With Canada about to legalize recreational marijuana this summer, the country is just a hop skip and a jump away from Niagara Falls.
Niagara Falls tourism officials are pondering the idea of licensed pot lounges as they believe many Americans will be hopping the border to smoke marijuana legally once Canada makes it legal.
Niagara Falls tourism chair Wayne Thompson remarked, “If they don’t have it on the other side, it’s certainly going to drive people to the Canadian side.”
He explained, “We’re just researching and trying to come up with what the stakeholders and give that information to the municipality and pass it on to the province so they know what our feelings are.”
“At the present time you can’t smoke in hotel rooms, you can’t smoke in restaurants, you can’t utilize cannabis really anywhere even if you’re visitors so they’re setting up separate or suggesting setting up separate locations that you could smoke in the rooms where there’s smoking or you could eat any product that has cannabis in your rooms privately,” said Thomson.
They are asking the public to give their opinion on the decision via a questionnaire.
“At this point it’s just strictly a questionnaire and trying to get feedback so they make the right decisions,” said Thomson.
“They’re just trying to get a feel of where they’re going with respect to the whole approval and through a business point of view where there’s certainly tourist areas are going to be affected, particularly if it’s not approved in New York State,” he commented.
“If they don’t have it on the other side it’s certainly going to drive people to the Canadian side … and you can’t import it across the border so they would have to stay on the Canadian side.”
