Cannabis Carnival Opens in Toronto
Cannabis Carnival, what may be the province’s first legal, designated cannabis smoking space, opened up at Grand Bizarre within Exhibition Place. Touted as Toronto’s largest indoor and outdoor supper club, Grand Bizarre is a place where guests can “swim, eat, drink, and mingle” according to the CBC article (link below). The Cannabis Carnival is a separate, restricted area designated for cannabis consumption.
Grand Bizarre President Zlatko Starkovski said that the club worked with Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and the Ontario Cannabis Store (OCS) while developing the Cannabis Carnival.
“I think cannabis smokers in general need a safe, responsible place to smoke when they go out,” Starkovski said in the article. “There are a lot of people smoking at home, in cars and potentially over-consuming so we’re taking a proactive approach for cannabis smokers now that it’s been legal since 2018.”
It also meets the criteria of the Smoke-Free Ontario Act, Starkovski said. “We’ve checked all the boxes to make sure that we’re avoiding second-hand smoke, as well,” he said. “There’s no alcohol being served in the cannabis area… and we don’t sell cannabis. You bring your own.”
Brad Poulos, a lecturer at the Ted Rogers School of Management at Toronto Metropolitan University, said that the Cannabis Carnival is a creative way to open up cannabis consumption.
“We’re definitely going to see more of these things pop up as people discover what you can and can’t do, with respect to the rules around consumption of cannabis, especially smoking,” Poulos said. “Because there are many places where you cannot smoke cannabis… I definitely think we’ll have a cannabis lounge industry at some point in time.”
Is the Cannabis Carnival the Tipping Point for Cannabis Lounges? – LPC
But is the Cannabis Carnival really the tipping point for cannabis lounges in Ontario? It would be a hard sell, especially given how strict the Smoke-Free Ontario Act is in that province. Essentially, smoking of any kind is not allowed indoors except with extreme – and costly – measures in place.
Nevertheless, the Ontario government officially started looking into the possibility of cannabis lounges in early 2020. Ultimately, Ontario said no to cannabis cafés in July 2020. That led to a lot of frustration. Ultimately, it was the private sector that really started pushing the idea forward. A semi-permanent, possibly legal part-time cannabis consumption café opened in Grand Bend, Ont. in August 2021.
And it’s not just smoking. One restauranteur in London, Ont. found that the red tape made it almost impossible to open a cannabis edible restaurant.
Outside of Ontario, there are similar struggles. Festival cannabis deliveries opened up in Alberta in March 2022. In May 2022, it was announced that BC was considering allowing cannabis consumption spaces. But it’s not nearly as easy to do as it is in the US, where cannabis isn’t even legal federally. Places like San Francisco’s Consumption Bar are popping up more and more.
Back here at home, the hope is that private business like the Cannabis Carnival at Grand Bizarre can keep pushing the envelope. It’s something that businesses and consumers alike would like to see.
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