Last week, California State Assemblymember Matt Haney (D\u2013San Francisco) introduced a bill that would allow licensed cannabis sellers in the state to also sell non-intoxicating foods and beverages to their adult customers, the <\/span>San Francisco Chronicle<\/span><\/i> reported<\/span><\/a> this week.<\/span><\/p>\n

The new bill, <\/span>A.B. 374<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>would amend California law to allow licensees to sell freshly made foods that don’t contain cannabis and beverages that don’t contain alcohol. The bill would also allow sellers to host live musical performances and to sell tickets to same. The bill’s passage would meet a growing need\u2014and could result in a welcome proliferation of authentic cannabis cafes and similar businesses.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Many people want to consume cannabis socially while having a sandwich or listening to music,” Haney told the <\/span>Chronicle<\/span><\/i>. “We should allow that.”<\/span><\/p>\n

We should! Mostly, though, we don’t.<\/span><\/p>\n

In states such as California, where adults can legally buy cannabis, a common problem arises. Other than partaking inside one’s home, legal spaces for cannabis consumption\u2014<\/span>third places<\/span><\/a>\u2014are limited or nonexistent. Commercial establishments where people may legally buy and eat food and buy and drink alcohol are ubiquitous\u2014from bars and restaurants to sports stadiums to concert venues and more. But equivalent, <\/span>Amsterdam-style spaces<\/span><\/a> in which to enjoy <\/span>cannabis with food<\/span><\/a> are largely nonexistent.<\/span><\/p>\n

California lets local governments establish conditions for licensed cannabis sellers to allow customers to consume cannabis and cannabis products <\/span>on-site. Hence, a<\/span>s AB 374’s subject matter suggests, a primary obstacle (though <\/span>hardly the only one<\/span><\/a>) to the spread of such businesses in California today isn’t what they sell (pot)\u2014it’s what they can’t sell (fresh food).<\/span><\/p>\n

“Under California law, cannabis consumption lounges are not allowed to sell freshly prepared food to their patrons,” <\/span>High Times<\/span><\/i> noted this week in a <\/span>report<\/span><\/a> on the new bill. “A rule change adopted in November 2022 allows lounges to offer prepackaged food and beverages and for customers to bring their own freshly prepared items on a limited basis, but the businesses themselves are denied the opportunity to serve [non-cannabis] products to their customers.”<\/span><\/p>\n

At least one ahead-of-the-curve city in California\u2014West Hollywood\u2014has reaped the benefits of allowing such food sales several years ago.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Officials began making long-term plans to handle cannabis consumption lounges well before California’s adult-use became legal in 2017, launching a permit process to have 10 dispensaries and 16 consumption lounges within the compact city of WeHo in short order,” Eater L.A. <\/em><\/span>reported<\/span><\/a> last year.<\/span><\/p>\n

That foresight resulted in the <\/span>opening<\/span><\/a> in 2019 of the Original Cannabis Caf\u00e9 (nee Lowell Caf\u00e9), which Eater dubbed “the nation’s first cannabis consumption lounge.” The caf\u00e9 saw <\/span>long lines and huge demand<\/span><\/a>, as <\/span>Reason<\/span><\/i>‘s Zach Weissmueller <\/span>detailed<\/span><\/a> after it opened.<\/span><\/p>\n

But what customers saw at Lowell’s\u2014a single business allowing adults to smoke pot while enjoying tasty, freshly prepared food\u2014was largely an illusion. Its opening required plenty of<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>regulatory gymnastics<\/span><\/a>\u2014including creating <\/span>separate, though outwardly seamless<\/span><\/a> businesses\u2014to get around the food and drink ban and comply with state law. Despite those difficulties, <\/span>similar cafes<\/span><\/a> in WeHo soon <\/span>followed<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Passage of the new bill, though, would eliminate the food-and-drink barrier and ensure the further spread of cannabis cafes across California. It would also see California follow nationwide leader Colorado.<\/span><\/p>\n

“A law that\u00a0<\/span>takes effect<\/span><\/a>\u00a0on Wednesday will allow cannabis consumption in specially licensed pot shops, restaurants, and other businesses, including mobile ‘marijuana hospitality establishments’ such as tour buses,” <\/span>Reason<\/span><\/i>‘s Jacob Sullum explained in a 2019 <\/span>piece<\/span><\/a> on Colorado’s first-in-the-nation commercial consumption law. “<\/span>The\u00a0<\/span>law<\/span><\/a>\u00a0addresses a\u00a0<\/span>predicament<\/span><\/a>\u00a0that has long puzzled out-of-state visitors who stop by dispensaries in cities such as Denver and Pueblo, only to discover that there are virtually no places where they can legally consume the marijuana they have just legally bought.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The Colorado law has already helped <\/span>launch<\/span><\/a> a <\/span>host<\/span><\/a> of <\/span>new businesses<\/span><\/a>.<\/span> That state recognized that instead of forcing cannabis users to smoke on city streets and in parks\u2014which can promote <\/span>complaints<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>conflict<\/span><\/a>\u2014fostering a culture of relaxed, enjoyable consumption of cannabis and food in spaces used for legal cannabis sales is good for consumers, businesses, and non-consumers alike. It’s high time California and other states followed suit.<\/span><\/p>\n

The post New California Bill Proposes Legalizing Authentic Cannabis Cafes<\/a> appeared first on Reason.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cannabis consumers should have the same commercial leisure spaces that alcohol drinkers do. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":""},"categories":[19,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84391"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84391\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/3rdcitynews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}