Denver- Tourists or residents without a place to consume cannabis are finally set to have a legal destination. The first cannabis cafe is now set to open in Denver.
The Denver Department of Excise and Licenses has issued a cannabis consumption establishment license for the Coffee Joint this week-making the shop the first legal business in Denver to allow on-site cannabis use.
The Coffee Joint will not be selling cannabis but customers 21 and over will be permitted to bring their own vape pens and edibles. Cannabis flower will only be allowed to be used within a vaporizer and cannot be smoked in in joints or pipes.
Although the Coffee Joint will not be selling cannabis directly, customers will not have to go very far. The Coffee Joint’s owners, Rita Tsalyuk and Kirill Merkulov, also 1136 Yuma, the cannabis dispensary located next door.
Once the Coffee Joint has its consumption license, customers will pay a $5 admission fee that includes a free cup of coffee. The admission fee will be waived for customers of 1136 Yuma.
“You can vape your flower, you can dab your oil, and you can consume edibles,” said store manager Meredith Wharton according to 5280 Magazine. “You just can’t smoke in here.”
The Coffee Joint is also planning on hosting education events such as yoga and cooking classes we well as other activities.
“It’s a great opportunity for people to learn about cannabis and get rid of the stigma that weed is just for stoners Wharton said. “We urge people who have not been around cannabis, or who don’t know anything about it, to come here.”
More licenses for social on-site consumption could be on the way. The executive director of the Denver Department of Excise and Licenses, Ashley Kilroy may not have confirmed more shops will receive these licenses, but she certainly did not closet the door.
“I routinely look over things like this. And especially seeing that nobody opposed it, it’s something I would issue as a matter of routine,” Kilroy said.
A public hearing on the Coffee Joint’s on-site consumption license is scheduled for Friday, March 2. A formal site inspection is expected to follow soon after before the Coffee Joint can begin allowing on-site cannabis consumption.
Colorado residents legalized the recreational use of cannabis in November of 2012. Four years later, Denver residents approved Initiative 300 which allowed businesses to apply for on-site consumption licenses.
