In Canada, you can legally buy a joint but there are few places where you can smoke it. At first glance, the issue might seem like a low priority when in fact it’s actually anything but. Smoking weed indoors is a luxury for some and a necessity for others. Clean air bylaws, strata councils and landlords, medical rights and privacy, smoking a joint is no simple matter. Thankfully, there is a solution but unfortunately, it’s not a legal one. Cannabis smoking lounges exist in the gray market because they are essentially safe consumption sites. The alternative options are few and far between but you better know them, if you’re going to smoke weed.
Here’s a look at the benefits of cannabis smoking lounges. These are the arguments that keep these places from being shut down. At the end of this article, there is a quiz all about smoking weed and BC. Do you know where you can hit a bong without any hassle? Test yourself to know for certain…
Smoke that indoor outdoors?
If you’re lucky, you have the perfect situation and can smoke weed at home. If not, hopefully, you can smoke it outside or at least roll a joint somewhere out of the wind. For recreational users, this isn’t the biggest deal but for medical patients, it is.
Video courtesy of Ian Frizell
For example, people living with Parkinson’s disease experience muscle spasms and tremors. It’s hard to light a joint when your hands are shaking, let alone outside on a windy day. If you are a cannabis enthusiast, you understand the complexities all too well. Smoking weed inside is a completely different experience from being out in the open. If you’re lucky and have one in your city, you can drop into a cannabis smoking lounge.
Safe and social
Not just a safe space to consume cannabis, lounges provide a social atmosphere where like-minded people can mix and mingle. For medical cannabis patients, they can be a lifesaver; it’s a physically tolerable social environment because it’s possible to medicate when needed.
What happens when you get a bunch of stoners together in one room and let them get super baked? …incredible ideas and a really good time. Hosted by Craig Ex of Expert Joints, here’s a flashback to the Second Thompson Caribou & MMJ Canada Patients Over Profits Party.
Essentially a safe consumption site, cannabis lounges are ideal for people who:
- Do not wish to publicly smoke weed.
- Are concerned about attracting the wrong attention due to the smell from the smoke. This is especially important for seniors or those who are vulnerable and could not fend off a potential attacker. To a predator, a stoned senior smoking in a back alley is a very easy target.
- Need to consume but are unable to get home in time to do so. For example, if someone with epilepsy is sensing an approaching seizure, they need to take their medicine right away. Cannabis lounges provide a quick private stop but on top of that, they add an element of safety. If an epileptic patient were to medicate and still have a seizure, it’s better to have it happen in a lounge than in a back alley.
Do you know your smoking rights?
When it comes to lounges, do you know what I’m saying? Are you the type of person that is well aware of the benefits of cannabis lounges? How familiar are you with the ins and outs of smoking weed in public and the Clean Air Bylaws? Let’s play a little game and find out!
Test your knowledge with this cannabis consumption and smoking rights crossword puzzle… because it’s always a good idea to make sure you know your rights.
Want to know more about cannabis smoking lounges?
Click here to read a cannabis lounge pandemic update.