Maryland governor approves marijuana consumption lounges but with no smoking

Maryland regulators will license up to 15 marijuana consumption lounges under legislation signed into law by Gov. Wes Moore – but under some of the strictest rules in the country.

Consumption lounge permits are reserved for social equity applicants, and no smoking of marijuana is allowed.

Moore signed Senate Bill 215 along with 139 other measures on Tuesday, the Baltimore Sun reported.

SB 215 makes other tweaks to state marijuana law, such as:

• Limiting the THC allowed in a “cannabinoid beverage” to 5 milligrams and stipulating beverages can be produced only by marijuana licensees.
• Allowing a cannabis business license’s ownership to be transferred to its employees as part of an employee stock-ownership plan.
• Allowing the Maryland Cannabis Administration to control the supply chain to “ensure that at least 25% of cannabis and cannabis products” sold in marijuana stores “are from social equity licensees.”

The bill would seem to put the brakes on hemp-derived THC beverages.

As for consumption lounges, they’ll be allowed to dispense single-serving edibles or cannabis beverages to patrons – and not much else.

Consumption lounges will be allowed to operate only in jurisdictions that pass additional local legislation specifically allowing for them.

Patrons of lounges won’t be allowed to take any leftover product with them.

And, in a move that limits lounges to dispensing beverages or edibles, state law stipulates that cannabis can be “consumed, but not smoked indoors” at a state-sanctioned lounge.

It remains to be seen if such limitations will prove business friendly.

Despite great fanfare across the United States, consumption lounges have largely failed to deliver on promises to operators.

Denver opened only its second consumption lounge over the 4/20 weekend.

And in Nevada, an early adopter of lounges, the state’s first such venue, Thrive Cannabis Marketplace’s Smoke and Mirrors, recently shut its doors after about a year in business.