Public consumption of marijuana terrifies prohibitionists. In practice they appear to view cannabis users in groups as the moral equivalent of demonic rituals. Maybe it’s because for thousands of years heaps of smoldering marijuana and psychedelic herbs have been publicly consumed during mystic ceremonies, usually attended by all types of pagans, witches, heretics and ancient Romans participating in orgies. Whatever the reasons, the Las Vegas hotel industry is progressively challenging Nevada’s laws prohibiting public use of weed. According to Nevada attorney David Edelblute:
…the distinguishing legal factor of the … approach to cannabis consumption is that [a hotel] does not intend to sell cannabis products, or allow consumption in public areas. […]
Solutions lie in who considers what to be public. Pushing the legal boundaries, rooms on some hotel floors offer special air filtration systems where people can smoke their weed in private without offending others. Other types of spaces not deemed totally public make up the flexible boundary attracting the industry’s focus. As one hotel owner noted:
You don’t come to our hotel just to get stoned — it’s not the goal, Rizk said … You come for the experience, the events, the parties, the pool parties … and the fact that we allow (cannabis) consumption in certain areas, where permissible by law, is just an additional perk.