Colorado’s Club Queries: Should Cannabis be Legal in Bars and Clubs?

It’s the worst kept secret in
the country that Colorado, and especially Denver, are doing fantastically well
and making incredible strides with legal cannabis. The economy is booming, jobs
are being generated, people are happy, things are good. So the next inevitable
step seems to be to give the people even more freedom—allow them to smoke in
areas where tobacco is allowed as well and the area is already 21 and up, or
allow them to vape and eat edibles in smoke-free areas that are adult-only. So
now the big question remains—will Denver make this happen, and if so, when?

According to The Huffington
Post, a recent survey showed that most Denver residents are in favor of
allowing smoking in public, as long as it is limited to places that only adults
frequent. Public Policy Polling found that 56 percent of people support
cannabis being legal to smoke in bars and clubs, and only 40 percent of people
oppose the measure. After all, the plant is already legal, smoking clubs
already exist outside the city, and it’s the general consensus that consenting
adults keep a cooler head while imbibing a lot of cannabis rather than a lot of
alcohol.

“Adults have
access to alcohol establishments, but cannabis consumers must have access to
private clubs for cannabis consumption,” KC Stark, owner of Studio A64 in
Colorado Springs, told Culture. “Cannabis
clubs would solve the obvious problem of where and how adults exercise their
U.S. and state Constitutional rights.”

“It would be ridiculous
to limit alcohol consumption only to people’s homes,” Mason Tvert, who
serves as communications director for the Marijuana Policy Project and favors
this initiative, told The Huffington Post. “So why must
marijuana use be limited in such a fashion? There’s no rational reason to treat
marijuana consumers so differently. For the same reasons many adults enjoy
having a drink in a social setting, many adults would enjoy using
cannabis.”

However, while
all signs point to yes as far as legalization in public goes, this new
initiative might not even make it to the November ballot, deeming the entire
debate a moot point. According to The Huffington Post, 5,000 signatures are needed from voters by August
for “limited social use” to ever see the light of day and actually appear as an
option for voters.

Additionally,
if this does happen, there are some issues that may come to light and cause
problems for the industry. “If cannabis is allowed in conjunction with alcohol this
could create a set of legal battles pitting the ATF against cannabis
entrepreneurs,” Stark told us. Since the cannabis industry has already butted
heads with Big Alcohol on a few occasions, it is wise to be cautious in this
area. Other issues will surely come up as well. Many events are eighteen and
up, which is too young to use cannabis, but those events usually serve alcohol
and simply mark those who are underage. It is hard to imagine how cannabis use
could be regulated in such a situation. There are also already plenty of issues
with even smoking tobacco in public and much debate on the issue, so the
argument against second hand smoke will surely come into play, and some
institutions may choose not to allow cannabis at all.

It is not
clear yet what will happen with this, although all signs certainly point to legal
cannabis in bars in the near future, if not on the next ballot. “Only time will
tell,” Stark states in relation to the ambiguous nature of this possible future
ruling. “Laws by default have both intended and unintended
consequences. Yet, the numbers don’t lie. Americans consume
cannabis. In 2014 over 148,000 lbs. of flower was sold in Colorado. Allowing
cannabis consumption in private clubs and social settings could spur another
industry with rapid growth potential. The problems lie in the
details. What law do we end up with? What conditions of use? Can one
share? Serve? Sell?” Only time will tell indeed, but it is clear that a
majority of Coloradoans think the future is brighter with public consumption in
it.