Anticipating doing some traveling this holiday season and want to know where you can enjoy cannabis culture too? How about a special, cannabis-themed holiday weekend rendezvous? Maybe you’re itching to find out first hand how this legalization thing is going in Washington, Colorado, Alaska or Oregon. Ever wanted to take a cannabis-imbued painting class? Kush Tourism in Seattle has you covered.
Kush Tourism has partnered with local cannabusinesses to establish several innovative tours in the Seattle area. They also have oodles of connections for lodgings, retail stores and more in other Washington cities and in the other legal states. And they are eager to tell you all about it at their website, Kushtourism.com. A state-by-state tour at their well written website is an education in the volatile world of cannabusiness law across much of the West. Anyone involved in the legalization process here in California ought to read the commentary on Washington’s stranglehold tax laws to see what we don’t want to create here at home when it’s our turn. How very nice it is to have all this information so readily at hand. No more hoping you don’t set off the smoke detectors in your “smoke fee” motel room or enduring the stink of a “smoking permitted” room. The excitement of finding all this travel information takes me back to the 80s and my thrill at finding a booklet at an LGBT community center listing lesbian or queer-centric places to stay. First time my lover and I dared to relax while traveling. So, what is Kush Tourism all about? Let’s start with their Seattle tours, oh my! They offer several. Try the primo, a three to four hour Kush Tour of local cannabis culture and industry, including visits to a recreational shop, a glass blowing studio, a cannabis testing facility, and a producer/processor, either Dawg Star Cannabis, Seattle’s first legal grow facility, or Evergreen Herbal Chocolate Factory.
There is also a one-hour tour of Dawg Star Cannabis, to immerse you in the scents and sights of a cannabis garden. There’s even a two-hour cannabis-friendly painting class. Any of these sound like a fabulous way to spend quality time. You can custom-design a group tour with them too. Want a vacation package? Kush Tourism can book it for you in Seattle, Tacoma, Bellingham, Olympia, Yakima, Spokane, or Walla Walla. For a get-away, there’s River House B&B in Nine Mile Falls. And there is limousine service in and out of SeaTac Airport or the cruise ship port. My personal favorite of their offerings states, “Layover Specials. You will need a minimum of a 3.5-hour layover. Pair this with a vaporizer rental to ease your jet lag!” On a personal note, other 60s era folks like me may find the photo of the Kush Tour guides reassuring. Not all of the guides are 20-somethings, as everyone in the Colorado tours scene seems to be from their website photos. I adore people of all ages, but I may want a guide closer to my own age for reasons of culture as well as walking speed. Similarly thorough details are available for travel in Colorado, Alaska and Oregon, with all the information you need to have a safe and satisfying trip. There are different services available in each state. Colorado has speakeasies and lounges as well as an array of tours, lodgings and retail shops. The page on Alaska lodgings cautions the traveler that each facility handles cannabis in its own way and state law is unsettled, with more progressive legislation in the wings. Cannabusinesses in Oregon are just getting going. For now, Kush Tourism lists retail shops and lodgings in Portland and Eugene with more coming soon. Lodgings in all of these states have been verified as cannabisfriendly or tolerant, depending on the current climate. The Kush Tourism website also provides lots of thoughtful information for anyone wanting to find out about cannabis use while traveling in Nevada or California. And, true to form, their blog is well worth reading. You can also read or watch several media reports on the business. Check out their Partners page under the Contacts tab to see a lovely list of Seattle cannabusinesses.
The Kush Tourism mission is “to be a guide for travelers interested in the recreational cannabis culture and industry.” Given how fast laws are changing around the country, it looks like they will have more and more happy tours to offer and vacations to book in more places. Their task, as they declare it, is promoting cannabis culture “as a progressive, and positive movement.” I couldn’t agree more and these folks are a beautiful part of all this unfolding history.
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