Recreational cannabis has been legal in Canada now for nearly five months, but we have yet to see the emergence of places to legally smoke the stuff outside of our homes or the street.
It's not as if you can go somewhere and order a toke the way you'd order a shot at the bar. I mean, in Ontario, we can't even buy the stuff in person yet—but that's another story.
This summer, Toronto takes a baby-step forward in the pursuit of a future where weed is actually treated like alcohol with its own POTio: A first-of-its-kind legal cannabis consumption patio at Exhibition Place.
The Toronto Craft Beer Festival announced this morning that it will be taking over the CNE's current smokers lounge at Exhibition Place from June 21 to 23, and turning it into a cannabis smoking lounge for attendees of legal age.
Produced in partnership with HotBox Holdings (which owns Kensington Market's iconic HotBox Cafe) and Detonate Cannabis Agency, the patio will be a safe consumption, social and learning space for the festival's roughly 10,000 attendees.
"We want to offer people a place to come down from the beer. You don't have to consume cannabis to experience our creative, chill and vibrant POTio," said HotBox Cafe owner Abi Roach when announcing the news.
"We want to educate people on what cannabis is and how to consume it safely, especially around alcohol."
On that note, the weed lounge will be a booze and tobacco-free zone, in line with current federal and provincial regulations.
It is unclear as to whether or not attendees will be able to purchase cannabis products in the lounge, though organizers say a hand-picked team of "experienced sales representatives" will be working the event... so they could probably point you in the right direction, should you arrive dry.
As Toronto Craft Beer Festival founder Tony Millar says: "What better way to optimize on a sensory experience than by adding some cannabis to the mix?"
I suppose we can all find out for the very first time in our lives this summer.
by Lauren O'Neil via blogTO
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