A taste of The Netherlands is expected to soon come to John R in Hazel Park, where one of Michigan's first marijuana consumption lounges is working to get the necessary approvals to open.
Hazel Park and Kalkaska are the first cities where prospective pot-smoking sites have submitted for state licenses, Crain's Detroit Business reports. Sadly, however, the business publication says you won't be able to choose from a bud menu like you can at weed hangouts elsewhere — it will be BYOP.
The name of the cream-painted storefront along John R in Hazel Park reads in stark black letters: Hot Box Social. The business is in line to become the first in Michigan where smoking pot at a business is legal. It submitted application materials in January and is waiting on some changes before it could potentially receive a consumption establishment license and start operating.
A big catch for Hot Box Social and all other consumption lounges is that they can't legally sell cannabis on site. How they get around this, generally, is by either having patrons buy product at a nearby retail establishment and bring it in themselves, or by getting their edibles or flower delivered to the consumption site. Delivery is allowed.
Hot Box is at 23610 John R, north of Nine Mile Road.
Nearly 300 Michigan municipalities reportedly have approved ordinances allowing for the establishments.
In metro Detroit, Hazel Park has no local limits on consumption lounges that have been recorded by the state, while Ferndale and Warren have banned them. Highland Park allows three. Detroit, if its proposed recreational cannabis ordinance passes, will allow 35 consumption lounges to operate in its borders.
Though marijuana is legal for recreational or medicinal use in the majority of U.S. states, bar-like consumption has been slow to catch on. According to the Cannabis Industry Journal, fewer than 10 states currently allow lounges, and the pandemic has stifled growth where they're permitted.
