Social Consumption

What do we talk about when we talk about social consumption?  It can mean many different things.  Often, people are imagining an Amsterdam-style cafe where patrons can order small amounts of cannabis, and consume the cannabis on the premises, perhaps with some coffee or food.  This is not a revolutionary idea – this is just a bar that serves weed instead of booze.  Despite the outward simplicity of the concept, social consumption has seemingly bedeviled regulators in the states that have legalized recreational cannabis.  This disparity between the relative ease of obtaining cannabis, but having few legal places to smoke it has been the subject of significant commentary over the past few years.

 The opening of social consumption venues is widely seen as the answer to many problems such as: Where can tourists smoke pot that they legally purchased?  Where can people consume cannabis together in a socially-positive way?  How can new consumers try different varieties or modes of consumption without having to buy a lot of stuff?  How can the social stigma around cannabis be reduced and consumption be normalized?

 In this blog series, we will be looking at different aspects of “social consumption” as it emerges differently in the various regulatory systems across the country.

 BYOC: Bring Your Own Cannabis

 While social consumption often refers to a venue where cannabis can be purchased and consumed on-site, there are very few such places operating legally at this time.  But that’s not stopping people from finding ways to consume socially without breaking the law.  Around the country, private social clubs and private event venues have sprung up to fill the social consumption void.  These venues do not sell cannabis to consumers, but they provide a space for people to gather and consume together.  

 Private Social Clubs

 The IRS permits tax exemption for social clubs under IRC 501(c)(7), if organized for pleasure, recreation, and other nonprofitable purposes.  This covers your fraternities, dinner clubs, alumni clubs, country clubs, sports and hobby clubs… and your friendly local cannabis club.  The club must provide opportunities for personal contact among members, have limited membership (as opposed to say, a bar open to the public), and the club must be supported primarily by membership dues.  We see clubs getting creative in the ways that membership is defined, and offering member day-passes, etc., which creates a wider diversity of membership and greater participation from the community.

Examples of private social clubs include The Summit Lounge in Worcester, MA and iBake Denver in Denver, CO.

 Private Event Spaces

 Other businesses choose not to follow the membership model and instead act as a venue to host private events.  Events in such spaces might not always be 420-friendly, and since they are private events a person cannot just show up be admitted without an invitation.  But the private nature of the events means that cannabis can be openly consumed.   Income is largely derived from the fee paid to rent out the venue.  Examples include Spectra Art Space in Denver, CO, and Oakland Cannabis Creative in Oakland, CA.

 Bud and Breakfast

 Another popular variation on the BYOC theme is the Bud and Breakfast.  Traditional looking B&Bs, hotels, Airbnb-style websites, cabins and campgrounds all provide spaces for smoking, offer happy hours with weed, not wine, and may offer amenities like tours of local dispensaries, cannabis education, glass for rent, and disposal of items that can’t be taken back to a non-legal state.  Examples include CanyonSide Campground in Colorado and Riverbar Pharms in Humboldt County, California.

Takeaway?

While regulators across the country struggle to reinvent the bar, and license selling and on-site consumption, businesses and citizens continue to find new ways to legally consume cannabis socially.