterdam,” serving as a destination for cannabis tourism that could draw visitors from around the world. They also noted that allowing consumption lounges and other cannabis businesses to locate closer together would encourage walking and eliminate the temptation to drive while high, benefitting public safety.

“The proposed measures have established unnecessary and harmful distance restrictions between lounges and excessively high licensing fees compared to other businesses,” said Chandler Cooks, who has been awarded a provisional social equity consumption lounge license.

Business Leaders Call For Lower Licensing Fees in Las Vegas

Other business owners agreed with Cooks and called for a reduction in license fees for cannabis consumption lounges. The proposed ordinance includes a one-time business license fee of $10,000, with social equity applicants paying a reduced fee of $2,500. Lounges will also be required to pay additional semiannual license fees based on their earnings.

“Adding these high fees will only add to the insane amount of capital they have to raise” to start their businesses, said Ulman.

Baranowski said that the high licensing fees could put up “further roadblocks” to success and discourage applicants who are having trouble raising the capital needed to get their businesses up and running. Paul Murad, president of Metroplex Group, a real estate company that owns businesses in the Arts District, said that he is looking forward to working with the city council on a number of issues relevant to cannabis businesses, including reducing the costs of business licenses.

“We’re asking for the licensing fees and ongoing license fees to be significantly reduced,” said Murad. “So they’re on par with other businesses … They need to be at the same level, not excessive just because they happen to be cannabis.”

After hearing from the business leaders, the city council postponed a vote on the proposed cannabis consumption lounge ordinance and rescheduled the agenda item for its meeting on March 1. Business leaders said they hoped to use the next two weeks to work with the city council to draft an ordinance that Murad said could set up Las Vegas as “a role model for other municipalities to follow.”

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