California to allow eating, smoking at Amsterdam-style cannabis cafes

Regardless of issues concerning the well being dangers of secondhand smoke, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday signed a bill that can enable hashish dispensaries to serve scorching meals and nonalcoholic drinks.

Assembly Bill 1775, which fits into impact Jan. 1, offers California cities the choice of permitting dispensaries to organize and serve scorching meals and nonalcoholic drinks on web site, in addition to host stay performances comparable to live shows and comedy exhibits.

Prospects can already smoke, vape and pattern edibles in some Golden State dispensaries, however the companies are solely allowed to promote prepackaged snacks and drinks.

Supporters say {that a} extra comfy leisure weed tradition will assist reinvigorate California nightlife and increase earnings for the state’s extremely taxed, extremely regulated authorized hashish dispensaries, which compete with black-market sellers.

“Hashish cafes are going to be an enormous a part of the way forward for hashish in our state and assist to beat again the unlawful drug market,” stated Assemblymember Matt Haney (D-San Francisco), who authored the invoice.

The “hashish cafe” mannequin has been in comparison with Amsterdam, the place the consumption of hashish has been authorized at espresso outlets for the reason that Nineteen Seventies.

The invoice had the assist of the United Meals and Industrial Employees union, which has unionized staff at dozens of dispensaries and develop services in California.

Newsom vetoed an analogous invoice final 12 months over issues that meals staff and patrons might face well being dangers after being uncovered to secondhand smoke.

The American Most cancers Society and different public well being teams pushed Newsom to veto this 12 months’s invoice, arguing that secondhand marijuana smoke has greater particulate ranges than tobacco smoke and may trigger well being points together with heart problems, lung irritation and bronchial asthma assaults.

Jim Knox, the California managing director for the American Most cancers Society Most cancers Motion Community, stated in an announcement that the brand new legislation will undermine the state’s decades-long battle to create smoke-free workplaces and will hamper the cultural shift away from smoking indoors.

Knox stated that lawmakers and Newsom “prioritized the marijuana business’s pursuits over public well being.”

He stated the group will proceed to induce native cities to “resist efforts that will undermine our historical past of smoke-free eating places and roll again vital public well being protections.”

The invoice signed into legislation Monday says that, if cities select to impose air flow requirements as a situation for a allow, the techniques should be highly effective sufficient to forestall “smoke and odors from migrating to another a part of the constructing internet hosting the consumption lounge or any neighboring constructing or grounds.”

The invoice additionally clarifies that hashish cafe staff have the suitable to put on respirator masks, paid for by their employers. Employers would even be required to incorporate secondhand smoke of their harm and sickness prevention plans required underneath California labor legislation.

In his signing message, Newsom wrote that future payments that diverge from the invoice’s “tailor-made strategy” to employee protections towards secondhand smoke “won’t be appeared upon favorably.”

Newsom wrote that it is going to be “vital” for native governments to prioritize employee security and work to attenuate public security dangers. In the event that they don’t, he stated, “it might necessitate reconsideration of this restricted growth.”