Mundelein Is Opening The Suburbs’ First Cannabis Lounge

Bring-your-own cannabis smoking lounges in Illinois are opening at a snail's pace, but there are a few. Now, Mundelein has given the greenlight to the first smoke-on-site business in the Chicago burbs.

At this time, it looks like (forgive me if I missed one) there are around 3-4 cannabis lounges open and doing business here in Illinois. There's Aroma's Hookah Bar in Dekalb, The Luna Lounge in Sesser, and there are plans to open locations in West Peoria and Carbondale, too. All of them are BYOC (bring your own cannabis).

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Seven States Currently Allow For Cannabis Lounges, And Illinois Is One Of Them

However, only Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Nevada actually have cannabis lounges open and running. California and Colorado's COVID regulations have kept their states lounges closed. Don't be a bit surprised to see more states agreeing to lounge openings.

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Why Are There Lounges/Bars To Drink Booze, But Not Lounges/Bars To Smoke Weed?

That's a really great question. Imagine if there were plenty of liquor stores and other places to buy alcohol, but only 3-4 places in the state to actually drink that alcohol. The idea that you could only drink that beer in your own home and nowhere else wouldn't sit really well with the general drinking public. So, why is it different with legal recreational marijuana?

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Clean Air Regulations And Zoning Issues Have Kept The Number Of Lounges Down

In California and Oregon, decades of regulations about indoor air quality (dangers of second-hand smoke) have had to be revisited and altered in order to give the okay to smoke-on-site businesses. There's also the problem of designating most every available commercial building as a "smoke-free" structure. Changing that has brought the threat of lawsuits.

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Mundelein's New Cannabis Lounge, Rise, Has Yet To Announce An Opening Date

One of the differences with Mundelein's new lounge, when compared to others around the country is the availability of cannabis on-site.

DailyHerald.com:

Under its new agreement with Mundelein, Rise will allow lounge customers to consume only cannabis flower, beverages and concentrates purchased at the shop. Edibles will be forbidden because they are easier to unintentionally overconsume, officials have said.
Alcohol will be banned, too.

LOOK: Here are the 25 best places to live in Illinois

Stacker compiled a list of the best places to live in Illinois using data from Niche. Niche ranks places to live based on a variety of factors including cost of living, schools, health care, recreation, and weather. Cities, suburbs, and towns were included. Listings and images are from realtor.com.

On the list, there's a robust mix of offerings from great schools and nightlife to high walkability and public parks. Some areas have enjoyed rapid growth thanks to new businesses moving to the area, while others offer glimpses into area history with well-preserved architecture and museums. Keep reading to see if your hometown made the list.