5 Problems Facing California’s New Cannabis Economy

3. Even When It Is, There’s Nowhere To Smoke It

Ninety minutes after they’d made history on Monday morning by purchasing the first prerolls at Berkeley Patients Group (Jack Herer, named after the late legendary legalization activists), legalization was still a half-intellectual, half-commercial exercise for Mikki Norris and Chris Conrad. They hadn’t smoked any because there was nowhere to do so. They were still on dispensary property, where consumption is not allowed—and walking onto the sidewalk would put them on public property, where consumption is also not allowed.

The question of where to allow cannabis users to congregate and consume seems like a simple one. Yet it has vexed policymakers in Colorado for nearly five years. Prop. 64 does allow for cities to license consumption lounges, yet most have not. They should—and in the meantime, users should take heed and remember that lighting up in public could earn them the attention of authorities and a citation.