Woody Harrelson is pushing again in opposition to a hashish invoice on the high.
The Emmy-winning actor and longtime marijuana activist is urging Gov. Gavin Newsom to signal a invoice that may enable Amsterdam-style hashish cafes in California. After all, he has a vested curiosity within the matter: He co-owns the Woods WeHo hashish dispensary and lounge in West Hollywood.
“We simply want slightly crumb and that’s the means to promote non-cannabis objects within the lounge,” Harrelson mentioned in a recorded video that the invoice’s creator, Assemblyman Matt Haney (D-San Francisco), posted Monday on User profile. “I do not see how this might hurt anybody. Please, let’s make this occur.”
The three-time Oscar nominee, who final 12 months visited Capitol Hill In urging lawmakers to legalize marijuana on the federal degree, he referred to as the California invoice “extraordinarily necessary” for lounges and dispensaries throughout the state which might be dealing with closures due to “all of the taxes, all of the rules which might be crippling our trade.”
“I’m really an anarchist. I don’t even like authorities,” the actor mentioned, “however right here I’m making an attempt to do the correct factor, and I hope Newsom, and so on., do the correct factor.
A consultant for Harrelson didn’t instantly reply to The Times’ request for additional touch upon Wednesday.
Newsom vetoed an earlier model of the invoice final 12 months, citing considerations about “longstanding smoke-free office protections.”
“At the governor’s urging,” Haney launched a revised model of the invoice in January, which has since handed the state Assembly and Senate with ease. Newsom has but to situation a verdict.
If signed, AB 1775 would authorize native jurisdictions to permit licensed hashish retailers to organize and promote non-cannabis meals and non-alcoholic drinks. The invoice would additionally enable bars to host reside music and different performances.
At a information convention at Woods Dispensary on Friday, Haney expressed hope that Newsom would help the invoice.
“The governor mentioned just lately that the long run occurs right here first,” he mentioned. “Well, that’s the long run. That’s the long run in terms of adult-use hashish. That’s the long run in terms of supporting our small hashish companies and their means to thrive.”
Haney went on to say that voters authorised Proposition 64 in 2016 as a result of they needed to have the ability to legally use hashish in a social setting “and but, on the similar time, (the state) has maintained this arbitrary, misguided, retrograde ban” on dispensaries that deal with something aside from weed. (West Hollywood hashish cafes function workarounds that separate their meals operations from their dispensaries, together with partnering with close by eating places to ship meals to their clients, the Times mentioned. (already reported previously.)
“AB 1775 could be very easy,” Haney mentioned. “It eliminates that prohibition,” permitting respectable California hashish companies to “thrive and compete with the unlawful market that sadly continues to develop a lot quicker than the authorized market.”
Beyond that, Haney mentioned, legalizing hashish cafes will create the sort of “good jobs, good-paying jobs” which might be “bringing our enterprise districts again to life when lots of them are nonetheless struggling after the pandemic.”
Newsom has till Sept. 30 to signal or veto the invoice, which can take impact Jan. 1.
