A bill that would put cannabis cafes on November 2026 ballots in Oregon was introduced last week, Willamette Week reports. The proposal, Initiative Petition 39, was submitted by the Oregon Cannabis Cafe Coalition (OCCC) and would allow people to smoke cannabis indoors but does not allow for infused food and drinks.
Justyce Seith, who heads the coalition, told Willamette Week that it’s “bewildering…that Oregon is such an innovator and a leader in the cannabis industry and somehow other states are surpassing (Oregon) on this issue.”
The proposal runs afoul of the state’s Indoor Clean Air Act but the law would make cannabis cafes exempt from the restrictions as long as they operate with safety standards, such as extensive ventilation systems and air quality monitoring.
Seith envisions that the cafes could eventually serve infused edibles and beverages but is hoping to just allow smoking to start.
To begin the title drafting process, Seith and the OCCC must gather 1,000 sponsorship signatures and would then have to gather more signatures in order to qualify for the November 2026 ballot.
According to the Marijuana Policy Project, 12 states allow some sort of social cannabis consumption as part of their adult-use laws, of those 10 allow for indoor smoking.
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