First Pot Cafe Opens in Portland

Rip City took its first step toward Ripped City on Friday when the Cannabis Cafe, the first marijuana cafe in the United States, opened for business. Taking over a space once home to a speakeasy and an "erotic club" called Rumpspankers, Eric Solomon, the cafe's owner, plans on serving marijuana free over the counter to members who pay a $25 monthly fee. Oregon, which allows the cultivation, possession, and use of marijuana for medical purposes and has about 21,000 registered medical-marijuana users, now tests the Obama administration's announcement that it would not prosecute medical marijuana-related offenses in states where marijuana has been legalized for medical use—even though federal law still does not make a distinction between medical and recreational use of marijuana. Neither federal nor local law-enforcement agencies would comment on the Cannabis Cafe's grand opening.