Pot Bars Could Come To A Block Near You, But Probably Not Soon

Now that voters in Massachusetts have chosen to legalize the recreational use of marijuana, one of the the next big debates will be over where people can smoke it outside of their homes. In Colorado, the drug has been legal for a few years, and the debate there over public use provides a window into Massachusetts' likely future. 

A South African tourist named Gill showed up at the Groundswell Cannabis Boutique in Denver, clutching his skateboard under his arm. Once he made his purchase, he said, he wasn't entirely sure where he’d smoke it.

“I wasn’t aware until you just told me that there’s no public use allowed,” he said.

And that’s a problem. Brian Vicente is an attorney, and one the authors of Colorado’s legalization law, which voters approved in 2012.

“That’s become an issue several years into legalization, because a lot of tourists come to Colorado, and they’re interested in buying these products and seeing what they’re about, but they often can’t smoke marijuana at a hotel room; they can’t smoke, of course, in their rental car," Vicente said. "So sometimes they’ll be smoking at a public park or something and the police will cite them.”

So far this year, Denver has had more than 500 citations for using marijuana in public and about 180 in public parks.

Vicente said to stop that, you have to give people a place to go. And that’s why back when he wrote the state’s legalization law, he included a way for people to vote on whether they want their city or town to license certain business to let customers use pot.

“It could be something like you have a cinema that just one night a month is allowed to have marijuana consumption there," he said. "Or it could be a coffee shop where people bring in their own marijuana and consume there.”

Laws about smoking would still apply. So if your preferred method is a joint, you’d have to do it at an approved roof deck or patio, or something like that. Vicente said it’s not just about tourists. It’s a social thing.

“Same way you have bars," Vicente said. "People want to be around other people that are consuming the same substance, and have enjoyable experience.”

Some worry about the potential side effects of that experience. Colorado’s top public health official said if it’s more out in the open, pot use could become normalized, especially when young people can see it. And law enforcement officials aren’t happy with the idea.

 “Bars don’t make our streets safer. Neither would smoking marijuana places,” said Jim Gerhardt, a police sergeant and the vice president of the Colorado Drug Investigators Association.

If people are using marijuana out at cafes, Gerhardt worries they’re likely to drive home. And there’s no good road test for marijuana impairment. Gerhardt said this was not part of the discussion when the drug was legalized.

“It’s going to be another broken promise that this movement made to the people of Colorado, saying this was going to be a tightly controlled, very limited thing, which now expands more and more and more,” he said.

You might think restaurants would see weed as another way to draw customers and sell food – because, you know, the munchies. But Sonia Riggs of the Colorado Restaurant Association worries when just some restaurants allow it, customers could get confused.

“So they’re coming in a coffee shop and they think, ‘oh, I’m allowed to have edibles here, I’m allowed to bring my own marijuana in and smoke it,'" she said. "But then they go to a restaurant down the street, and that causes that much more confusion.”

Riggs was also worried about the liability of mixing alcohol and marijuana, but after Denver voted in favor of allowing “social use" venues, the state came out with a new rule saying it couldn’t be allowed in places with liquor licenses.

There’s one key difference between Colorado and Massachusetts when it comes to licensing places for pot use. The Colorado law says you can’t use marijuana in places that sell the drug. Not true here.

“We have a provision that we do allow an on-site consumption facility where you could purchase it and consume it,” said Jim Borghesani, who's with the campaign that supported legalization in Massachusetts. “But it would take the vote of a town in order to approve one of these facilities.”

So someday, we could basically see marijuana cafes or bars here in Massachusetts – where you buy it and smoke it, all right there. Borghesani acknowledged driving under the influence could be a problem.  "[But] I mean, we think that, you know, we think most adults will approach this responsibly,” he said.

Possession of an ounce of marijuana becomes legal this week, and people are free to start growing their own. But recreational dispensaries aren’t likely to open up until 2018 at the earliest.

“I think it’s going to be quite a while until people are comfortable with marijuana legality at all," Borghesani said. "And to have an on-site consumption facility is going to probably take a little bit longer than that.”

So as you sidle up to the bar, keep in mind it’s going to be a while before you can order by the ounce, instead of by the pint.