Canada’s Largest Province May Allow Public Marijuana Lounges

As evidence of the shift in public perception of marijuana use, the province of Ontario has announced plans to legalize marijuana lounges when the country’s recreational marijuana legalization act is passed in July 2018.

Canada legalized medical marijuana in 2001 and is currently in the process of doing the same with recreational marijuana. Initially, the province of Ontario – Canada’s most populated area – planned to institute a categorical ban on public smoking marijuana which would have restricted consumption to homes.

However, the proposal harbored various shortcomings, including exposing children to secondhand smoke. Additionally, people living in buildings that ban smoking would have no place to smoke.

Trina Fraser, an Ottawa lawyer who specializes in marijuana trade laws, believes that such restrictive regulations would force people to smoke in undesirable places like their cars.

The proposed marijuana lounges would come shortly after legalization legislation, which is expected by July 2018.

Ontario’s regulations would have provisions for both public lounges and smoking spaces in apartment and some business buildings. Additionally, marijuana smokers would be allowed to smoke in cigarette smoking zones, and other forms of marijuana, including edible varieties, would be allowed in hotel rooms.