Skip to main contentWhen Justyce Seith tells people she’s on a mission to legalize cannabis cafes in the state of Oregon, she gets the same response almost every time: “Why don’t we have these yet?”
Oregon is one step closer to realizing Seith’s dream. Seith and her organization the Oregon Cannabis Café Coalition submitted Initiative Petition 39 to the state on Feb. 13. It’s formally called the “Amendment for the Licensing and Operation of Cannabis Cafes in Oregon.”
Seith has worked in the cannabis industry in Oregon for six years, mostly managing retail dispensaries. She went to business school purely to fulfill her dream of one day opening a cannabis cafe.
“It’s bewildering to me that Oregon is such an innovator and a leader in the cannabis industry and, somehow, other states are surpassing us on this issue,” Seith says.
A dozen states already have some level of legal cannabis consumption lounges, including California, Colorado and Alaska, according to the Marijuana Policy Project.
If all of this is bringing up a foggy memory, Portland actually did already have a cannabis cafe (of sorts) a few years ago. Hemp Bar opened at 6258 SE Foster Road in May 2021 and served hemp pre-rolls, hemp blunts, CBD-infused mocktails and edibles—just nothing containing more than 0.3% THC. Hemp Bar closed in 2023.
While Seith envisions cafes that serve infused edibles someday, to start she is focusing her legislative energy on legalizing cannabis cafes where patrons can smoke indoors. The primary obstacle to that, she says, is Oregon’s 2016 Indoor Clean Air Act. OCCC’s amendment would make cannabis cafes exempt from the general state smoking restrictions as long as they operate with safety standards, such as extensive ventilation systems and air quality monitoring.
To begin the ballot title drafting process, Seith and the OCCC must gather 1,000 sponsorship signatures. The coalition would then have to gather more signatures in order to qualify for the November 2026 ballot.