Cannabis Lounge

Cannabis Lounge: Restaurant or Dispensary?

Cannabis Lounge

The idea of a cannabis “coffee shop” has been around for decades: a place where a person of legal age can go to consume cannabis while on-site in a relaxing environment, free from judgment. While the same base desires for a similar space still exist within the average cannabis consumer, the level of expectation and innovation for the fulfilment of those desires by the consumer is exceedingly complicated to bring to fruition. The amount of regulations around cannabis consumption are either very complicated, or do not exist at the level that allows for licensing/providing for public consumption spaces. In fact, one of the only crimes that has increased in states that allow for recreational cannabis is consuming illegally in a public space.

The desire for places to legally consume cannabis outside of a private residence needs to be accounted for in regulations, and normalized within the states that have legal cannabis. Beyond that, running a consumption lounge is a feat in-and-of itself: complying with regulations, intersecting hospitality and the traditional dispensary model, “turning tables,” monitoring consumption, allowing for and monitoring “takeaway” product, all underscoring the main goal of trying to create the best customer experience and journey possible. 

From an operational perspective, there are a few ways to look at a consumption lounge. Ultimately, the goal is to be in a place where a cannabis consumption lounge is treated the same as a place where one might consume alcohol, and we are getting closer, but because of strict regulations on sales, consumption amounts, and “takeaway” limits, we have to be vigilant, in order to be successful. Monitoring consumption is paramount to local officials, much like alcohol, and the onus is on the business to enforce and determine when someone should be “cut off.”  In order to cover all of your bases as an operator, it is best to focus on an education-forward approach with each customer, making sure they know the standard dose and time to on-set, based on the products they purchase. If you are also in a place that allows “take away” cannabis, it is important to make sure that takeaway cannabis is only consumed off-site, and that the customer is aware of how much they are allowed to purchase and leave with. 

Sales v. Education

We need to think of education primarily as the hospitality aspect of cannabis lounges, at a restaurant we are simply educated by the servers about the menu, and the level of expertise they have both in the delivery of this information, and the amount of knowledge they have about their products is really what makes it “hospitality.” So, when staffing/training people for a “weed lounge” it is better to think of the “cannabis consultants” as servers, who know the best way to treat a guest, how to educate them, and ensure they are satisfied with their experience. In many instances, they will need to consider being educated about cannabis as well as food/drinks that are also being served, ideally, this is a person with experience as a budtender as well as a server. It is important to note that they cannabis consultant should also be focused on sales for takeaway products, more so than a traditional server. This is a huge revenue generator for the lounge, since people typically purchase less cannabis to consume in a sitting, than they would of alcohol, at least in dollar amount 

This should all be happening within an environment that looks more or less like a restaurant, again, normalizing consumption with a familiar and comfortable space. There will be regulations that will prohibit the ability of the operator to function exactly how they would like to in that space, so adaptability is the name of the game. To succeed as a lounge and prepare for regulatory changes, operators should be prepared to innovate, armed with a hospitality focused mindset and not just add a consumption area to their dispensary as an afterthought. With these concepts in mind, we can be excited about the future of being able to comfortably consume cannabis together in public spaces.

How Can Sapphire Risk Help?

Tony Gallo and the team at Sapphire Risk Advisory Group are prepared to help with licensing and security procedures for consumption lounges across the country, including states like California, Colorado, and New York. Follow us on social media to stay up to date with cannabis industry updates!

Author

Tyler Stratford

When Tyler Stratford got out of the Army as a 23 year-old, he witnessed cannabis save the life of his grandmother, who was unable to treat her back pain with opioids. He then began working for one of the first licensed vertically integrated cannabis companies in Boulder, Colorado, Boulder Kind Care. He helped them relocate and build their cultivation facility, including equipment selection and installation. For a few years he worked his way through almost every one of the positions across the cannabis vertical. He has held cultivation management positions, dispensary positions, and eventually was the director of compliance for Boulder Kind Care. After helping a couple other local vertically integrated companies transition from Medical to Dual/Medical & Recreational companies in the Colorado market, he then went to work for MJ Freeway as an Operational Implementation Specialist. Having been a beta user of MJ Freeway and the only one with perspective on “both sides” of the software, he was responsible for the implementation and “go live” of well over 400 operations in the cannabis industry, across the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and Spain, including the first 4 dispensaries in 4 states (NV, MN, AK, FL). He has spoken at countless conferences and events, trained thousands of operators on both cannabis plant/product knowledge, compliance, tools/software, and helped create a lot of their educational content and SOP documentation. After 3 years, he then went to work for Canna Advisors (one of the most prestigious, professional, and successful consulting companies in the industry) as their Director of Client operations, advising both pre-license and post-license clients on operational set-up and efficiencies. He also created their Strategic Partner Program, negotiating deals for their high-quality clients with vendors of ancillary cannabis products. He even represented a client as an expert witness in an appeals case where he spent over an hour taking questions from the State AG, and they got the license. Since then, he has helped multiple start-ups as Director of Operations and Chief Strategy Officer, primarily in the California Market.