Nevada lawmakers get taste of San Francisco's marijuana consumption lounges

[TexasTowelie]

Catching a whiff of marijuana is nothing unusual in San Francisco.

But on Monday, a cadre of Nevada legislators was wide-eyed as they watched people pay to smoke openly in the counterculture capital of the world. A handful of highly regulated lounges there are the first places in the country where public marijuana consumption is explicitly legal, and it’s a concept they hope to emulate in Nevada.

“More than ever, I just really want to get this thing going,” said Democratic state Sen. and Clark County Commissioner-elect Tick Segerblom, who helped spearhead the fact-finding trip. “When it comes to Vegas, our experience is going to be, from my perspective, so much grander than what they’re talking about, that we need to just get it out there and learn.”

Nevada voters legalized recreational marijuana sales in 2016, but the initiative bans public consumption, meaning a private home is essentially the only place people can legally use the products they buy. It’s an even bigger conundrum for tourists — hotels with gambling on the premises have given cannabis a clear cold shoulder, in part because of concerns raised by state gaming regulators.

Read more: https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/nevada-lawmakers-get-taste-of-san-franciscos-marijuana-consumption-lounges

[customerserviceguy]

1. Once it gets started

it will spread. I've seen legalization in Washington State lead to legalization in Oregon (probably 90% of Oregon's population lives within an hour of the Washington border) and then on to California.

When Michigan gets pot shops up and running, look for Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to be not far behind. You can't let your residents spend that much tax money across the state line and not want to keep it within your borders.