How do you think legal cannabis will effect Michigan's overall alternative scene in the long term?

[Class-Punk]

Ann Arbor is going to allow multiple cannabis lounges, it will be interesting if places like Necto and City Club try to get the local political nod to get in on this industry, or if the lounges drive them out of business.  I could see something like one or more Victorian houses getting bought and turned into dark alt cannabis lounges-- maybe with gothic Victorian and/or dark art punk and/or dark academia and/or horror interior, ect.  Even with America's economy being horrible, the overhead of a house is less than a bar or club, so one or more people with the money and passion would be able to keep the dark 80's scene alive more easily, and the first cannabis lounge in Ann Arbor appears to be located in what was once a residential house.

I think because there are so many wild effects with different strains of cannabis and that it is generally more trippy than alcohol, the future of cannabis bars will have more wild and imaginative architecture and/or interiors than bars that serve alcohol around the world today.  I think cannabis takes less of a toll on most people's health in comparison to alcohol so it will encourage some older people to get back into recreational scenes they might've otherwise permanently left. I suppose a cannabis scene for intellectual or autodidactic discussion is more of a dream to me than a cannabis goth scene that fails to also move in the former's direction, but it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

How do you think legal cannabis will effect Michigan's overall alternative scene in the long term?

Edited July 3, 2021 by Class-Punk

[Scary Guy]

I have a friend who had one of the first medical cards in the state.  He'd stand outside of the club and light one up with zero fucks given.  I remember walking the ring between the seats and the hill at Pine Knob and half the hill was "green" with probably a few in the seats too.

Weed culture is annoying as fuck, I can't wait for them to start showing commercials on TV for it though.  Maybe it'll be enough to finally get alcohol ads banned too.  The problem is I think the stations LOVE it since they spend a metric shit-ton on advertising.  So you've got a bunch of lobbyists pushing for it from all sides and very few against it.

Honestly I don't think much is going to change though.  Maybe they'll make that little section to the side at Necto a "hot box" or remove the roof of it.  As it stands I think most just spark up where the smoking section is.  I generally walk away if I smell it since I have a CPL though.  Don't want a contact high.  Some people it effects negatively too.

I think it's way healthier than alcohol though, and less dangerous as well overall.  It's probably easier to drive stoned than drunk since it usually takes a LOT to get that stoned out of your mind.  Maybe once the fear wears off of the cops and "I gotta drive like I'm sober" we'll see more OUI's involving weed.  But that's just my bullshit speculation.

[Class-Punk]

On 7/7/2021 at 1:04 PM, Scary Guy said:

I have a friend who had one of the first medical cards in the state.  He'd stand outside of the club and light one up with zero fucks given.  I remember walking the ring between the seats and the hill at Pine Knob and half the hill was "green" with probably a few in the seats too.

Weed culture is annoying as fuck, I can't wait for them to start showing commercials on TV for it though.  Maybe it'll be enough to finally get alcohol ads banned too.  The problem is I think the stations LOVE it since they spend a metric shit-ton on advertising.  So you've got a bunch of lobbyists pushing for it from all sides and very few against it.

Honestly I don't think much is going to change though.  Maybe they'll make that little section to the side at Necto a "hot box" or remove the roof of it.  As it stands I think most just spark up where the smoking section is.  I generally walk away if I smell it since I have a CPL though.  Don't want a contact high.  Some people it effects negatively too.

I think it's way healthier than alcohol though, and less dangerous as well overall.  It's probably easier to drive stoned than drunk since it usually takes a LOT to get that stoned out of your mind.  Maybe once the fear wears off of the cops and "I gotta drive like I'm sober" we'll see more OUI's involving weed.  But that's just my bullshit speculation.

The dispensary flower can get pretty strong.  Weed also causes tunnel vision just like alcohol, though some strains more than others.  I don't like people driving, and I refuse to get behind the wheel unless I'm extremely sober, but the average drunk driver scares me far more than the average high driver and that seems to be a common sentiment.

That's cool that Necto allows weed (I'm assuming), not sure what the A2 laws are with that.  Necto was always boring to me because I don't like dancing, music seems too loud for people to use the tables for conversation, and I never had enough friends there with me to have interesting conversations.  The tables in Necto always seemed kind of bizarre because you struggle to hear each other and there was no food allowed, so it's like they are more like places to sit and be bored, and maybe drunk, rather than serving a greater purpose.  Typical 20-something hedonism seems like a path to a perpetual nihilism, regardless of the aesthetic it's dressed up in, but maybe nightclubs will adapt to this someday because their attendance was statistically falling among millennials-- but my bias is that I've learned from Roger Scruton to think about the presentation of art and culture as existing in a complicated hierarchy of moral quality which affects how much meaning one has in their life.

I agree there are negative aspects to weed.  I think it's important that awareness is raised around Cannabis Hyperemesis Syndrome as being a real and rare medical condition, before it kills more people.

Edited August 10, 2021 by Class-Punk

[Scary Guy]

A2 has a long history of not giving a shit about it, and I think it was decriminalized there even before it was made completely legal everywhere, or possibly even medically legal.  That's why they hosted Hash-Bash every year.

[Stu]

I think it'll only change things for the better; less excuses for cops to barge in and start hassling people.  OTOH, I wish the smokers would be more considerate of us non-smokers who like to BREATHE.  It's "Cigarettes Part Deux: Is It Skunk Or Is It Weed?"