Penticton 'potio' weed lounge going strong despite stifling regulations
A cozy, clean patio with picnic tables where Penticton’s potheads can gather outside a dispensary to get stoned is a surprisingly rare space.
As of February 2024 cannabis shops in BC could have outdoor lounges for people to smoke, but they still aren’t very popular. Cannabis Cottage in Penticton set up their smoking patio shortly after the law changed in 2024, officially opening their outdoor smoking lounge in April of last year.
Mariana Wolff runs Cannabis Cottage in Penticton and said the shop’s patio is one of the only ones she knows of in the area since regulations make it really challenging to monetize or advertise.
“That's probably part of the reason that it's not super popular across the province yet. We did have to put in some of the business's money to make the patio so that people could walk on it, put picnic tables out there, up the pathway. And there's no monetization,” she said.
The dispensary doesn’t charge people to hangout and smoke, or drink cans of infused beverages.
Wolff said her idea was to eventually have weed infused baked goods and turn the dispensary into something like a pot cafe, but the provincial regulations haven’t allowed that dream to come true. Edibles need to be prepackaged for sale in B.C.
At the moment the patio exists solely because Wolff said she’s passionate about the industry, the culture and hopes that if public pot consumption spaces become more popular regulation changes will follow.
“We genuinely love having people that are like-minded gather and giving them a space to gather. It's absolutely ideal for anybody who's looking to take an alcohol break or avoid alcohol,” she said.
In general, the BC government allows people to smoke weed anywhere they can smoke tobacco or vape, including private patios that choose to allow it. But since the federal government heavily restricts any advertising for cannabis it’s hard for dispensaries to promote themselves, including promoting a pot-friendly patio.
“We haven't been able to promote it basically at all with how restrictive our industry is with advertising. Just through word of mouth it's kind of started to develop a bit of a culture. We're trying to give Canada's culture a space to actually hang out in,” she said.
Wolff said the patio is usually pretty busy with folks who live in strata developments that don’t allow smoking on the property and those who just want a place to socialize and meet new people.
“We've got a crew of regulars that come out there at all times of the day. You'd be surprised, first thing in the morning it’s not dead,” she said. “Sometimes you'll see a game of cards going out there. People that you wouldn't expect to be meeting together and sitting together are actually sitting together.”
She said weed shops can’t have loyalty rewards programs so Cannabis Cottage is throwing an event Saturday, Sept. 6, to show appreciation for their regulars.
“You get a chance to kind of have a meet and greet with different people that are very like minded and maybe experience other products that you weren't curious about and didn't have a chance to pick up for yourself or get some live music,” she said. “We're just grateful to be in this community and grateful to have all of the support.”
She thinks that if regulations loosened up a bit it would help the cannabis industry grow and there would be more spaces like the Cannabis Cottage "potio".
“I feel like if our regulators realized and accepted that the tax potential is there, we would be allowed to grow the businesses with simple tools like any other industry has, like advertising or loyalty programs,” she said. “It would be just a stroke of a pen.”
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