Crazifornia: Amsterdam-Style Cannabis Cafes Coming to a Neighborhood Near You

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.