Not only do business owners in Washington and Colorado have to abide by strict state laws in relation to the new recreational legalization of marijuana, but another hurdle facing some business owners is how to benefit from the new weed industry but still follow state smoking bans.
Smoking marijuana in public is still barred in both states, which includes bars and restaurants, but it is legal to smoke marijuana in private social settings like Frankie’s Sports Bar and Grill in Olympia, Wash., or Denver’s Club 64.
Owner of Frankie’s Sports Bar and Grill, Frankie Schnarr, said that since he decided to allow members of its private smoking room to use tobacco or marijuana in December, he has seen his revenue nearly double.
A similar thing is happening at Club 64, where members pay a $30 annual fee for access to the club’s private smoking lounge and are alerted via email to club “meetings.”
Club 64 owner Robert Corry, an attorney, wants to open a bar where he can welcome members on a daily basis.
“A marijuana club is exactly what the voters wanted,” Corry said. “Colorado voters knew exactly what we were doing.”
Getting around the smoking ban
Washington has a statewide smoking ban that prohibits smoking where people work, meaning, even if a bar, cafe or restaurant is able to obtain a license, they may not be allowed to be a pot-friendly establishment.
Laws surrounding the new weed industry are still fuzzy, but that hasn’t stopped Stonegate, a private establishment in Washington, from opening up its business to marijuana consumers.
“I’ve been running a bar a few years now, and people would always go outside around the corner, into the shadows, to smoke up,” said Jeff Call, the Stonegate’s owner. “People shouldn’t have to hide. There’s no rules yet, but I’m trying to do this thoughtfully and responsibly.”
Access to Stonegate’s second-floor smoking lounge will cost marijuana consumers a nominal fee — $1 a day to $20 a year — to become a member of the private club. To evade the smoking ban, club members are not allowed to smoke weed, but can only ingest marijuana via “vaporizing,” which is a method that involves heating the marijuana without burning it.
People who don’t have a medical marijuana card have to bring their own marijuana and rent a vaporizer for $10 by the half hour or pay to have one prepared for them. For $5, those with a medical card are offered various preparations of “shatter” — a hardened oil comprised of powerful marijuana extract.
While it’s a political statement to allow customers to light up as much of a financial one, the public consumption of marijuana, even though it’s in these private clubs, has rekindled a debate about the health effects of marijuana specifically related to secondhand smoke.
Secondhand high?
As reported in Slate, researchers from the National Institute on Drug Abuse investigated the effects of “sidestream” marijuana — the smoke coming from the burning end of the joint — in 1986.
Participants were placed in an 8-by-7 room without ventilation and burned a series of joints, removing the mainstream smoke through tubing. When the subjects were exposed to the smoke of four joints over the course of one hour, the psychoactive ingredient tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) was detected in some of their urine tests, but the tests were more often negative. Similarly, the participants’ subjective assessment of “highness” was not significantly different from when they were exposed to placebo cigarettes.
“The take-home message from the study is that it’s possible, but difficult, to experience effects from sidestream pot smoke in normal social situations,” wrote Slate’s “chief explainer” Brian Palmer.
“The second phase of the protocol — burning 16 joints in a tiny room for an hour — is a scenario rarely experienced in ordinary life and certainly not comparable to being in a well-ventilated public place. Other studies in which participants have experienced legitimate contact highs have been equally extreme. In a Norwegian study, for example, volunteers were crammed in a car with six burning joints over a 30-minute period.”
While this 1986 study found that the secondhand effects of marijuana were much less than the secondhand effects seen from cigarettes, the study is outdated and there is very little research on this topic.
Research on marijuana and its effects is largely nonexistent since the federal government classifies marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug — along with heroin and crack cocaine. Any data released about marijuana by the government may be part of the political propaganda machine that says marijuana doesn’t have any medical benefits since most of the resistance to even medical marijuana comes from law enforcement and lawmakers, not medical professionals.
Last year the Daily Beast reported on a new study linking marijuana with increased lung capacity. The thought that marijuana could be beneficial wasn’t widely accepted, often because “for every report linking pot with pain reduction, you’ll find three more linking it with schizophrenia, suicidal tendencies and sinking sperm counts.”
One website dedicated to secondhand marijuana smoke effects shared concern that in addition to “contact highs,” some Americans are concerned the smoke could cause cancer or other illness.”
But as Mint Press learned from several legalization activists at a recent meeting for the Minnesota chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Legalization (NORML), marijuana has never directly resulted in any person’s death.
Is secondhand smoke the real health concern?
While Stonegate is still operating its private marijuana lounge as of now, a Tacoma city spokeswoman said that Tacoma’s code enforcement staff is reviewing Stonegate’s operation.
Justin Nordhorn, Washington state’s liquor board’s chief of enforcement, shared that he has concerns about bars like Stonegate allowing pot use. “Most importantly,” he said, “is that marijuana can compound alcohol’s intoxicating effects, meaning people might be even more dangerous when driving.”
Nordhorn was skeptical in whether or not a “private club” would keep bars out of trouble.
“A truly private club that serves alcohol — say, an Elks Lodge — would have to have a liquor license specific to private clubs, and members of the public couldn’t be allowed in.”
Luckily for Stonegate, there’s a loophole in the state board’s ability to block bars from allowing pot use, since because marijuana is only a civil infraction, law enforcement can’t hold bars accountable for allowing people to light up, even if police come in and write tickets to toking customers.
But as Nordhorn added, “that’s something the board could address as it makes rules for the new pot industry.”
Until then, Call’s second-floor lounge is open for tokers.
“People are just smiling and friendly and happy,” Call said. “I just really like the feeling you get when you’re up here.”