Colorado Cannabis Tours Now Permitted to Hit the Road

Two more marijuana-friendly party buses will be ready in time for 4/20, now that Colorado Cannabis Tours has received a mobile marijuana hospitality permit.

More than ten years after recreational marijuana was legalized in Colorado, permitted spaces allowing indoor marijuana consumption are hard to find in Denver. A single licensed marijuana lounge is currently operating within the city, and that establishment only allows electronic vaping indoors. But as brick-and-mortar locations struggle to meet indoor ventilation guidelines, mobile lounges have emerged as an easier option for indoor smoking.

Colorado Cannabis Tours became the second business in Denver history to receive a mobile hospitality permit under the city's social pot consumption program. The permit, issued on Friday, April 14, allows owner Michael Eymer to operate two marijuana-friendly vehicles within Denver city limits, and he has plenty of plans and experience.

For starters, Colorado Cannabis Tours is already booking pot-friendly tours around town, with itineraries that hit up popular marijuana growing operations and dispensaries. The vehicles will also serve as lounges where guests can light up before returning to Colorado Cannabis Tours headquarters, where they can participate in painting classes, karaoke and other activities that pair well with the plant.
"My goal has always been to have my buses ready for 4/20, and we're pretty much there now. The buses will also clear the way for Puff, Pass and Paint classes," Eymer says. "We're going to start offering more variants to Puff, Pass and Paint, too."

Scenic tours around popular Denver art spots with stops for good views are also in the hopper, according to Eymer.

"We want to start attracting more locals. During the COVID lockdown, when dispensaries weren't allowing grow tours, I did mountain and lookout tours instead," he says.

Colorado Cannabis Tours operated under a state law that allowed pot use in privately zoned properties and in the back of private, registered limousines or buses for around a decade, but bus riders haven't been allowed to consume marijuana within Denver city limits since 2018, when the Denver Police Department began cracking down on unlicensed mobile marijuana lounges. After that, Eymer operated tours outside city limits for a time, but earlier this year he opted to pursue an official marijuana hospitality license from the City of Denver.

Now Colorado Cannabis is fully permitted to operate two buses in Denver, and Eymer is revved up for 4/20. He's also pursuing a marijuana hospitality permit for outdoor use at Colorado Cannabis Tours headquarters, 1904 South Cherokee Street, where he plans to offer more marijuana-friendly activities such as video game and movie nights. First, however, Colorado Cannabis Tours must complete some indoor renovations and pass a few city inspections. At first Eymer planned to offer indoor smoking, but he has since pivoted to outdoor smoking and indoor vaping after learning more about Denver's indoor ventilation requirements.

"If we could do that to our model and then have a nice outdoor smoking area, then we're golden," Eymer says of his efforts to get a building hospitality permit. "As far as a target date for the building, it's always tomorrow until it's today. I'm hopeful the city is genuine and is trying to do the right thing. If that's the case, then we should all be able to operate that way."

Denver's marijuana hospitality program has approved a small handful of establishments, but only one of them, the Coffee Joint, is currently open and operating. In February, the Cannabis Experience became the first business to receive a mobile permit under Denver's social pot consumption program; the party bus now offers marijuana-friendly rides to Denver International Airport as well as tours around the city.