"Marijuana and Gaming?" Topic

Disclaimer – I live in the state of Colorado where Marijuana is currently legal.

While it is common to enjoy an alcoholic beverage and finger-foods while gaming, hence the term "beer & pretzel game", what about marijuana?

I, having not messed around with the stuff in over 20 years, think that it would cause me personally to lose focus and concentration on the game (too many rules!).

However, could it be opposite? As a late teen I did enjoy playing competitive chess with a good friend while under the influence.

Having no desire to experiment myself at this point in my life but entertaining the idea from a business perspective I ask:

A. Have you?
B. Would you?
C. Have you witnessed it?
D. Would you refuse an opponent knowing that they were?
E. Does it even matter?

I look forward to your thoughts and a non-political mature discussion to follow.

Thanks for your time,
Night Owl

I don't allow smoking tobacco, so I certainly wouldn't allow pot.

Plus it's illegal here w/o a prescription and against the Code of Service Discipline to which I am subject.

Depends on the strain – sativa will help you concentrate, indica won't.

I have gamed under the influence (mildly) before, back in my mis-spent youth. It mostly mellows my competitive side and allows me to enjoy the process and comradeship more than "solving the puzzle." Like drinking beer while gaming, the key is to not do too much of it.

For what it's worth, I live in Washington state, where it's legal. But at my age I can't imagine trying to game while high. I'd just fall asleep.

Thanks for some feedback.

A little background:

In my college town of 20k (50K county) there is no game store and we're looking at the opportunity.

A retail game store would fail – no question.

A Board Game Cafe could survive on very thin ice. So thin that I'm grasping at anything in the air for another angle that might give it the edge that would help it succeed.

Coffee Bar, Bagels, fruit smoothies and so on. Marijuana smoothies? I don't even know the beginning of the legalities but before I expended any energy on research I thought I would pose the question.

Like you, Mserafin, I can't imagine it myself. I'm a triple espresso chased with a red bull kinda gamer. That's just to keep me in a vertical position anymore :)

haha. so, I have a friend who would regularly show up under the influence and it was impossible to get him to focus on the game at hand. he was funny though. he has since taken a break from the substance, and is far more tolerable. he was probably having more fun then though

Night Owl III,
My understanding is that Colorado is already looking at amending its marijuana laws because eating/drinking marijuana products results in them being absorbed through the digestive system, which takes a couple hours. Smoking affects you fairly quickly, though. The result might be to increase the "last turn effect," where gamers launch their cuirassiers in a banzai attack and generally throw caution to the wind, because if they don't win this turn, they never will and there is no tomorrow.

For what it's worth, like James, I'd get fired for using anyway.

Grelber

It is illegal. As a serving officer I am also bound to report illegal activity.

Period.

Eric

I don't even drink, although honestly I think marijuana is less dangerous over all. So I wouldn't partake no matter what.

Having seen people under the influence I probably would rather not have them smoke and then play. But then if someone was flat out drunk I probably would rather they didn't play either.

Pot Cafes have been popular in the Netherlands for many years. Basically, it's another kind of bar, except that it tends to draw foreign tourists who are amazed and thrilled at the very idea. You probably won't get many of those.

Fundamental business problems are similar to those with a bar:

1. Developing a reliable crowd of habitual stoners who will smoke your stuff in your bar and keep you in business, rather than their own at home. Problem: most of the stoners in your area are probably already in the habit of smoking their own at home.

2. Preventing your staff from smoking up all your profits and giving freebies to their friends/sycophants/s.

You'll have your hands full with these problems without even trying to run a game store.

I only smoked it once, but it doesn't count as I was listening to a David Bowie record

If its legal sure. But don't think it is a good idea. Booze has never seemed a good idea, makes people fuzzy. I used to play at a regular game where one guy always gone blitzed, it always ruined the game. I used to be a bar manager, if I wanted to deal with drunks I would have never left the business. Always wonder how the guy who painted that wonderful army felt when grease fingers fondled his standard bearers after two dozen chicken wings and a six pack.

Interesting, thanks again for feedback.

Grelber, I didn't consider the timed effects, much like serving alcohol – 1 drink per hour – good info, thank you.

Eric, thanks for what you do. Your response is important in this hypothetical discussion.

zippyfusenet, I too envision, in a worst case scenario, some den of stoners laying around on pillows praising the hooka gods. Egh. I know that tobacco smoking is not allowed in public places that serve food in our city so I don't think that smoking marijuana would be either hence the "served" portion control.

cosmicbank, I tended bar for more than 15 years and couldn't agree with you more about drunks. My wife and I are fighting the idea of even getting a beer and wine license due to the bad memories. In fact, this whole idea stemmed from the need of providing an alternative to all the bars in our town (16 in a 6 block radius!)

Thanks again all

Ha ha ah you Yanks, you crack me up with all that morality and all. Talk about a country with issues :)

Like all things being non sober relies on all participants being in the same state on the same stuff for it to be fun.

I have gamed with a few different people under thst particular influence over the years, with as many different results as people. It's like alcohol, everyone is different in their intoxication. Me, I turn into a brick and am useless. Big Rich, you couldn't even tell. That other guy, he lost all focus and would get silly.

Personally, I think it could work, but it would depend on how you set up your place and market it. I'm next door to you here in Omaha and we have a "board game cafe" that also serves alcohol and food and they seem to be doing okay.

I use to play in a campaign where 2 of the players got high before each D&D session. The one played a wizard and in an encounter he threw a vorpal blade to deal with the opponents. After he had dispatched them, he forgot to dispel it and promptly walked through his own vorpal blade spell. There was great hilarity had by all, but one.

My experience with the issues above:

Every D&D group I've ever played in since we were adults has had players bring beer, and depending on the host stronger spirits sometimes appear. Occasionally someone over-imbibes and crashes on a couch -- this often coincides with that player having come to the game already exhausted (heavy workweek, jet lagged from travel, etc). Mostly though, the alcohol fits in and is another aspect of our enjoyment of the game session.

In the old old days (30+ years back, high school and college) there were some players who would go out and get stoned and come back and you could tell their judgement was impaired: they would make mistakes, usually unfortunate, sometimes with serious game consequences, occasionally even disastrous for all. The DM we had at that time did not partake, and made it clear how little he appreciated this behavior, but the dope-smoking players were friends of his outside the game group and they were not pushed out.

More recently (last 20 years really) I've played with a different set of players. There are some who go outdoors occasionally for a smoke, and some of these have shown off legally acquired medical marijuana at different times, so I can deduce some of the smoking is not tobacco. When they come back to the game, however, these players mostly keep it together.

Dabbled once or twice, firmly in the "hang 'em all" camp now. Does that make me a hypocrite, or just old?

Not a good idea while gaming.

If the drugs are any good you aren't really going to be in a state to play games. If someone wants to play while stoned, that is fine by me as long as they don't behave like an idiot. What is the difference between doing that and playing while drunk? Half the guys at the club get completely hammered while playing.

Playing a committee game with someone who has done a few lines might be a little tedious.

So it looks like most everyone agrees that playing games with people that are high isn't that enjoyable. This parallels my initial gut feeling.

I'm finding through google that some recipes for cannabis smoothies call for High CBD Strains.

"If you're living in a medical marijuana state, look out for the following high-CBD strains. Many of these varieties have been bred to contain only trace amounts of THC, so they won't produce any psychoactive "high" effect, no matter how you consume them."

link

This is interesting because it begs for me to rephrase the initial questions.

If the smoothies were marketed in such a way as to promote health and well being and did not produce a "psychoactive high effect":

Would you play in a store that sold cannabis smoothies?

Would you avoid a store that sold cannabis smoothies?

Would it matter?

For the record I'm not pro or con. I'm just exploring the idea from an entrepreneurial perspective and trying to entice several target markets that can coexist in one space.

A great economics professor once looked me in the eye and said "It doesn't matter what you like – it's what people will buy that matters."

Personally I don't like smoking anything

We game at the local police station so are a very sober and refined crowd – when I have people over to game in my basement I usually offer them a beer but they rarely take me up on it

I must confess to not being a big fan of marijuana but that is mostly because of research we did on the effect of marijuana on the developing (i.e. young teenager) brain, which is not so good

I've never tried it myself and have no interest to. A big factor for me is that while I could come up with a massive list of famous drinkers I admire for any number of reasons (artistic, spiritual, military, political, etc.), when I think of famous pot-smokers/drug users I find the pickings very slim. In a sense it reminds me of a great quote said by the father of a friend regarding tartan trousers,
"It's not so much I don't like them, I just find I tend not to like the men who wear them."

As long as there is plenty of ventilation (an important caveat),the only smoke I like during a game is from pipes, with a nice aromatic tobacco. Very nice.

I would imagine parents would lay down the law on their kids going to a store that sold Cannabis anything.

Yes – -45+years ago
No
Yes
No
No

In our group we have:
4 ex policemen, 2 were deputy chiefs.
1 serving police constable
1 serving customs supervisor

Not gonna happen.

Haven't touched the stuff in very long time….

when I think of famous pot-smokers/drug users I find the pickings very slim

Perhaps because it's illegal, and people are reticent to admit it?

After sleeping on it I'm not sure the positives outweigh the negatives enough to pursue this one. It would seem that for every guest that I might gain I would lose another who opposed the idea, which in essence puts me back to where I started. The last thing I want is to be viewed by the public as a pot bar that happens to have games.

In addition, it does seem rather counterproductive to the whole idea of war. It probably could be done by the right person but I'm not sure I want to take on the increased liability, responsibility, higher risk of robbery, and additional baby-sitting factors.

We won't rank this pipe dream high on the queue (ha, see what I did there?) and maybe revisit the concept in a year or two into it if the store isn't succeeding. An ace in the hole or a bullet in the foot, not sure which. We'll continue our search to find that elusive third leg of the tripod that will compliment and support a game store.

Thanks so much to everyone for keeping it real,
Night Owl

There are cheaper alternatives for flock than using weed… :-p

Were it legal… I still wouldn't partake while gaming. It's hard enough for me to focus as it is, I don't think I could functionally wargame while high.

Friend and I would have some beers (and an occasional shot) while gaming at his place. He did his pot out on the front porch afterwards (didn't ask why, perhaps the wife didn't want him smoking indoors).

Second hand pot smoke is no more appealing to me than cigarette.

Oh, wow! Um…cool idea…um yeah…

Zippyfusenet,

Your initial response played heavy on our decision – thanks for pointing out some things that we hadn't considered!

Not a chance, ever.

Zargon-
no need to editorialize, especially when you don't reveal your own country of origin so there can be an equally sarcastic, caustic remark coming your way

Maybe not a table top game but playing D&D was fun…errrrm, I mean could be fun…