Advocate: Oregon bill to legalize pot lounges is dead

SALEM, Ore. (AP) – Oregonians won’t be smoking joints at legal cannabis lounges any time soon.

The Statesman Journal reports that a bill to legalize cannabis lounges is “100% dead,” according to Sam Chapman, legislative director for the New Revenue Coalition, the group behind Senate Bill 639.

The last major legislative action taken on the bill was a public hearing before the Senate Committee on Business and General Government at the end of February. Since then, the deadline to vote the bill out of committee has passed.

Legal pot lounges aren’t unheard of in the U.S. The Las Vegas City Council this month OK’d marijuana consumption lounges, also known as social use venues, under certain conditions.

An initiative petition submitted to the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office in March may allow Oregon residents to vote on legalizing cannabis social consumption cafes in the November 2020 election.