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Newsom vetos cannabis cafe bill

A cannabis cafe in Amsterdam
Tom Jutte
/
Flickr / Creative Commons
A cannabis cafe in Amsterdam

Assembly Bill 374 passed the Assembly with a 66-9 vote last month after previously being approved by the state Senate.

The legislation would have allowed local jurisdictions to authorize cannabis retailers to prepare and serve non-cannabis food and beverages and to sell tickets to live performances.

Newsom said he vetoed the bill out of concern that the bill as written could undermine the state's smoke-free workplace protections, but that he did "appreciate" that cannabis business owners need to create more revenue streams.

Haney, a San Francisco Democrat, has said the bill was meant to allow struggling cannabis businesses to diversify away from the marijuana-only 'dispensary' model and "bring much-needed tourist dollars into empty downtowns."

In a statement released Sunday, Haney said, "Californians are proud of our state's wine culture, and we do everything we can to make sure that our winemakers receive the support they need -- we need to be doing the exact same thing for cannabis.” He urged the government to do more to help cannabis businesses.If not, warned Haney, ”we are going to lose decades of being at the forefront of the cannabis movement and other states will be ready to swoop in and take it from us."

Sunni M. Khalid is a veteran of more than 40 years in journalism, having worked in print, radio, television, and web journalism.