At least one lawmaker in Nevada has proven themselves to be extremely pro-legalization and intends to introduce at least seven bills relating to the law that voters passed in November of last year. Senator Tick Segerblom has actually come right out and said that on trips to Washington and Colorado he has been known to try marijuana – and even claims to have smoked cannabis on the roof of the White House during the time he spent working there while Jimmy Carter was the President.
Among the bills he is looking to introduce is one that would create a legal way for cannabis to be consumed in a public setting. If passed it would allow individual counties and cities to issue licenses for public cannabis consumption areas. Those licenses could be issued for any sort of event, such as a fair or a concert, as well as establishments like bars or coffee shops, and could even be used to establish specific streets or sidewalks that would be designated areas.
“If we’re going to bring people here for marijuana tourism, they need a place to use it,” State Sen. Tick Segerblom, D-Las Vegas, said. “We don’t want them walking up and down the Strip smoking. Let’s give them some place to go.”
Honestly, I think this is really a brilliant idea – and social use is something that has been a big issue in other states that have legalized marijuana for adult use. Cannabis clubs operating in grey areas of the law have certainly cropped up, and will continue to until the issue is properly addressed. In Denver, Colorado they passed a law that will create a pilot program similar to the law Segerblom is going to propose that should be in effect by this summer. And the state of Alaska is the first to create regulations to allow consumption areas in dispensaries that obtain additional licensing – but this would be the first statewide law of this sort.
“I’m not saying it’s not a good idea in some point in time, but I don’t know when that point in time is,” Sisolak said.
Sadly, not everyone sees the benefits that this law could have on the community and the industry – instead they are more concerned about the idea of cannabis being smoked or vaped freely out in the open. Where many activists and advocates want to see it treated fairly to alcohol, including by being allowed to consume it in a public setting, there are many lawmakers who would prefer to hold off and see how things play out in other states before moving forward with anything of this sort.
“It’s up to them. If they want, they can take 10 years,” Segerblom said. “I’m not forcing them to do anything, I’m just giving them the right.”
Hopefully lawmakers will decide to at least take the time to consider Segerblom’s social use law. It would certainly be beneficial for the state – especially if they hope to gain money off of tourists – to create a legal way for people to consume cannabis in a public setting.
