SIN CITY: Nevada Set To Become First State To Allow Marijuana Lounges For Stoners To Get High • Now The End Begins – Re-Shared and administered by Aaron Halim

SIN CITY: Nevada Set To Become First State To Allow Marijuana Lounges For Stoners To Get High

The Nevada legislator who spearheaded much of the legalization
movement, state Sen. Tick Segerblom (D), has said he thinks marijuana
will attract new tourists to the state. “We’re going to really market
this thing around the world,” Segerblom told The Hill in a recent
interview. But legalization skeptics say the growing prevalence of
marijuana stores, and lounges where those products can be consumed,
increase the risk of crime associated with the nascent industry.

by Geoffrey Grider September 14, 2017

Nevada
could become the first state to allow users of recreational marijuana
to light up in clubs and lounges, a state legal body said this week,
opening a new front in what is already a booming pot business.

“Ye
are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not
of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.” 1 Thessalonians 5:5,6 (KJV)

EDITOR’S NOTE:
Watching the gradual rush towards legalizing pot has been for me a
subject of great amusement. Just like when the lottery first became
legal back in the 1970’s, and everyone was all excited about the new
source of public school funding which was going to “erase poverty” in
the worst of neighborhoods, the fight to legalize pot comes with similar
outlandish and completely not true claims. Will pot lounges “boost
tourism”? Yep, sure will. It will also boost the crime rate, boost the
poverty rate, and boost your car while they’re at it. The Bible commands
us to be sober, and you cannot be sober and high at the same time. 

The state Legislative Counsel Bureau said Monday
that state law does not prohibit city or county governments from
operating a lounge or facility in which patrons may use marijuana.

Cities
and counties are allowed to adopt their own rules governing those
businesses and decide whether they are required to obtain special
permits, the bureau said. The ruling means tourists and visitors may
soon have a place to consume marijuana in public. Pot smoking is banned
under state law in Nevada’s hotels and casinos.

None of the four
other states where marijuana is legal for recreational use — Washington,
Colorado, Alaska and Oregon — currently allow so-called pot lounges.
All four states restrict marijuana use to private residences. The three
other states where legislators and regulators are finalizing rules in
advance of legalized marijuana — California, Massachusetts and Maine —
are not currently considering legal pot lounges.

Legalization
advocates say pot lounges are a logical step, especially if states where
marijuana is allowed hope to connect their pot industry to tourism.

“Allowing
regulated social use areas is a good solution that recognizes cannabis
consumers’ rights to congregate just like alcohol drinkers can in bars
while also protecting nonconsumers’ rights not to inhale secondhand
smoke,” said Tom Angell, the founder of Marijuana Majority, a
pro-legalization group. “It should be a no brainer, especially in
tourist towns like Las Vegas where visitors don’t have private
residences they can go back to to imbibe.”

The Nevada legislator
who spearheaded much of the legalization movement, state Sen. Tick
Segerblom (D), has said he thinks marijuana will attract new tourists to
the state.

“We’re going to really market this thing around the world,” Segerblom told The Hill in a recent interview.

But legalization skeptics say the growing prevalence
of marijuana stores, and lounges where those products can be consumed,
increase the risk of crime associated with the nascent industry.

“The
people of Nevada wanted folks not to go to jail for using marijuana,”
said Kevin Sabet, who heads the anti-legalization group Smart Approaches
to Marijuana. “I don’t think they envisioned pot clubs in their
neighborhood.”

“Data show that areas around marijuana stores have
higher crime and issues with second-hand smoke and other nuisances. I
can’t imagine pot clubs will be a good thing for the state,” Sabet said.

Cities will still have to pass
their own ordinances governing marijuana lounges after the state
legislature killed a measure that would have legalized them earlier this
year. Gov. Brian Sandoval (R) told the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Tuesday he is no fan of the prospect of lounges.

“I did not support them previously,” Sandoval told the paper. “I don’t support them now.”

Sandoval
did not support the ballot measure legalizing marijuana last year, but
he has said he will work with the federal Justice Department to allow
legal marijuana now that it has passed. Sandoval and other governors of
states that have legalized pot have been concerned that the Trump
administration may reverse a long-standing Obama administration
agreement that deemphasized prosecutions of marijuana-related businesses
in their states.

“I don’t know what direction the Justice
Department is going to go, but it is going to raise some legal issues,”
Sandoval told The Hill in a recent interview. “I want a model system.”

Nevada became the fifth state to allow marijuana
use for recreational purposes on July 1, just eight months after state
voters approved a ballot measure. California, Maine and Massachusetts,
where voters also passed legalization measures, will begin legal pot
sales next year. source





SIN CITY: Nevada Set To Become First State To Allow Marijuana Lounges For Stoners To Get High • Now The End Begins – Re-Shared and administered by Aaron Halim