California pot shops can serve food and drinks like Amsterdam ‘cafes’ under new bill

Californians will be able to eat, drink and spark up at Amsterdam-style cannabis cafes under a new bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom this week.

Beginning on Jan. 1, cities in the Golden State can allow marijuana dispensaries to serve fresh hot food and non-alcoholic beverages to their clientele and even host live concerts and comedy shows.

“Cannabis cafes are going to be a huge part of the future of cannabis in our state and help to beat back the illegal drug market,” Assemblyman Matt Haney (D-San Francisco), who authored the bill, told the Los Angeles Times.

Stoners can already smoke, vape and scarf down edible samples at some dispensaries, but the businesses are only permitted to sell prepackaged snacks and drinks to customers. 

The new bill is modeled off that of Amsterdam, where cannabis has been available at coffee shops for half a century, according to the paper.

Haney and other supporters of the bill believe that a more relaxed and comfortable cannabis culture could breathe fresh air into the state’s nightlife and provide a much-needed boost to the state’s $5 billion marijuana industry.

The bill was backed by the United Fruit and Commercial Workers’ Union, whose numbers have been steadily growing among dispensary and grow facility workers.

Detractors, however, claimed the measure will bring back the health risks associated with secondhand smoke nearly 30 years after California banned smoking cigarettes indoors.

Newsom vetoed legislation similar to Monday’s bill last year over health concerns.

“As I stated in my veto message of a similar measure last year, protecting the health and safety of workers is paramount to upholding California’s long-standing smoke-free workplace protections,” Newsom said in a statement.

“I commend the author for incorporating additional safeguards, such as expressly protecting employees discretion to wear a mask for respiration, paid for at the expense of the employer, and requiring employees to receive additional guidance on the risks of secondhand cannabis smoke,” he added.

The American Cancer Society and other public health advocates urged Newsom to veto this year’s bill even with the changes, arguing that secondhand pot smoke has higher particulate levels than tobacco smoke. 

Those exposed to the smoke could develop issues with the heart and lungs, the organizations said.

Jim Knox, the California managing director for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, says the new law will undo the decades it took to get smoking banned from all workplaces.

Californians will be able to “smoke in a restaurant for the first time in 30 years,” Knox told the LA Times.

“That is a big step backward,” he said.

Knox said his group will shift its fight to the municipal level and lobby local governments to “resist efforts that would undermine our history of smoke-free restaurants and roll back critical public health protections.”

Dispensaries who apply for a permit to serve food and drinks and let customers toke must have ventilation systems that prevent “smoke and odors from migrating to any other part of the building hosting the consumption lounge or any neighboring building or grounds.”

In addition to providing respiration masks, employers must also include secondhand smoke in their injury and illness prevention plans required under California labor law.

Knox blasted those protections as “nonsense” that “underscore that there’s a public health risk.”

“There is very well established science and industry knowledge that you cannot isolate smoke — it can’t be done,” Knox told the newspaper. “The only way to prevent migration of smoke is to not allow smoking.”

It is “critical” that local governments put workers’ safety first foremost when considering the permits, Newsom said.

“If adequate protections are not established at the local level, it could necessitate reconsideration of this limited expansion,” he said.