I got the idea for the smokers lounge from the parking lot out back, and in this state no one is allowed to smoke anything inside a location of business, or in a public area.
They are genuinely cracking down on cigarettes, but the laws apply to all kinds of smoking. When I take a smoke break from work, I have to go out back by the dumpsters for a cig. I noticed how several cars were parked in the lot, filled with people just sitting and smoking cannabis. I work in a medical cannabis dispensary, and realized that a lot of our customers had no place to get high. They would buy from us, and then just smoke cannabis in their cars because they had no location to go – so why don’t we deliver them a location to go? If the medical cannabis dispensary had a smokers lounge they could hang out there, and potentially spend even more money! It was a little rough at first, because I didn’t have a lot of extra money in the cannabis dispensary budget to pay for it. I brought in board games, and a few old video game consoles, so people would have something to do while they smoked medical cannabis or ate their edibles. A few mornings later I got a digital projector, so I could screen films on the wall of the lounge. Once there were a few activities, and locations for people to sit, the smokers lounge became a popular hangout spot for people coming to the medical cannabis dispensary.