Longmont has a vacancy sign posted for cannabis hospitality businesses looking to open up shop. After a year of council discussions, there are four licenses available for these establishments, much like Denver’s new Cirrus Social Club that opened earlier this year.
There’s only one problem: Operating one of these businesses is still illegal.
At a June 3 meeting, council members voted against allowing public consumption of cannabis products at licensed businesses — an essential function for establishments like smoking lounges, weed-friendly comedy clubs and, due to an unclear definition of consumption, potentially even pot spas.
What seemed like a done deal after council approved the licensing structure earlier this year was stopped dead in its tracks, leaving a hazy future for cannabis hospitality businesses in the city.
“Public consumption is still prohibited” by city laws, said assistant city manager Sandra Seader. “It’s in a weird space.”
Failure to launch
In 2019, the state opened the door to marijuana hospitality licenses, authorizing onsite sale and consumption of cannabis for licensed businesses. It also made smoking cannabis inside a licensed operation exempt from the Colorado Clean Indoor Air Act, which bans smoking indoors statewide.
Since then, few cities have taken the necessary steps to allow these businesses to move in.
Denver approved cannabis hospitality licenses in 2022, allowing on-site consumption for businesses with a permit. The Mile High City became the model for Longmont’s own approach to implementation.
“We absolutely took information from Denver’s structure,” Seader said, “because they were the only ones that we knew had done anything like this.”
In order to make hospitality businesses a reality, Longmont has to change its city code to allow public consumption. For smoking lounges particularly, they also needed to create an exemption for cannabis smoke in the city’s own clean indoor air law.
“That’s the piece that needed to be amended, because apparently the state already allows for it,” Seader said.
Longmont drafted two separate pieces of legislation — the first creating the license and the second allowing for public consumption and exemption of cannabis for licensed businesses to the city’s indoor smoking law. Council had to pass both to allow for smoking lounges.
“There were so many other pieces of code cleanup that they decided to split that in two,” Seader said.
“The theory was, we should not go and make those changes, until we know if this is going to pass or not,” City Clerk Dawn Quintana added.
Council narrowly approved the licensing structure with a 4-3 vote at a January meeting, but the consumption piece of the legislation failed with a tied vote June 3.
Secondhand consequences
Council member Matthew Popkin has been skeptical of allowing cannabis hospitality establishments in the city since his appointment in January. In the first vote he cast on council, Popkin voted against the licensing ordinance along with Mayor Joan Peck and Council Member Diane Crist. On June 3, he pushed an amendment that would have kept indoor cannabis smoking illegal even if the larger bill to allow consumption passed.
“I’m not against consumption of marijuana,” he said in an interview with Boulder Weekly. “But I do think when we are thinking about extending where people can consume marijuana in various forms, we have to think about who else does this impact.”
During several council discussions, he’s raised concerns about the adverse health and safety impacts of secondhand cannabis smoke.
According to the Center for Disease Control, secondhand cannabis smoke contains some of the same carcinogens as tobacco smoke, as well as the drug’s high-inducing chemical THC, though the center notes that more research is still needed on the effects. While the city already allows indoor smoking for places like cigar lounges, this didn’t sway Popkin.
“Just because we currently allow something doesn’t mean we should allow more,” he said.
As the law currently stands, smoking lounges and other forms of consumption, such as edibles and THC-infused drinks, are strictly prohibited. But for entrepreneurs looking to open up cannabis spas that use THC-infused topical oils and ointments, the answer is still muddy.
“Public consumption is not particularly well defined when you’re talking about a particular treatment in a private session” using topical cannabis products, Seader said. “That one’s a little bit of a gray area.”
“There are certainly fewer concerns and unintended consequences with establishments that aren’t smoking on site,” Popkin said. “But I don’t think there are none, and I don’t think we have addressed some of the other potential risks there yet.”
“I’m not willing to come around on that yet, but I’m open to folks proving me wrong.”
A previous study showed topical application of THC infused products was undetectable in blood and urine tests, and that typical concentration levels are too low to cause any psychoactive effects.
As it stands, people can still apply for a marijuana hospitality license in Longmont, Seader said, though they have yet to approve any applications. The issue is not a working item for council at the moment, so the city could not provide a timeline for next steps.
“From our perspective, we just want to better understand where they want to go with this and make sure that we’re implementing a clear program either way,” Seader said.