Crystal Nugs Dispensary & Delivery plans to add an on-site cannabis consumption lounge at 2300 J St. in Sacramento’s Midtown. Owner Maisha Bahati confirmed to What Now Sacramento that, if all goes well, the lounge will most likely open in early 2028.
The timeline is long because the lounge has to clear several steps. Crystal Nugs plans to apply for a conditional use permit in January, a process Bahati expects to take about six months. After that, building the ventilation system required for a lounge where customers can smoke will take another six to seven months.
Crystal Nugs is applying for a Type 2 permit, one of two types the city offers. A Type 1 lounge allows only ingestible products such as edibles and infused drinks, while a Type 2 also allows inhaled products, including smoking and vaping. Customers must be 21 or older.
The lounge will be a seated space that requires a reservation. The city has allowed it to apply for an entertainment license and to serve prepackaged food, and Bahati said the menu will be specialized. “It’s going to be a place where people can come and be social,” she said. “I think cannabis consumers like new things for cannabis. It’s going to be an experience that many people have not had before.” She added that the space will use “a lot of technology.”
Lounges are part of a pilot program the Sacramento City Council approved in 2024. Under it, lounges can operate inside existing cannabis businesses in spaces of no more than 1,500 square feet. The program is scheduled to run for five years, and each council district is limited to five lounges, according to a city spokesperson cited by the Sacramento Business Journal. The permit fees are $7,238 for Type 1 and $9,651 for Type 2, and Bahati has said building out the space could cost $250,000 to $300,000.
Crystal Nugs has been working toward the lounge for years. It started in 2019 as a delivery-only service and opened its dispensary in 2023. “We’ve been in this industry since it started here in Sacramento, legally, and we’ve been able to hang on and scale,” Bahati said.
She said the oversight is part of what makes the project meaningful. “We’re working very closely with the city departments. This is obviously something new, so there’s a lot of oversight,” she said. “We’ve been in our community almost four years, and we’ve had no problems. This is a place where it’s going to be safe. We’re checking all the boxes to make sure our community is safe and that everyone is on the same page. We just want to continue being good neighbors in our community and a good business partner for Sacramento,” Bahati told What Now Sacramento.
