California Cannabis. (Photo: cdfa.ca.gov/calcannabis)
Crazifornia: Amsterdam-Style Cannabis Cafes Coming to a Neighborhood Near You
Will we be legalizing prostitutes to sell their wares in store windows next?
By Katy Grimes, October 4, 2024 8:34 am
Sacramento is rolling out cannabis consumption lounges and cannabis cafes, under a bill just signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom. There will be permitted smoking lounges as well as edible lounges, similar to pot cafes in Amsterdam.
So lighting up a Marlborough light in a restaurant after a fine meal is illegal, but lighting up a doobie isn’t now?
Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1775 by Assemblyman Matt Haney (D-San Francisco), which allows cities in California to have marijuana dispensaries within marijuana cafes to prepare and serve hot food and nonalcoholic drinks, along with live entertainment, according to Newsom’s signing message.
“Lots of people want to enjoy legal cannabis in the company of others and many people want to do that while sipping coffee, eating a sandwich or listening to music,” Assemblyman Haney said Monday.
Sure. People “just want to enjoy cannabis in the company of others”… except “Smoke from marijuana is a mixture of many chemicals which may be dangerous. Marijuana smoke contains many of the same cancer-causing chemicals as tobacco smoke, and certain chemicals like cyanide and ammonia are significantly higher in marijuana smoke compared to cigarette smoke. Parents should keep their children away from marijuana smoke,” reports the University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences.
Haney explains the justification for this new law:
California is famous for its cannabis culture driven by the state’s early adoption of medical cannabis and expertise in cultivation. But California fails to keep up with one city for the world title of cannabis culture: Amsterdam. In the Netherlands, Amsterdam’s cannabis cafes thrive as a part of the city’s unique social structure, and capitalizes on the social nature of cannabis through coffee, food, and live music – all opportunities that are currently illegal under California law. AB 1775 will allow cannabis retailers to diversify their business and move away from the struggling and limited dispensary model by selling non-cannabis-infused foods.
Ah, California needs to keep up with Amsterdam. Will we be legalizing prostitutes to sell their wares in store windows next?
In 2021, the Globe reported on California’s legal recreational and medicinal cannabis industry, which is not only “the biggest government-sanctioned market in the nation,” but also the “biggest legal marijuana market in the world,” a report issued by the Governmental Accountability Institute said.
- Individual cannabis permits in the state have sold for as much as $17 million.
- There were more than 7,500 active cannabis licenses in California in 2020, including 910 retail dispensaries.
And Sacramento was ground-zero for dubious public-private interactions between local and state regulators and the industry. “Sacramento has even attracted national headlines because of its connection to a scheme that violated federal election laws.”
The GAI said:
“…evidence suggests that the current California framework allows for increased corruption in a system where ‘money talks.’”
Where California’s pot industry gets dodgy is how many politicians and dozens of former government officials are involved. GAI found many left government to work for cannabis companies and the lobbying firms representing them. And the tangled web of state and local regulations has only boosted corruption.
“Part of the problem is rooted in California’s dual regulatory structure, which forces cannabis businesses to comply with state and local government requirements,” GAI reports. “With the approval of state cannabis licenses in the hands of city councils, ‘a conflicting patchwork of local laws’ has emerged. Ultimately, with this type of decentralized permitting, ‘corruption can span from the highest to the lowest level of public officials.’ Since then, California has become a focus in the FBI’s investigation. At issue is whether local officials have abused the cannabis regulatory systems that they helped create.”
Assemblyman Haney reintroduced the bill after last year’s veto, “with the support of the United Commercial and Food Workers to ensure cannabis lounge workers are protected from secondhand smoke impacts at work.”
How? According to Haney, “adequate ventilation and filtration systems,” and employees can “wear masks,” and “would be provided guidance regarding secondhand cannabis smoke.”
Totally colossal plan dude.
“The author believes this new language appropriately balances public health concerns with the intended benefits of the bill.”
Will patrons be offered masks as well, because we all know that masks don’t filter smoke…
In April 2021, the Globe reported on a Doctor who used vape clouds to illustrate how masks do not work.
The video is priceless.
Haney said, “The bill levels the playing field for the highly taxed and regulated legal cannabis industry that is being forced to compete in California with a thriving cannabis black market.”
California is really only trying to squeeze out the unregulated, cheaper cannabis black market.
As we reported in 2021, the City of Sacramento announced it was awarded $1.8 million in state funding to increase “equity” in its local cannabis industry. The funding — part of the “Cannabis Equity Grants Program for Local Jurisdictions” — comes from the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development, in partnership with the Bureau of Cannabis Control.
This is bread and circuses – comes from Roman satirist Juvenal, meaning that spectator sports and mass spectacle can distract people from politics and society.
And California’s politicians want their cut and kickbacks.
California’s ridiculous, unserious politicians rival only the ridiculous, unserious members of Congress at this point.
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As Katy Grimes pointed out, it’s hypocritical for Newsom and legislative Democrats like Assemblyman Matt Haney to allow marijuana to be smoked in “permitted smoking lounges” but not in restaurants, bars or other businesses? It’s laughably ridiculous that Democrat Assemblyman Matt Haney tried to claim that wearing masks and ventilation systems in “permitted smoking lounges” would protect workers and other patrons from the harmful impacts of secondhand smoke.
Democrat Assemblyman Matt Haney is a radical far-left Stanford trained lawyer who represents Assembly District 17 which includes the eastern portion of San Francisco. Haney is also a member of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus but he didn’t issue a peep when hundreds of pro-Hamas terrorist demonstrators stormed the State Capitol in Sacramento and shut down the Assembly session back in January.
Haney was the former National Policy Director for The Dream Corps which is a non-profit that he co-founded with with fellow radicals Van Jones and Jessica Jackson that that supposedly works to end “mass incarceration, climate change, and poverty.” He also co-founded #cut50, an Oakland-based national nonprofit that also supposedly works to end “mass incarceration.”
While Haney was the president of the San Francisco Unified School District Board of Education, he proposed that Washington High School in San Francisco be renamed because he said that “no schools named after slave owners.” Haney co-authored a resolution in 2018 to establish a panel to examine which schools to rename.
Haney had previously teamed up with Democrat Senator Scott Wiener to push for legislation that would have allowed for the operation of open drug dens in Los Angeles and San Francisco Counties.
Much like Democrat Senator Senator Scott Wiener, Democrat Assemblyman Matt Haney is a dangerous leftist ideologue from San Francisco? Who wouldn’t be surprised if both of them weren’t working for the WEF globalists to weaken and destroy the state? Maybe both are part of the criminal “Khazarian Mafia” who hide behind a Jewish identity?
Noooooo!
Unfortunately yes, due to the passage of Prop. 64 – Crazifornia, Welcome to the Pot Head State.
I don’t understand the outrage. California has been associated with marijuana for a very long time. Some of the finest weed in the world has been grown in places like Mendocino and Humboldt counties for decades. Who wouldn’t want to have a legal and taxed marijuana market rather than an untaxed black market? It works for alcohol, so why not bud? Legalized marijuana makes sense, illegalizing tobacco doesn’t. And why not legalized prostitution in designated places? Nevada does it with no problem. Ever been to Amsterdam? It’s a nice place! I’ll take more freedom over less any day, and I think most readers would agree with that.
First of all, you’re delusional if you think that Gavin Newsom and your Democrat masters in the legislature are offering you more freedom by allowing you to be able to smoke marijuana in one of their “permitted smoking lounges” where you’ll pay premium prices and high taxes? How will this level the playing field and allow the highly taxed and regulated legal cannabis industry to compete with the thriving cannabis black market? It won’t?
Secondly, why should the smoking of marijuana be legal in one of their “designated smoking lounges” but not cigarettes when marijuana smoke contains many of the same cancer-causing chemicals as tobacco smoke, and certain chemicals like cyanide and ammonia are significantly higher in marijuana smoke compared to cigarette smoke? It total hypocrisy?
Thirdly, prostitution is legal in only seven rural counties in Nevada where it’s highly regulated but prostitution is thriving unabated in cities like Las Vegas and Reno where it’s illegal. Prostitution seems not to be a major concern of law enforcement in most jurisdictions in California? How will legalizing it change anything?
Finally, many of us have been to Amsterdam and found it to be dirty, crime infested, and filled with illegal migrants. It wasn’t nice.
Nice rebuttal to the Greenie, TJ. 😉
I agree that California’s handling of marijuana legalization is a hot mess, but to follow your logic, we should be closing down bars and taverns because alcohol is regulated and taxed by the State, and they don’t let you conume in the street.
Cannabis bars are step in the right direction- being able to enjoy burning a leaf in a private enterprise is certainly more freedom than not being able to. You’ll note I completely disagree with the demonization of tobacco, it’s illogical and hypocritical. But half a loaf is better than none.
Amsterdam got the forumla right in regards to both marijuana and prostitution. Legalization of both of these victimless “crimes” created a whole industry, the associated problems are much less than they were when such activites were out on the stree, and they did that by not over taxing and by cracking down on the black market. It could work here if the fools in Sacramento taxed less and enforced more.
Sorry to hear you don’t find Amsterdam a nice place. Perhaps Singapore would be more your speed.
@Alex Green, to my knowledge the cartels are not profiting from moving Jim Beam or Bud Light. On the other hand, they ARE profiting from trafficking in pot and people, including children. Interesting that you would mention Singapore. As you know, a major pedophile operation was busted in nearby Thailand recently – a veritable pedophile hotel for rich westerners. As someone once said, “Tell me who you run with, and I’ll tell you who (what) you are.” See Derek’s comment below.
Katy, “Crazifornia” sounds like fun. I prefer “Sick-a-fornia.” Have you read “Red Cocaine?” You can download a free copy over at educational whistleblower Charlotte Iserbyt’s personal library. http://www.AmericanDeception.com. “Dr. Joseph Douglass Jr., PhD. is a national security analyst and author with expertise in defense policy, threat assessment, deception, intelligence and political warfare, nuclear strategy, terrorism, advanced chemical and biological warfare agents and applications, and international narcotics trafficking. Since the mid-1980s, his primary focus has been research into various dimensions of cultural warfare and notably into the illegal drugs plague, with emphasis on its origins, support structures, marketing — and the question: ‘What can be done?’”
At the conclusion of this book, either the author or the publisher conclude that America’s law enforcement and law makers are unprepared for the onslaught of drugs. He was right in my opinion. Drugs became a joke on TV with celebrities giggling about it. Drugs are “silent weapons for quiet wars.”
Great commentary @CuriousHiddenHistory.
It makes complete sense.
It really is a time of Bread and Circuses.
Keep the people, dumb, entertained, fat, happy and high!
Huh, and someone commented it was a “freedom”. I call it, control, an illusion.
I personally do not care for it, especially the smell! It is the last thing I want to smell walking down a vibrant dining area! Encinitas already has one of these. It is set up like a cupcake shop. Those purchasing are not to be smoking it outside but they do.
I guess my right to breathe fresh air when out and about is not considered a freedom!
What you do in your own home is your business as long as it does not hurt children, bur the sidewalks are a public shared space.
is driving stoned legal? how will people get safely home?
As Joe Friday once said ‘i don’t like marijuana because of the company it keeps’
“Newsom-approved cannabis cafes in California would be an ‘absolute disaster,’ celeb chef says….”
https://www.foxbusiness.com/media/newsom-approved-cannabis-cafes-california-would-absolute-disaster-celeb-chef-says
All of this crap will go in poor, minority areas like North Sacramento. Check out the one set to go right in front of St. zJosephs School. I hate limousine liberals.
Campaign promises being kept to the cartel donors of the dark money supporting these crazed demo-rats in our legislature and of course gruesome newsom. It also provides more markets for China’s fentanyl distribution as a cannabis mixer.
More planned destruction of our culture, family life, and faith brought to you by the Democrat party, aka the party of Satan. Our youth will be led into a lifelong self destructive addiction approved by our government and made hip by these cannabis cafes.