California already hosts “hashish lounges,” the place dispensaries are hooked up to separate bars or eating places.
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Starting subsequent yr, diners within the western US state of California can smoke hashish at sure eating places, due to a brand new legislation permitting for “hashish cafes” akin to these popularized within the Netherlands.
Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom signed a invoice into legislation Monday authorizing companies which can be already licensed to promote hashish to serve scorching meals and non-alcoholic drinks.
It should go into impact on January 1, 2025.
California legalized leisure hashish in 2016, however dispensaries that promote the substance legally stay much less in style than the black market.
“Proper now, our small hashish companies are struggling to compete towards unlawful drug sellers that do not comply with the legislation or pay taxes,” mentioned state assemblyman Matt Haney, who authored the invoice.
“So as to make sure the authorized hashish market can survive and thrive in California, we have now to permit them to adapt, innovate and supply merchandise and experiences that prospects need,” Haney continued.
Some cities like West Hollywood, close to Los Angeles, have been calling for such laws for years.
The liberal enclave hopes to compete with Amsterdam and already hosts “hashish lounges,” the place dispensaries are hooked up to separate bars or eating places.
Now, the legislation will enable any enterprise within the state to comply with the identical mannequin with out falling right into a authorized grey space.
Not everyone seems to be in favor of the transfer, nonetheless.
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Public well being advocates have expressed concern in regards to the impact smoking hashish in eating places can have on lung well being.
“Secondhand marijuana smoke has lots of the identical carcinogens and poisonous chemical substances as secondhand tobacco smoke,” learn a press release from the American Most cancers Society’s advocacy department.
The brand new legislation “undermines the state’s smoke-free eating places legislation and compromises its enforcement, thus threatening to roll again a long time of hard-won protections of everybody’s proper to breathe clear, smoke-free air.”
California notably banned smoking in bars and eating places practically 30 years in the past, the primary US state to take action.
Newsom had vetoed a special model of the invoice final yr, citing the well being issues.
Nonetheless, the brand new model of the legislation signed Monday will embody parameters to make sure workers in hashish cafes can put on masks to guard themselves and learn of the dangers of inhaling secondhand hashish smoke.
