Las Vegas City Council voted 5-1 against a motion by Councilwoman Victoria Seaman on Wednesday. She wanted to stop businesses from applying for a cannabis lounge license from the state. Nevada will open the application window for licensing weed lounges for 10 days from Oct.14-27. So, get to it and get your application in. The decision by the council will allow businesses including dispensaries to apply for the state license while the city moves forward to create its own ordinance and regulations.
“It’s going to bring, you know, a whole new vibe and atmosphere, “said cannabis consumer Erik Baum. “As opposed to going to a bar, you don’t have to go out and drink, you can go out and smoke socially with your friends.”
Unincorporated Clark County and Las Vegas will be the only jurisdictions in Southern Nevada to host the lounges, which are akin to taverns, but with no alcohol sales allowed.
The businesses will allow marijuana customers to smoke the drug legally for the first time outside of private homes since voters legalized recreational use in 2016. This left out the 40 million or so yearly tourists without a place to legally smoke, having them to resort to doing so illegally in the street, parking garages or hotel rooms, officials have stressed.
But additional state licensing isn’t guaranteed.
Seaman noted before the vote that she had heard from her constituents, and that “they would rather not have them in the residential areas and have them more in the tourist areas, so, I’m not going to be supporting this.”