Cannabis vapour lounge: The new place where everybody knows your name

If you want more evidence of the creeping normalization of cannabis culture in Canada, consider the advent of the vapour lounge.

They're not exactly as thick on the ground as Starbucks, but their numbers seem to be growing.

A retired Winnipeg police officer recently opened Vapes on Main, which is open to adults legally permitted to use medicinal marijuana. Bill Vandergraaf told CBC News he got the idea after seeing similar places in Toronto and Vancouver. He says he hopes to create more awareness about medicinal marijuana use.

Vandergraaf's aspirations for medical pot aside, if the experience of other vapour lounges is anything to go by, he'll likely see as many recreational users as those federally licenced to use marijuana, unless he's scrupulous about policing his clientele.

Vapour lounges get their name from vaping, the practice of inhaling heated vapour laced with nicotine or some other substance via a personal vapourizer or e-cigarette.

When it comes to marijuana though, vapour lounge is a bit of a misnomer. Yahoo Canada News talked to a couple of longstanding lounges in Vancouver and Toronto where clients are fully welcome to light up a joint the old fashioned way.

[ Related: Marijuana vending machine debuts in Vancouver, naturally ]

Ben Reaburn, co-owner of The Vapour Social, one of a handful of lounges in Toronto, said he and partner Camille Salter don't ask to see credentials.

“Since neither of us are medical professionals, I don’t have any legal right to ask anyone for medical documents," he said. "It’s not my place to ask them.

“And the customers that are recreational, pretty much any time you’re using cannabis it’s therapeutic, whether or not that’s your intention. It does have pain-relief properties, relaxing properties. So even though the regulars may not happen to be federal exemptees, that’s not to say their use isn’t therapeutic.”

I suspect that explanation wouldn't satisfy a cop who came in to check whether tokers had their permits. But the thing is, they don't.

“My only encounters with police have been all been positive," said Reaburn. "They’ve all been in the instance where me or the person I was working with have actually called them in.”

The same seems true at the B.C. Marijuana Party's vapour lounge in downtown Vancouver, which has been operating for about five years.

Founded by pot advocate Marc Emery, who's finishing up a five-year sentence in a U.S. prison for selling marijuana seeds via mail order, the party has had its problems with police in the past, said lounge manager Greg Williams. But times have changed.

“I think we’re in somewhat of a unique position where we have been here this long and the political climate has changed and they don’t see it as a big problem," he told Yahoo Canada News.

"Not long ago a police officer was in here – maybe two years ago – a regular beat cop showing the new guy around. He said to the other new kid ‘everybody in here’s breaking the law, and we let them for some reason.’ I was encouraged that he said ‘we let them’ to the new guy.”

Both Williams and Reaburn said police are more concerned with trafficking, so they ensure there's no dealing in their lounges. When it comes to personal possession, it seems to be live and let live.

“Their concerns regarding possession are more they don’t want people smoking out in public," said Reaburn. "They don’t want it in the streets or in the parks. They’re really not that concerned about people having it, so long as they’re not bothering anyone."

Vancouver police spokesman Const. Brian Montague, while pointing out pot possession (absent a medical dispensation) is still illegal, "we have a priority-based approach to policing and there are often other priorities that require our attention and resources.

"It does not mean that offences like this can't become a priority if public safety becomes a concern, and it is important to remember that individuals engaged in illegal behavior do run the risk of being arrested."

In other words, if no one complains and everyone's chill, you're not likely to get hassled by The Man. The same goes for municipal anti-smoking bylaws: No harm, no foul.

The attitude hints at the role cannabis lounges seem to have, a kind of safe home-away-from-basement suite for pot users, but with a $5 cover charge. There are comfy couches, big-screen TVs, even video games and snacks.

Williams won't say how many people frequent his lounge. Toronto's Vapor Social sees between 25 and 50 people a day, said Reaburn, more if there's a special event like soccer's World Cup on TV. He has 40 to 50 regulars.

“A lot of them meet up with their buddies there," he said. "It’s kind of a social hangout. They know they’re going to be there after work, so that’s where they head to.”

Reaburn makes it sound kind of like the bar in Cheers, where everybody knows your name, except without the Sam and Diane drama. In fact, there's no drama at all compared to a bar.

“I’ve worked in bars before and I can tell you the clientele are vastly different than in a bar," said Reaburn. "You really have to be on top of your bar clientele. Not so much with ours.”

[ Related: Legal weed in U.S. could spell trouble for Canadian pot tourists ]

Both Reaburn and Williams say staff watch customers for "greening out," where people smoke themselves into a Rob Fordian stupor, sometimes passing out or vomiting. It's rare.

“I’ve had two or three people puke," said Reaburn. "A glass of juice or a banana usually solves that.”

Williams has had to call an ambulance occasionally, but paramedics generally tell them they'll be fine. It's just pot.

“Get them close to a bathroom, just in case, a little bit of juice," he said. "Some people might hit the deck and it scares their friends.”

Reaburn said running a vapour lounge is a viable business, though he and his partner, like all small-business owners, put in demon hours to make it work.

What's stopping vapour lounges from becoming the cannabis version of Cheers is the fact they can't sell what their customers consume. It limits their future, said Williams.

"I see a future in lounges that would also sell marijuana upon legalization, where I could sell marijuana over the counter and people could stay here and consume it," he said. "I see that more, much like bars, but that won’t be until legalization.

"See, we scramble around here our whole lives underneath this stupid prohibition trying to think of ways to get out from under it. . . . If marijuana was legalized this lounge probably wouldn’t exist. It exists only as a reaction to prohibition.”