On the outside of a now-closed indoor cannabis consumption lounge in Eureka, there once read a message painted in huge black letters: “YES! YOU CAN SMOKE WEED INSIDE.” There aren’t any of those signs plastered around Arcata, because those lounges aren’t legal — yet. Arcata’s city council may pass a resolution next week legalizing the lounges. Maybe a few more dispensaries will be sporting a similar message soon. 

A cannabis consumption lounge is exactly what it sounds like: a business that, as the example above put it, lets people get high on the premises. Eureka legalized them in 2019; there’s currently one operating. It’s legal to grow, sell, and manufacture cannabis products in Arcata, and apparently an update to the Land Use Code created a “pathway” for indoor weed smoking several years ago, but the city put off finalizing the legalization of indoor consumption until business owners expressed interest, according to the staff report on the item. Apparently, one established business, and someone else interested in starting one, both want to found a lounge. (The Outpost doesn’t know who; city staff have not yet responded to a request for comment.)

To start one, owners will have to be licensed to sell cannabis and hold several cannabis-related permits. The lounges have to be enclosed and authorized to operate by city hall. Only people aged 21 and up can use them; they can’t drink or use any other drugs; they can’t operate between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m.; if enough people complain about the smell, the business has to quit operating until they find a solution; and if someone is “visibly intoxicated,” employees aren’t allowed to sell them any weed.

The amendments to the municipal code would also create a permit allowing temporary onsite consumption for events like Cannifest; they won’t be allowed to sell alcohol during the days event-goers can smoke and buy weed. 

The city says permitting the lounges will enhance “public safety and liveability,” will reduce “conflicts and impacts associated with unregulated or public cannabis smoking,” and will support “responsible economic development” and small, local cannabis businesses.