Kashawn McKinley, director of constituent services for Atlantic City, made the request during a virtual meeting with the Cannabis Regulatory Commission last week, noting that Atlantic City is the convention capital of the East Coast and that the cannabis industry “will be driven by conventions.”
During the meeting, regulators discussed the possibility of consumption lounges, including calls from the public to remove restrictions on sites selling non-alcoholic beverages and snacks. Dr. Suzaynn Schick of the University of California’s Center for Tobacco Control, Research and Education, who was invited by the board, said that studies in California found that the number of particles in indoor cannabis consumption areas was “off the scale” even in spaces that had installed new ventilation systems. She said that low levels of exposure to smoke — including the smoke from cannabis — can be dangerous, even if it remains an open question whether cannabis smoke is less dangerous than tobacco smoke.
McKinley also argued that consumption lounges should be accessible because cannabis is not permitted for individuals who are in public housing and that its use could result in an eviction.
“If it is illegal to consume in public housing and in public, then cannabis is still illegal for an entire sector of our community,” he said during the meeting.