Cannabis legalization has already swept through much of the United States, but even in some of the most liberal legal weed states, it is still nearly impossible to find a place to actually consume the fully legal marijuana.
In Illinois, the second year of full-scale recreational legalization has tried to counteract that problem, licensing a handful of social, open-to-the-public cannabis consumption lounges across the state.
“It’s so new that people don’t think it’s real,” Cameron Dyehe, co-owner of Aroma’s Hookah Bar in the college town of DeKalb, Illinois told the Chicago Tribune. “They didn’t think anything like this could be possible, especially right across the street from the police station. When we tell them it’s OK, they’re blown away.”
Aroma’s is one of two cannabis consumption lounges currently operating in the Prairie State. The second, Luna Lounge in Sesser, Illinois, has already seen the kind of crowds cannabis can attract, reaching full capacity of 70 patrons during weekend events like concerts and comedy nights. On days without events, guests can rent bongs and pipes and consume cannabis freely with their friends – new and old.
“People are surprised it’s such a chill environment,” Chris Duke, a professional licensed cannabis cultivator for IESO, who works part time at the Luna Lounge, said. “Everybody’s having a good time laughing, having conversation. … People say, ‘Hey, what are you smoking?’ Everybody shares. People actually mingle and talk to other people.”
And while Luna Lounge owner Holly Roeder had expected that the lounge would attract a younger, stereotypical stoner crowd, her assessment was a few decades off. More than a month after opening, Roeder said that the typical lounge visitor is older than 40.
“We get 60- and 70-year-old dudes walking in with their tie-dye,” Roeder said. “I love that.”
So far, both of Illinois’ consumption lounges are bring your own bud only, with no cannabis or alcohol sales allowed at Luna Lounge or Aroma’s Hookah Bar. Just because it doesn’t exist though, doesn’t mean it is the law of the land, with Consume dispensary in Carbondale seeking City Council approval to become the state’s first in-dispensary consumption lounge. Unlike the state’s two existing lounges, Consume would require visitors to buy their weed on-site.
“The City Council is in full support of cannabis business,” Economic Development Director Steven Mitchell said. “Cannabis has been here since cannabis has been around. Southern Illinois University got a reputation in the 1960s and ‘70s as sort of a hippie town. Lots of folks came from the Chicago area and introduced a new culture to the region, and it has remained.”
Chicago itself, on the other hand, is still waiting for its first welcoming space for cannabis users. Mayor Lori Lightfoot has proposed a measure to allow consumption sites in the Second City, but that recommendation has been stalled in the city council with no sign of budging. So while you can now spark up with your friends at a weed bar in rural Illinois, city residents will still have to find a safe space in a building owned by a cannabis-friendly landlord.
Thanks to state-specific legalization laws that ban public consumption of cannabis and allow property owners to prohibit their tenants from consuming cannabis inside, most states do not have anywhere outside of owner-occupied housing where it is technically legal to smoke your legal bud. For marijuana users who live in publicly subsidized housing, those rules can turn something as benign as lighting up a joint in your living room into an immediate eviction notice.
But while that may seem like an obvious problem in the more than dozen states that have legalized weed for recreational use, few states are rushing to correct the issue on a wide scale. Most states have turned over decision-making on consumption lounges to individual municipalities, and much like those same on dispensaries, local city councils are often reluctant to invite cannabis businesses into their cities and towns, despite legalization.
In addition to the localization of consumption lounge licensing, bans on indoor smoking in general stemming from the tobacco backlash of the late 20th century have made it difficult for many states to implement smoking lounges at all.
As of now, New York is the only state in the country that allows adults to consume cannabis in public wherever they are allowed to smoke tobacco. But as Illinois, Nevada, California and more states move to allow consumption lounges in their cities, we are no doubt moving closer to a world with chains cannabis bars and mom and pop lounges opening across the US.
