Pubdate: Sat, 22 Apr 2000 Source: Orange County Register (CA) Copyright: 2000 The Orange County Register Contact: P.O. Box 11626, Santa Ana, CA 92711 Fax: (714) 565-3657 Website: http://www.ocregister.com/ Author: John Woolfolk-Knight Ridder Newspapers HEMP HOTEL'S GUESTS LIGHT UP, WITH PHYSICIAN'S NOTE HOSPITALITY: Inn for medical marijuana users opens in pot friendly Santa Cruz. They're calling it the world's first "bed,bud and breakfast." Or you could call it hotel hemp- Santa Cruz's latest paean to pot. Having debuted Thursday in a restored, 1860s Victorian with a cannabis-leaf mosaic on the walk, the Compassion Flower Inn invites the ill the smoke medicinal marijuana openly. "They don't have to be in the closet," said co-owner Maria Mallek-Tischler. "They can be comfortable here." Not sick? That's OK, too. The inn welcomes all travelers who appreciate the wacky weed's wonders, even if they don't smoke it. They can relax over parlor books on hemp and herbal healing, feast on hemp-flower pancakes, wash with hemp soaps and shampoos, and dry off with hemp towels. Arriving Friday were guests from as far as Florida and Illinois. All five rooms were booked three months before the grand opening at prices running from $125 to $175 a night. It's hard to imagine a more sympathetic site for such an enterprise. Just last week, the Santa Cruz City Council unanimously approved a law sanctioning medical-marijuana protections that California voters approved in 1996 under Proposition 215. Santa Cruz's law, which takes effect May 11, came as a fortuitous coincidence for the Compassion Flower's owners, who'd begun work on their business three years ago. Downtown storefronts give testimony to the city's tolerance for tokers. Just around the corner from the inn are shops stocked with T-shirts, tie-dyes and jewelry adorned with likenesses of cannabis leaves. Hemp clothes and all manner of pipes, bongs and hookahs line the shelves. Down the street from the inn is Medi-Grow, a new business that provides marijuana-growing kits. And next month, Santa Cruz will host its third annual Hemp Expo, showcasing everything from paper to beer made from the cannabis plant. Mallek-Tischler and her partner, Andrea Tischler, have been medical-marijuana activists since the 1980s. They also restore old homes for a living and originally considered opening a hemp-oriented restaurant. They switched to a bed and breakfast at the suggestion of their architect. The Compassion Flower Inn, named after the passion flower herb, requires medical-marijuana users to have a doctor's recommendation or show they're being treated for a disease for which the illicit drug is considered helpful. Smokers must bring their own marijuana and may smoke it only outdoors in a "toking area" by the redwood hot tub. - --- MAP posted-by: Don Beck