Let’s say you’ve been waiting since last November to open a cozy place where folks could congregate and enjoy some cannabis products. After voters passed Initiative 300—the measure allowing social cannabis consumption in Denver—a Social Consumption Advisory Committee had to put together the necessary rules. Finally, on Aug. 31 of this year, Denver started accepting applications for licenses, so now you can make your plans. Or can you?
Before one can even begin to think about opening such a place, or even applying for a Designated Consumption Area (DCA) license, they might find they’re going to have to jump through a circus’ worth of hoops. Besides meeting the normal indoor air quality, noise, odor and fire regulations, and besides providing security, checking IDs and preventing folks from driving around stoned, those interested in applying for a DCA license also need to demonstrate support from the neighborhood. They must also locate more than 1,000 feet from: schools, drug treatment and daycare centers and city-owned recreation centers.
District 6 Councilman Paul Kashmann speculates all these requirements may explain why Denver Excise and Licensing has received not a single application for a DCA license at the time of this story. However, according to Dan Rowland, the department’s Community Relations Director, the department has heard from “a handful of folks who have let us know they are working on it.” Those applicants include Liv Well on Capitol Hill, Strainwise near University Hills and DenverEasy.
DenverEasy is an umbrella business organization that includes Denver Vape and Play, a prospective DCA applicant. Director of Operations and co-owner Taylor Rosean, says they are “about a month away” in finding funding and, he hopes, a Capitol Hill location. Rosean describes the new rules as “a Goldilocks situation [protecting] ... non-cannabis consumers as well as cannabis consumers.” He says Denver Vape and Play has good relations with its prospective neighborhoods and is anticipating no trouble showing community support. But since they must pass all the various inspections before applying for the DCA license, he admits “it’s a little bit of a risk.”
Vape and Play’s business concept is a “unique adult arcade” centered around a vape bar. Vending machines will dispense pizza, filled croissants, Japanese sodas and “15 different ways to eat cheese.” Because a DCA is not allowed to sell marijuana products, Vape and Play will have a $10 or $15 “seat charge” and, of course, the proceeds from the arcade and vending machines.
Margie Valdez, representing Inter-Neighborhood Cooperation (INC), the organization of 83 Denver neighborhood organizations, on the Social Consumption Advisory Committee, believes the rules are a fair compromise “given that this is a new concept and we don’t know what we don’t know... Actually everyone at the table made a compromise as the committee was composed of individuals from the industry, the schools, the neighborhoods, legal experts as well as the State Department of Enforcement.” “But,” she added, “regulations which protect children and neighborhoods can never be too restrictive.”
Editor's note: the original print and online versions of this story initially stated "DenverEasy had a seat on the Advisory Committee." This is not the case. Additionally, it was initially reported there are setbacks from parks, liquor stores and marijuana dispensaries. There are not. We greatly regret these errors.
