Above watch: A Moncton man has opened up a cannabis club and vape lounge to educate people about the health benefits of marijuana. Shelley Steeves reports.
MONCTON – A Moncton man has opened a cannabis club and vape lounge to educate people about the health benefits of marijuana.
Matt Melanson opened the Dr. Greenthumb Cannabis Club and Lounge to give medical marijuana users a place to go out of the public eye. He opened the lounge at the beginning if this year after getting his own medical marijuana licence.
“Say if you need your medication and you have nowhere to go, I don’t think going into your car to smoke or vaporize it or to go walking at the bus stop to go smoke something in public is very good,” he said.
“It’s not going to help the cause.”
That cause, he says, is to lift the stigma and educate people about the benefits of cannabis. Melanson uses it to treat his ADHD.
He says he doesn’t provide the pot, but he will let anyone vape at the lounge as long as they sign up for his club and provide government issued photo ID.
“We don’t ask if they have their medical license, we really don’t care if they do or don’t.”
Health Canada says it only provides medical licenses and doesn’t regulate where people can use the drug, which continues to cause a lot of confusion among users.
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Alex Caissie just got his medical license.
“I know common sense, don’t walk in front of a police station and smoke up,” he said.
There are about 40-50,000 people with medical marijuana licences here in Canada. In New Brunswick, there’s just under 700.
Medical marijuana producer OrganiGram are expanding and tripling their production to keep up with the growing demand for medicinal cannabis.
CEO Denis Arsenault says vape lounges are likely to become more common. But they do raise some public safety concerns.
“I would hope whoever uses a vape lounge takes a taxi or walk home,” he said.
Which Melanson says he does encourage people to do when they leave the lounge.
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