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.