Vancouver Pushes for Pot Lounges to Get Around Smoking Ban

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Friday, October 03, 2014

Shelby Sebens, GoLocalPDX Reporter

Vancouver weed businesses are pushing for pot lounges where tourists from out of state and abroad can smoke, a move that requires getting around the state's smoking ban. 

Washington's struggle for pot lounges could be a prelude to problems in Oregon if voters approve a measure to legalize weed but don't change smoking laws. 

Vancouver businesses are trying to break through Washington’s strict smoke-free law to open a lounge where people can smoke weed.

Vancouver Mayor Tim Leavitt said the pot lounges are an opportunity for growth in Vancouver tourism. 

“It doesn’t surprise me that there is a demand for a location to be able to enjoy recreational marijuana given that our state and local laws don’t allow public use,” Leavitt said. “I see it as a business opportunity that the laws that govern our states, if they don’t already, ought to be considerate of.” 

Pot shop workers have seen IDs from all 50 states and passports from many different countries, said Ramsey Hamide, general manager of Main Street Marijuana, adding, “We also get a huge amount of requests about where the customers can go to smoke it.”

Washington and Colorado in 2012 became the first states to legalize recreational marijuana and Oregonians will consider doing the same via a measure on the November ballot. Legal pot has spurred a new tourism market, prompting everything from pot-friendly hotels in Colorado to marijuana tours, such as the Cannabus in Seattle.  

No Smoking

Hamide said Main Street Marijuana is trying to get approval from the city and the state to open a private pot lounge that would be for paying members only.   

But Washington’s "Smoking in Public Places" law bans smoking of any type in public places and places of employment, regardless of the content of what’s being smoked.

"There are no exceptions in the law,” said Paul Davis, manager of tobacco-prevention control and marijuana education for the Washington State Department of Health. 

The law prohibits smoking in private places as well if there are any employees. 

“The challenge would be if you had a private establishment, it couldn’t have any employees,” Davis said. 

Hamide said the details of what Main Street Marijuana’s lounge would be are still being worked out. 

Smoking in Oregon

Weed businesses in Oregon would likely face the same hurdles if pot is legalized come November. 

Oregon’s law is similar to Washington's in that it prohibits smoking in public places and private businesses that have employees. But Oregon's law is explicitly about tobacco, said Jonathan Modie, Oregon Public Health Division spokesman.

The state’s medical marijuana law, however, prohibits smoking in public places, he added. 

Oregon’s law also has exemptions for hookah and cigar smoking. Other than that, the laws are similar in that they prohibit smoking in public places and at private businesses with employees. 

Under Measure 91, which would legalize recreational marijuana for adults 21 and older, smoking in public is not allowed, chief petitioner Anthony Johnson said. 

The measure also does not seek any exemptions or changes to the state’s smoke-free law. 

Tough to Change

For pot lounges to really take off in Washington, legislators would likely have to take action on the smoking ban. 

“Any law can be changed,” Davis said. 

But anti-tobacco lobbyists have fiercely fought back attempts to add exemptions to the law, which was approved by voters in 2005. 

“It seems politically unlikely that the law is going to be weakened anytime soon,” Davis said. “Even though this was written before marijuana was legal, pretty much everybody seems to be in agreement this is to protect people from smoke regardless of what you’re smoking.” 

Anti-tobacco lobbying groups would likely be against marijuana smoking in public places. 

The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network opposes smoking weed in public places, said ACS CAN spokeswoman Stephanie Winn-McCorkle. 

The Vancouver pot lounge would be a private club where members would pay a yearly subscription and be allowed to enter as many times as they want, Hamide said. 

In states where medical marijuana is legal, similar clubs have popped up, teetering on the verge of legality. The shops are usually comfortable lounges where smokers can take a puff or grab some munchies. The Lazy Lion in Colorado, for example, boasts arcade games, flat screen TVs and "no waiting on butane torches." 

Weed entrepreneurs are trying to capitalize on the growing pot industry. Business owners in states where pot is legal for recreational or medical purposes have tiptoed around smoking bans by opening vapor lounges and clubs where members can get high without the smoke. 

Some Colorado hotels are marketing as "420 friendly." 

Hamide said exactly what the lounge would look like is still being worked out. 

“We’re still in the real early stages," he said. 

Leavitt said he has been approached by a few businesspeople about opening pot lounges, but that no formal applications have been made yet.  

“To the extent that the state and the city can help I think we have an obligation to do so,” he said. “I‘d certainly rather have folks being legal in their use of marijuana than otherwise.

"If there is an opportunity for us to assist in helping folks remain legal," he said, "I would be in interested in helping pursue that opportunity.” 

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