Major downgrade in California’s commitment to providing workers with a healthy, safe,
smokefree work environment.
Sacramento, CA —Governor Newsom has signed Assembly Bill 1775, the cannabis café bill, into law, signaling a major downgrade in California’s commitment to providing workers with a healthy, safe, smokefree work environment.
AB1775 will allow California cities and counties to permit cannabis/marijuana retailers to sell food and non-alcoholic beverages, and sell tickets to performances, including concerts. In practice, cannabis retailers can now become restaurants, cafes, and entertainment venues where cannabis smoking and vaping is allowed indoors.
California’s hospitality workforce has enjoyed smokefree worksites since 1998, but now jurisdictions have the ability to roll back these successful public health protections for some workers. Likewise, the voter-approved Proposition 64 that legalized cannabis in 2016 specifically prohibits cannabis smoking wherever tobacco smoking is prohibited, which includes restaurants, bars, and other hospitality venues.
Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights is deeply disappointed in Governor Newsom’s decision to put the cannabis industry ahead of the right of California’s workers to breathe smokefree air on the job.
In August, AB1775 passed the full Senate after being amended to include language that the bill sponsor claims will address worker health concerns, by adding language promoting ventilation systems. This amendment does not help address worker health concerns because ventilation systems are not an effective solution for protecting health from secondhand smoke exposure.
Last year, Governor Newsom vetoed AB374, a nearly identical cannabis café bill, saying in his veto message: “I am concerned this bill could undermine California’s long-standing smoke-free workplace protections. Protecting the health and safety of workers is paramount.” What has changed in one year, other than increased pressure from the cannabis industry?
Cannabis industry proponents of AB1775 unsurprisingly took a page right out of the tobacco industry’s playbook. They made outrageous claims that indoor smoking and vaping is needed for cannabis businesses to grow and thrive, while ignoring the very serious threat of rolling back longstanding worker health protections.
The California Nightlife Association and California NORML are industry supporters of AB1775, saying “[cannabis] businesses must expand to survive. Selling food, drinks, and an experience is a way to help them expand and survive,” while the United Food and Commercial Workers Union wrote in support, “Giving this industry the chance to grow will create jobs and help cities and communities thrive.”
In reality, cities and communities cannot truly thrive when they choose to risk the health of workers in these new jobs. As always, the industry is putting their profits ahead of people.
By signing AB1775 into law, California must now face the consequences of promoting cannabis industry business interests over the imperative to maintain public health protections.
It is now up to California cities and counties to protect their hospitality workforce by passing stronger local smokefree indoor air provisions that prevent indoor smoking and vaping at cannabis retailers.
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