Cannabis Cafes Now Legal in CA, MedMJ Now Legal in KY, More... (1/2/25)

The New Year brings new drug reforms into effect, and more. 

An Amsterdam cannabis coffee shop. We should start seeing something similar in California this year. (Creative Commons)

California Now Allows Cannabis Cafes. Assembly Bill 1775, passed by the legislature and signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) last year, has now gone into effect. The bill allows licensed marijuana retailers to make and sell food and nonalcoholic beverages to customers at shops that will now be known as cannabis cafes or lounges. 

Previously, pot shops could sell prepackaged snacks and drinks, but now they will be able to have a full menu of items prepared onsite. Customers will be able to have a meal and follow it up with a smoke. 

Medical Marijuana

Kentucky Medical Marijuana Law Now in Effect. As of New Year's Day, medical marijuana is now legal in the state. The state had prepared for the big day by holding a series of licensing lotteries for medical marijuana businesses and has awarded 48 dispensary licenses.

Potential patients can now seek approval from their physicians to qualify for the program, but they must suffer from a one or more of a series of specified medical conditions, including cancer, chronic pain, epilepsy or other seizure disorders, Multiple sclerosis, chronic nausea, or post-traumatic stress disorder. 

Kentucky now becomes the 48th state to allow some form of access to marijuana for medicinal purposes. Only Idaho and Indiana are holdouts. 

Psychedelics

Colorado Psilocybin Therapy Legalization Now in Effect. After more than two years of rule-making since voters approved a law legalizing the therapeutic use of psilocybin, that law went into effect on New Year's Day. The law allows the use of the psychedelic for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.

Beginning this week, people and corporations will be able to apply for licenses to administer the drug, although, but it is still expected to be some months before those applications are approved (or not) and psilocybin treatment can begin. 

However, as in Oregon, which legalized psilocybin therapy in January 2023, there is a backlash. In that state, several towns and cities have voted to ban psilocybin "healing centers." The Colorado law does not allow localities to ban the facilities, but several conservative-run cities have been moving to impose restrictions on them that would make it more difficult for them to operate. 

In Colorado Springs, for example, the city council was set to vote to extend school exclusion zones for the healing centers from 1,000 feet to one mile only to be lambasted by military veterans, of whom there are some 90,000 in the area. Veterans argued in favor of the centers and against any further restrictions than those imposed by the state, saying they would limit the number of centers and create longer waiting lists for treatment. The city council voted to approve the restrictions anyway. 

New York Bill Would Legalize Therapeutic MDMA and Psilocybin. State Sen. Nathalia Fernandez and five cosponsors have pre-filed a bill to legalize psilocybin therapy for patients with specified qualifying conditions, Senate Bill 495.

The bill would allow qualified patients to receive treatment from a certified facilitator either in a clinical setting or in their homes if they cannot travel. It would do so by protecting them from state-level prosecution. 

The bill would also create a Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy (PAT) grant program to "provide veterans, first responders, retired first responders, and low-income individuals with the funding necessary to receive psilocybin and/or MDMA-assisted therapy. The bill would fund that program to the tune of $5 million.

Fernandez filed a similar bill during the last session, but it never made it out of committee.