The Cannabis Café, America’s first marijuana café, opened on November 13 at 4:20 p.m. In order to receive a medical marijuana card and get into the café, people must register with the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program with a doctor’s approval, as well as be members of the Oregon chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML. There is a $20 monthly fee and a $5 cover charge.
The café is located in a historical building, which used to be a speakeasy and a ballroom, in northeast Portland on Dekum Street. The café shares the building with a second-hand store.
Cannabis Café Portland
“Budtenders” attend to the bar in the front of the café. No marijuana is sold at the establishment; various certified growers donate marijuana to the café. Patients can also bring in their own medicine. The café does not serve alcohol, but does offer a wide variety of soups, salads, burgers and paninis.
Cannabis Café Menu
Oregon has approximately 24,000 patients with medical marijuana cards, and it became the second state, after California, to allow medical marijuana use in 1998. Patients are now allowed to grow their own crops instead of going to a dealer. Now that the Obama administration is shying away from marijuana raids, places like the Cannabis Café may start popping up in the dozen or so states that have medical marijuana laws.
Marijuana will be legalized in the next 5-10 years tops.