While it is legal to buy cannabis in Oregon, advocate Sam Chapman said it’s still illegal to smoke it in many places, like apartment rentals, hotels, cafes or even on the street.
“We are aiming to create more legal avenues for the consumption of cannabis and the normalization of cannabis,” said Chapman, who works with the New Revenue Coalition.
Senate Bill 639 would allow everything from home deliveries to cannabis tents at concerts and tastings at cannabis farms.
Cannabis stores like The Dispensary on 52nd would like to have a cafe on site where people could consume marijuana.
Kristian Foden-Vencil / OPB
It would generate substantial tax revenue too.
But the bill has strong opposition.
Retired public health nurse Sen. Laurie Monnes Anderson, D-Gresham, said she doesn't want to see indoor smoking start up again.
“We worked so hard to get the clean indoor air act and it’s just really disheartening to think that we are going to back-track,” Monnes Anderson said.
Lawmakers will hold a public hearing Thursday on whether to allow cannabis cafes in Oregon.
If legislators block the public smoking of cannabis, the bill could be tweaked to allow public consumption of things like edibles and tinctures instead.
