Entrance to BuzzOn, Ottawa’s first vapour lounge. The lounge aims to provide a safe, social environment for cannabis users in the city. THE JUNCTION/Darren Major.
“We’re like Cheers here,” owner Wayne Robillard says of Ottawa’s first marijuana vapour lounge. “If you walk in, we probably know your name.”
As Robillard sits on a black leather couch in the back lounge area of BuzzOn, he socializes with some middle-aged patrons as they use the lounge’s array of vaporizers.
“I was in Toronto and my friend asked me to go to a bar. I told him I didn’t drink, so he took me to Vapor Central, and since then, I knew we needed a vaporizer lounge in Ottawa,” he says.
The lounge, which is ostensibly for medical marijuana users, shut down a month after it opened last spring due to building code violations. It reopened just days before the election of a Liberal government that promised to legalize marijuana.
Owner Wayne Robillard poses in the BuzzOn vaporizer lounge. Robillard says he is not worried about recent legislation banning vaporizer lounges. THE JUNCTION/Darren Major.
Like vapour lounges in cities such as Toronto, Vancouver and Kingston, Ont., BuzzOn’s goal is to provide a safe, social environment for cannabis users to consume the substance.
Robillard says BuzzOn opens its doors to people stigmatized by their use of cannabis.
“It’s very chill, very relaxed,” he says. “We never have a fight here; we never have an issue here; we don’t worry about theft — not to say that it would never happen, but these are issues you typically don’t deal with at a lounge that you would at a bar.”
However, even if cannabis is legalized at a federal level, legislation passed by the Ontario government may snuff out new lounges, like BuzzOn. Ontario’s Electronic Cigarettes Act will eventually ban the use of electronic cigarettes — including vaporizers — in all places where smoking is banned.
While there’s no set date for the legislation to come into effect, Rideau-Vanier Counc. Mathieu Fleury doubts that lounges like BuzzOn will be able to operate once the act is enforced.
Robillard says he isn’t worried, though, because it is unclear how the legislation will be enforced. “I don’t see the lounges in Toronto panicking, so I’m not panicking,” he says.
Inclusive space for cannabis enthusiasts
Besides offering board games and a VIP video game area, the lounge hosts a variety musical and comedy shows. “We have everything from 18-year-olds who come in because it’s Friday night and they’re looking to socialize or to play our PlayStation 4s, right up to 65-year-olds who come in to medicate,” Robillard says. “We aren’t looking for a specific demographic.”
BuzzOn operates on a membership-based business model. Customers pay a daily, monthly, quarterly, or annual fee to use the lounge and its vaporizers. They must bring their own cannabis, as the sale of the substance is prohibited on the premises.
Mixed reaction to BuzzOn
“You can’t smoke in your yard or in your car, because then people call the police and you have to suffer the embarrassment of having two cop cars show up, bang on your door and you have to explain that you’re just medicating.”
Fleury says complaints about BuzzOn, located on Montreal Road in Vanier, are few and far between. “From neighbouring businesses, we do get calls — not [related] to BuzzOn specifically — but other areas where they do sell e-cigarettes and so on.”
In the past, Mayor Jim Watson has said the lounge “is the last thing the city needs” and encouraged those with medical marijuana licences to consume it on their own property.
Robillard says he feels the municipal government is unfairly singling out his lounge. He says the city has “been aware of the hookah lounges and the shisha lounges operating in the city for years now, but hasn’t aggressively pursued them.
“What the hell makes a vapour lounge any different?” he asks.
Chris Ducas, former board member of Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy and current vice-president of communications at RockGarden Medicinals says the mayor’s stance stigmatizes those who consume the substance medicinally.
“I think it’s important for people who use a stigmatized medication to have a safe place to gather, share tips on how to honour best practices and develop a community amongst each other,” he says.
It’s a sentiment echoed by Robillard. “You can’t smoke in your yard or in your car, because then people call the police and you have to suffer the embarrassment of having two cop cars show up, bang on your door and you have to explain that you’re just medicating,” he says.
Eugene Oscapella, a lawyer who specializes in drug policy, says if the government does legalize marijauna, the legislation would likely “allow the consumption of cannabis in a communal setting as we do with bars and alcohol right now.” Still, he says it will be a complex process for the government to regulate cannabis and determine where cannabis can be consumed and sold.
Robillard says he is optimistic legalization will provide more opportunities for lounges to open in Ottawa.
“I think there will be more lounges, and I also think there should be,” Robillard says. “I hope I can be on some of the cutting edges of those lounges.”
