Less than one month after its opening, Ottawa’s first ever marijuana lounge was shut down May 15 by city officials.
According to the Ottawa Sun, BuzzOn Vapour Lounge’s owner, Wayne Robillard, was served with a cease and desist notice by city officials, citing building code violations and safety issues.
Ottawa saw the “soft” launch of the city’s first ever marijuana lounge on April 20, amidst a wave of controversy surrounding its legality.
BuzzOn, located at 29 Montreal Rd. in Vanier, allowed marijuana users to consume the banned drug through smoke-free vapourizers rather than through bongs and joints. The lounge also allowed people with medical marijuana licences to carry their own stash and use its vapourizers, as long as they are not selling or distributing their marijuana.
Users without medical marijuana licenses were forewarned of the legal risks they undertake if they choose to consume marijuana in the establishment.
This launch received mixed reactions from Ottawa residents, with Mayor Jim Watson voicing his opinion against the establishment.
Ottawa police paid attention to BuzzOn, police Chief Charles Bordeleau told the Sun last month.
BuzzOn’s owner, Wayne Robillard, told the Sun last month his operation was an “open form of protest” but accepts its illegality and the fact that police could crack down. He said his dreams have not gone up in smoke and hopes to reopen the establishment following a renovation.
Robillard could not be reached for comment at the time of publication.
Vanier resident Sonya Sil said she approves of the joint being opened in her neighbourhood.
“I’m an adult,” Sil said. “If I can choose to drink and understand the risks, I can choose to smoke weed too . . . I don’t get the fuss.”
Sil’s mother, Reetwija, had a different opinion.
“This is going to attract the wrong kind of people,” she said. “I don’t want my kids mixing with them.”
Carleton University law professor Anna Keller said as long as only medical marijuana users smoked there and did not distribute to anyone, the establishment could not be shut down for drug-related offences.
She also said since the city’s bylaws do not permit smoking tobacco indoors, it is the lounge’s onus to keep blunts away.
Fourth-year Carleton neuroscience student Vaishnavi Thevan said if she consumed pot, she would “prefer doing it at home safely, with only [her] friends around.”
“I wouldn’t smoke with a bunch of strangers,” she said.
Third-year Carleton philosophy student Zackary Adams said he agreed.
“I don’t smoke regularly, vape or otherwise, and if I did, I would do it in the comfort of my own home or at a friend’s place. The social aspect that a vape lounge seems to look to doesn’t interest me. I would go though, just to look,” he said.
Algonquin College culinary studies student Serenity Rose said she wouldn’t risk vaping at the lounge because of its illegality.
“I’ve gotten into trouble with cops before,” Rose said. “I don’t think even with a medical marijuana license, they’d leave me alone.”
