Fact Finders: Marijuana in Missouri hotels and motels?
SPRINGFIELD - The use of recreational marijuana for those 21 and older became legal in Missouri this month. The constitutional amendment (article 14 of the Missouri Constitution) has triggered several viewer questions.
One of our viewers wants to know; can visitors travel to Missouri to consume and smoke marijuana in hotels?
Voters passed approved the issue in November. It allows you to have up to 3 ounces of dried marijuana flower or its equivalent for recreational use. So, what about smoking it in the privacy of your hotel room?
The general manager of a St. Louis hotel told KY3 many hotels are 100% non-smoking. And that means no smoking of any kind. Mark Brown with Embassy Suites says this is the same policy regarding tobacco or marijuana. He says hotels are private entities, and they can set their own rules on marijuana.
The Branson Area Lodging Association has not taken an official position on this topic. But Laurie Hayes tells us, The City of Branson has a smoking ordinance. It makes smoking marijuana in a hotel designated as a non-smoking building a misdemeanor.
While some cities may enact local marijuana rules, Dan Viets with Missouri NORML tells us there’s nothing in the amendment forbidding a hotel from setting up a room or the whole building as marijuana-friendly, just like some are pet friendly.
“I think it’s a big attraction for a lot of people to know that they’re allowed to actually smoke cannabis in a controlled environment and not be found in violation of the rules,” Explained Dan Viets with The National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). “The primary threat is a charge of, of at least a couple of hundred dollars to clean a room.”
You can’t walk into a store and buy marijuana for recreational use. The state deadline for recreational marijuana sales is in early February 2023.
Returning to our viewer’s question, can visitors travel to Missouri to consume and smoke marijuana in Missouri hotels? The answer is slightly complicated. You’ll need to ask a couple of questions before booking a place to stay. Does the hotel have a no-smoking policy, and does the city you’re visiting have a no-smoking policy for hotels? If so, we slide this to NO.
On the other hand, it would be tough for a hotel to enforce a policy against using edibles in your room. And other states, like Colorado, have so-called marijuana-friendly hotels, so if you’re using edibles or booking into a marijuana-friendly hotel, the answer changes to YES.
The best advice if this is what you want, call ahead.
