Denver Votes To Allow Use Of Marijuana In Restaurants And Bars

Denver recently passed Proposition 300, a measure involving a four-year pilot program that allows businesses, such as restaurants and bars, to give adult patrons over the age of 21 the option to use marijuana at the venue.

"It's the sensible thing to do," Emmett Reistroffer, a Denver marijuana consultant and campaign manager for the pot-in-bars measure, told the Associated Press. "This is about personal responsibility and respecting adults who want to have a place to enjoy cannabis."

With Proposition 300 comes a few conditions. First, businesses will have to get approval from the surrounding area prior to obtaining a license for marijuana use. Patrons will also have to supply their own marijuana.

Second, marijuana can be used inside as long as it isn't smoked; outside smoking areas may be possible under the law as well.

Proposition 300 allows marijuana users the opportunity to consume cannabis without fear of arrest. It could also minimize incidents of tourists smoking weed on sidewalks and in parks, Mason Tvert, a spokesman for the national Marijuana Policy Project and a Denver proponent of the consumption law, told the AP.

The pilot program will end in 2020, unless city officials renew the measure or make it permanent.