The Colorado Senate approved a bill Thursday that would allow bring-your-own marijuana clubs in the state, a move that would be a first for the nation.
According to the Associated Press, local jurisdictions would be allowed to permit cannabis clubs, provided the establishments don’t sell alcohol or food beyond light snacks.
However, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper has threatened to veto the bill if it doesn’t ban indoor smoking of marijuana.
“Smoking is bad for you,” Hickenlooper said, according to the AP. “I’m not sure that’s a great thing to be encouraging.”
Hickenlooper also fears a possible federal crackdown on the marijuana industry. According to the AP, he believes now is not the time to “make dramatic statements about marijuana.”
Colorado’s liquor laws ban businesses from selling both alcohol and cannabis.
The AP reported that proponents of the bill say Colorado already has a number of unregulated marijuana clubs and that new regulated clubs could help alleviate complaints about people consuming cannabis in public places like city sidewalks.
Having just returned from the fiasco in Las Vegas, I can only wish that instead of pushing through laws like this that are sure to bring down the wrath of the federal government, legislators and voters would be more concerned with changing federal law. Until that happens, everyone loses. As we have seen in the past in California, passing a state law does little to stop the DEA from raiding the dispensary that your grandmother is in purchasing her much needed medicine!
No way is the Federal law going to hold up, not with 29 states and DC going totally legal both rec and med, we are already the majority, the Fed’s can’t stop us, it’s time to end this war on a plant. A law passed in ignorance has to be reviewed, and written off, and this is sure one of them.
Indoor smoking would allow employees in the club to become intoxicated, which is not good.
Need to ban drinking in bars too.