Assemblymember Matt Haney’s latest attempt to bring Amsterdam-style cannabis cafes to California just overwhelmingly passed the state Assembly, and hopes to avoid getting vetoed by Gavin Newsom as it was last year.

There are about a dozen SF cannabis dispensaries with marijuana smoking lounges on the premises (they prefer to be called “consumption lounges”). But there’s only one thing you can buy at those lounges, and that’s marijuana products, because these lounges are not legally able to sell regular food and beverage items like coffee, a bagel, or a sandwich.    

So our local state Assemblymember Matt Haney tried to change that last year with a bill to legalize Amsterdam-style cannabis cafes. It would not have allowed any cafe or restaurant to start selling weed, but instead would allow proper food and beverage service inside dispensaries’ consumption lounges. Haney’s proposal sailed through the state legislature by a landslide, but Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed the bill in October, saying it could “undermine California’s long-standing smoke-free workplace protections.”

Undaunted, Haney introduced a new version of the cannabis cafe bill in January of this year. And Eater SF reports that Haney’s new bill passed the state Assembly by a 49-4 majority Monday, this time with restrictions that would keep smoke away from non-smoking employees. (Though honestly, how many cannabis dispensary employees are not weed-smokers?)

“This is a bill that supports our legal small businesses that just want to diversify their businesses and do the right thing,” Haney said on the Assembly floor, according to the Los Angeles Times. “The illicit illegal market is continuing to grow and thrive, while our legal cannabis market is struggling.”

Haney seems to think he can avoid another Newsom veto on this one, by restructuring where the smoking can take place. In the new bill, smoking would be banned in what restaurants call the “back of the house” (that is, the kitchens and food prep areas), which would ostensibly protect non-smoking employees.

These cannabis cafes do already exist here in California, but only in the city of West Hollywood. That town has four cannabis cafes, while Palm Springs has two cannabis lounges that have vending machines and small-ish snacks.

In West Hollywood, there’s Woody Harrelson’s the Woods, which sells cannabis-infused drinks, and Pleasure Med, which has two separate restaurants in its downstairs level. One can consume alcohol in the downstairs restaurants, but not upstairs in the consumption lounge.  

Though it’s somewhat questionable, if Haney’s bill were to pass, how ambitious dispensaries would get in building out additional restaurant and cafe infrastructure. That can be expensive at a time when the industry is struggling financially, so the shops might be more likely to just add a fridge and a toaster oven at best, and carry a few pre-packaged foods.

Still, we know for sure that they won’t be able to mix cannabis and alcohol under the same roof, which is specifically banned by state law, and that law is highly unlikely to change in our lifetimes.

Related: Matt Haney Back On It With Trying to Legalize Cannabis Cafes In California [SFist]

Image: Moe Greens via Yelp