Pot Cafe - Your Million Dollar Green Rush Business

Why Pot Café’s are necessary in places where cannabis is legal

How do you Open a Marijuana Cafe and Should You? from CannabisNet on Vimeo.

With cannabis being legalized all over the place, we’re coming to a moment where the legitimate consuming of the substance also requires the necessary recognition it deserves. For the most part, there aren’t legal establishments sanctioned by the state that allows people to toke up in public. Whether cannabis is legal in your state or not, there aren’t many spots where you can spark a doobie.

And this is a problem.

With more folks jumping on the idea of ‘legal cannabis’, to not supply those people with sanctioned venues where they can smoke freely would lead to “unsanctioned public consumption”. We have already seen this in Colorado as there are only a handful of places where people can smoke.

Tourists that come to Colorado for the “green” oftentimes find themselves having to smoke in their rental as many hotels bans the use of cannabis within their rooms. Similarly, despite the fact that there now is a law in place that will allow for pot café’s, there will not be a “mixing of substances”, meaning that in places that sell alcohol such as bars or restaurants, they will not have the ability to sell cannabis in any form.

Now, while there are some merits to the separation of substances, (as was done in Amsterdam), some advocates still call this an unfair ruling.

Legitimate Concerns

So what are these legitimate concerns? According to the state, the major concern is dual intoxication. Someone who is drunk and high has a higher probability of getting into an accident when driving. Other than that, there really isn’t any more issues the state has a problem with.

Now, it’s true, being “droned” is not ideal for driving. No one under the influence of anything should really get behind a car (and this coming from a guy who drove stoned thousands of times), if you’re going to get blitzed, it’s better to Uber.

Not only is it safer, not having to worry about driving allows you to get much higher than having to be responsible for “all those lives”.

I understand the concern of the state to separate substances and any sensisble person would agree. However, this still leaves the “legal consumer” in a pickle.

cannabis pot cafe customers

If we can’t spark up in a bar…let’s get weed bars!

In Amsterdam they separated substances. Pot shops can only sell cannabis related products and cannot sell any alcohol related items in their stores. The same goes around for legitimate “alcohol bars”. They are banned from selling cannabis related products.

However, in Amsterdam they have shops that are dedicated to pot. Something that in Colorado is still lacking. Currently, stoners are expected to spark up in the privacy of their own homes or other privately owned properties.

Toking up in a park can still get you fined. The problem is that up until the end of this year, there has been no real options for you to go out and enjoy a toke. Hopefully with new legislation, this can become a thing of the past, however until that happens, stoners are still going to find spots all over town to get baked.

money to start a pot cafe

For those who have the startup capital to embark on a venture of this nature, you should definitely do it. We’re coming to the point where weed-businesses will flourish. Imagine if you’re the first cannabis-friendly club in Denver. You’d rake in millions.

The catch will be that you can’t sell alcohol beverages, however get people stoned enough, a refreshing high vitamin cocktail could suffice as beverages.

Even a vintage looking café set-up could work perfectly in addition to lounges, philosophy nooks and so on. The point here folks, is that there is a definite gap in the market and while currently there is a ban on selling cannabis in places that sell alcohol, the next wave of cannabis businesses will cater to the end consumer in a way that it has never done before.

The Sticky-Bottom

We’re coming to a point in modern history where the consumption of cannabis will be as accepted as the consumption of alcohol. There will be restaurants, bars, theaters and much more that will cater specifically to the cannabis community.

alcohol at a marijuana cafe

However, we’re still long ways away from a society that can accept alcohol and cannabis in the same light. I also believe that education will play a key role in this transition. The legal cannabis industry is still in its infancy stages, meaning as the market matures, so will the freedoms associated with use.

I believe that over the next year, you will begin to see cannabis friendly spaces pop up in states like Colorado, California, Oregon and Washington. The rest of the states are closely watching the progress of these states. Eventually, we’ll come to the tipping point and the floodgates of cannabis industry will be fully opened, and then the entire world will change for the better.