Canada Opens First Cannabis Hotel

Canada Opens First Cannabis Hotel

Planning your next cannabis-friendly getaway? Add this to your bucket list: Canada has just officially opened the very first cannabis-friendly luxury hotel.

Cannabis Air, located in downtown Toronto, opened its doors to the public last month. While 420-friendly lodging isn’t new, Cannabis Air boasts of being the first luxury hotel in the globe to offer smoking lounges. All one-bedroom suites in the property have a private outdoor smoking terrace, plus a kitchen and living room.

Guests must be at least 19 years of age to be able to book the hotel. Other exciting amenities include 30 restaurant outlets, 24-hour concierge services, and professional cannabis experts on site. The property is equipped with all the amenities you’d want on a holiday, but the best part of all is that you can legally enjoy them while you’re high: a gym, outdoor swimming pool, a library, and an entertainment center decked out with ping pong tables and a pool.

Cannabis Air offers three suite categories to choose from. Pineapple Express is an elegant room with a double bed and a private smoking lounge. The Ganjapreneur Suite is a luxurious one-bedroom apartment, also with a private smoking deck. The Kush Queen, ideal for groups of friends, is a plush room furnished with two queen beds, a fully-furnished kitchen and private smoking lounge. All come with Wi-Fi, television, a private bathtub, shower, and cozy relaxation areas. For a small fee, guests can also bring their pets along and use the parking lots.

Cannabis Air is the first of what will likely be many more boutique and niche hotels that will eventually sprout up to cater to cannabis-loving guests. Current larger and more established hotels in the city have already banned cannabis smoking. Accommodations including private apartment rentals and bed and breakfasts may do well by capitalizing on this new sector within the tourism industry, which looks promising in the long run.

Ontario’s 4/20 Friendly Regulations

Ontario’s cannabis laws allow citizens aged 19 and up to smoke and vaporize cannabis at private residences as well as a number of public outdoor areas, designated rooms in accommodations including hotels and motels, residential boats and vehicles, scientific testing facilities, and specified areas in some retirement and long-term care homes, hospices, and veteran facilities.

But smoking cannabis isn’t allowed in common indoor areas in apartment buildings and schools, enclosed public areas and work spaces, areas where children gather, public locations within 20 meters of school grounds, on kids’ playgrounds, child care centers, within 9 meters from the entrance of a hospital, and publicly owned spaces among others.

Edibles are still illegal in Ontario as well as other Canadian provinces, until sometime next year.

What American Tourists Need To Know

Since Canada legalized cannabis for recreational use just last October, it isn’t surprising for many neighbors in America to now think that our neighbor up north is looking like the nearest alternative to Amsterdam.

However, before you book your tickets, there’s a couple of things you need to know. First off, Americans aren’t going to be granted an all-access pass when it comes to consuming cannabis in Canada. You’ll need to do your research about which provinces are going to be best for 4/20 holidays, but off the bat, obviously Ontario is now up there, as well as British Columbia and Alberta. All have more relaxed cannabis laws which would allow tourists to partake in designated areas. Crossing the border will also be risky business, so make sure that you read up.

Tourists also need to remember these no-no’s when visiting Canada:

Driving high: Canada considers DUI a crime, just like everywhere else
Bringing cannabis with you into Canada. This applies to everyone including those who live in states where cannabis is legal. Bringing it with you over the border is definitely illegal
Bringing Canadian cannabis back with you to the United States
Sharing your pot with a minor

Visiting Canada as a pot tourist offers a unique, exciting opportunity to experience what it’s like in another country that has legalized cannabis nationwide. It will prove to be an interesting trip at the very least, but make sure that you do your research of local cannabis laws before you visit.