Cannabis Cafe

By Thomas Griffin for KVAL.com

PORTLAND, Ore. -- The Cannabis Cafe opened on Nov. 13 at 4:20 p.m., Oregon’s first marijuana cafe.

People must register with the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program with a doctor’s approval in order to receive a medical marijuana card, and they must also be members of the Oregon chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML, to get into the cafe.

There is a $20 monthly fee and a $5 cover charge as well.

The cafe is located in a historical building, which used to be a speakeasy and a ballroom, in a neighborhood in northeast Portland on Dekum Street.

The cafe is located in northeast Portland and shares a building with a second-hand store.

No marijuana is sold at the establishment. Various certified growers donate marijuana to the cafe. Patients can also bring in their own medicine. The cafe does not serve alcohol and serves a wide variety of soups, salads, burgers and paninis.

THE FUTURE IS OURS FOR THE MAKING

NORML’s Cannabis Café

By George Rohrbacher, NORML board of directors, medical marijuana patient

The first time I met Madeline Martinez, the executive director of Oregon NORML, she told me about her dream…a meeting place for medical marijuana patients, some space to hold classes, a very different vision of healthcare. I took a drive to Portland last week to see this dream come true; to Oregon NORML’s World Famous-Cannabis Café, a trip to a Future of our own making.

Set in an older blue-collar neighborhood in North East Portland, NORML’s Cannabis Café, occupies a building that was reputed to be a ‘speakeasy’ during Prohibition, alcohol Prohibition, that is. It includes a meeting/concert space upstairs for about 200+ people, in addition to the Café downstairs. Oregon NORML signed a lease this fall with the onsite restaurant operator and took over the business in November. NORML volunteers have been working there non-stop ever since, turning the building into the Cannabis Café. Its opening last month became a world-wide press event…apparently a lot more people than Madeline thought the NORML’s Cannabis Café was an idea whose time had come.

The first marijuana coffee shop in the US has opened, posing an early test of the Obama administration's move to relax the policing of medical use of the drug.

By Nick Allen, Telegraph

The Cannabis Cafe in Portland, Oregon, is the first to give people who have been prescribed marijuana by a doctor a place to get hold of the drug and smoke it.

The Cannabis Cafe in Portland, Oregon, is the first to give people who have been prescribed marijuana by a doctor a place to get hold of the drug and smoke it, although they have to remain out of public view.

Patients who have been prescribed marijuana usually have to buy it from a licensed dispensary and then take it elsewhere.

Eric Solomon, the owner of the cafe, said he is looking forward to holding marijuana-themed weddings, film festivals and dances.

"I still run a coffee shop and events venue, just like I did before we converted it to the Cannabis Cafe, but now it will be cannabis-themed," he said.

By Anne Saker, The Oregonian

Oregon opened another chapter in U.S. marijuana history when at 4:20 p.m. Friday, about three dozen people christened the nation's first cafe for licensed residents to sit down, sip coffee and smoke marijuana.

"Welcome to a place of our own," said Madeline Martinez, a leader in the state's medical marijuana movement and the leading force pushing to open the Cannabis Cafe in Portland. "Welcome to freedom."

Excited patrons spilled down the outside steps at 700 N.E. Dekum St. as the cafe prepared to open at the appointed hour -- "420" being slang for using marijuana. In line were military veterans, grandmothers, young workers, men and women, old and young, black, white and Latino.

Gordon Cederholm, 45, of Milwaukie has lived with HIV for 25 years and said he was skeptical about using marijuana as medicine when he got his Oregon card less than a year ago.

"At first, I thought: What does being a pothead have to do with it?'" he said. "I didn't know the benefits in marijuana. Now, I find that I'm a better person when I smoke."

Kris Koa, 57, a retired nurse from Gresham, rode the bus from home to see the cafe for herself. She has been using medical marijuana for fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis.

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Medical marijuana users will soon have a new place to gather.

Oregon NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) is opening a new cannabis cafe in northeast Portland. It will be the first of its kind in the state and complies with the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act.

Members must be registered with the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program and additional membership fees will apply.

Organizers named the café Rumpspankers and it will be located on Northeast Dekum Street. The café plans to host classes and seminars for medical marijuana patients.

The grand opening is 4:20 p.m. on Nov. 13. From then on, it will be open daily from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.