Cannabis lounges are the final frontier for marijuana consumption in Sacramento | Opinion

Sacramento is widely known for its food industry, concert scene, and sports community, but Sac-Town should also be known as the place that grows the best cannabis in California. And don’t just take it from me.

In April, Sacramento was rated as the best weed town in California in a joint study by Real Estate Witch, an online platform helping users buy and sell homes, and Leafly, a website focused on cannabis use and education. The availability of legal cannabis, of doctors prescribing it, the number of dispensaries per 100,000 residents, and the quality of the dispensaries were some of the criteria used to rank Sacramento #1 for weed in California and #8 in the nation.

Opinion

“The best growers for indoor cannabis in the world are in Sacramento,” Sebastian Maldonado, owner of the Isleton dispensary known as Delta Boyz.

The city of Sacramento is the only major jurisdiction in the county that allows the cultivation, distribution and sale of marijuana. But it doesn’t allow for businesses like Delta Boyz, a dispensary with a lounge where customers can relax and consume cannabis products.

A lounge is weed’s final frontier in the capital city. It’s destiny. It’s time.

Months ago, the city began studying plans for a pilot program for cannabis lounges in existing dispensaries. A recent city meeting revisited the topic but set no timetable for approval of cannabis lounges in the city limits.

There remain unresolved questions such as ventilation. It is as if Sacramento is seeking to reinvent the wheel on cannabis lounges when a recent trip I made to Isleton provided a glimpse of the city’s future if Sacramento can get out of its way and avoid making the regulation of lounges too complicated and expensive. Delta Boyz is the only lounge now operating in the county. And it turns out that the little city has some important weed lessons for its bigger brother upriver.

A good model for cannabis lounges

Sebastian Maldonado, Delta Boyz owner, wanted his cannabis lounge to be a place where lovers of weed could sit back and enjoy it with ease, as people would gather in a favored place to consume alcohol or spirits. The space smells like, you guessed it, weed but not in a parent’s basement way. You experience a subtle scent that complements the lounge. The walls are painted psychedelic colors with murals, including one of Isleton’s most famous native son - the late Noriyuki “Pat” Morita, the comic and actor who earned an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of “Mr. Miyagi” in “The Karate Kid.”

Once you get your cannabis of choice at DeltaBoyz, you can take a seat on one of their comfy leather chairs and couches.

Ninety percent of the cannabis products sold at Maldondo’s store are from Sacramento growers. Maldonado is keenly aware of Sacramento’’s weed scene and hopes his lounge can be a model for a pilot program in the state capital. He said 75% of the cannabis he sells is grown indoors and the other 25% is grown out in the sun and greenhouses.

“We’re the first ones to (have a cannabis lounge) and not one negative thing has come out of this lounge. It’s a good place to gather with people that are like-minded, that want to consume and it’s a great start for Sacramento.”

The process of getting their license was pretty simple for Maldonado. From start to finish, it took him six months to get the license and lounge permit. The Isleton City Council approved the license for the lounge in 2022.

Maldonado understands that Sacramento is a much different beast than Isleton.

“(Dispensary owners) are gonna have an uphill battle to get their project across the finish line because monetarily, unless you can sell cannabis as it’s being consumed, how are you gonna see a return on your investment,?” he said.

Delta Boyz Store manager Jax Eubanks cares about a customer’s experience in the lounge. Seeing customers enjoying the space, and the cannabis, in a safe manner means a job well done for her.

“The privilege to be able to operate on the first cannabis consumption lounges in Sacramento County is very rewarding,” Eubanks said. “We get to set the standard for cannabis, lounges and educate the public firsthand here.”

The ownership tries to mitigate the concern of secondhand smoke by offering non-smoke alternatives like vapor machines that pass heat through the cannabis flower and fill up a bag for the user to inhale. The vapor method is cleaner and extracts more THC, the main psychoactive component of cannabis. They also promote the usage of dabbing, a smoke-free method where users inhale the vapors of concentrated cannabis that is heated on a hot surface.

The Isleton cannabis lounge attracts people on their lunch breaks, looking to take a moment to chill before they return to work.

Education is a big factor for the Delta Boyz crew. They host events like the 4:20 Senior Social Hour where older people can learn about how the cannabis industry has evolved. They also learn about marijuana cultivation.

The crew at Delta Boyz is dedicated not only to the sale of cannabis but the culture of growing and consuming the product. The lounge is where people who appreciate weed can enjoy it and talk about it with like-minded people to indulge in it.

Shifting a culture

Spending time at the lounge dispels stereotypical views of cannabis, the ones that assume that it’s centered around a dirty and lazy lifestyle. The lounge is clean, it’s safe and legal. The recreational use of cannabis was overwhelmingly approved by California voters and a sanctioned gathering place for people to consume cannabis is a logical outgrowth of voter support for the use of cannabis.

If Sacramento buys into lounges, this same movement can begin in our city.

According to city data, in 2021 alone Sacramento’s cannabis industry generated more than $800 million in gross receipts. The city gets 2% of every cannabis-related transaction-cultivation, distribution, delivery, and manufacturing among others. In the fiscal year 2023-24, the city is projected to collect 23.3 million in cannabis revenue. The tax revenues indicate that the industry pulled in more than $1.1 billion last year alone. This is big business in Sacramento, yet there is nowhere for people to enjoy it safely. Needless to say, these spaces are long overdue.

The city wants to do a lot with the cannabis lounges. Not only do they want them to function as a space where cannabis is freely consumed, but they also want to use them as a way to encourage the use of public transit and ride-sharing.

Sacramento has the biggest potential to become a city known for cannabis and a culture that invites its consumption. We have excellent growers, committed dispensary owners and consumers who want to support local cannabis.

All that is missing is city approval of spaces where cannabis can be consumed legally. Cannabis doesn’t belong in Sacramento’s proverbial closet.

The next time someone calls us the City of Trees, it could be because of another green plant with a particular scent.