Two entrepreneurs have opened Rhode Island’s first vape lounge, a bold venture in a state with no defined law on such businesses.
Kevin Cintorino and Ray Diao opened Elevated, the state’s first lounge that allows MMJ patients to use vaporizers, because they often have a hard time finding places to use their medication, according to the Providence Journal.
“We want to do everything by the book, so we called the [state] Department of Health and the city, but no one knows how to treat it,” Cintorino told the Providence Journal.
Cintorino said the business sells memberships for $65 a year, $34 a month or $4.20 a day. The company was funded on a line of credit from Bank of America, which paid for renovations, and Cintorino has invested as much as $30,000, according to the newspaper.
While the roughly 10,000 MMJ patients in the state may now have a designated place to consume their medication, the state has only three dispensaries, the last of which opened in November.
