BED, BUD AND BREAKFAST OPENS IN SANTA CRUZ

Christening the "tokers" deck, medical-marijuana advocates freely passed
around victory joints, celebrating the opening of this one-of-a-kind bed
and breakfast in downtown Santa Cruz.

"Let's medicate," said one gray-haired woman before lighting a tiny black
pipe and taking a long drag. Others, old and young, plucked sweet-smelling
buds from their personal stashes and rolled joints at the debut of the
Compassion Flower Inn, a "bed, bud & breakfast" that caters to medical
marijuana users and open-minded travelers interested in alternative lifestyles.

The Compassion Inn smokers joined tokers across America on Thursday, April
20 4/20 in celebration of a counterculture holiday known as "420," the
stoner New Year's.

Red-eyed tokers inhaled in groups large and small, public and private,
indoors and out, marking a ritual that originated at San Rafael High School
in 1971 by a group of teen-age potheads that would meet at 4:20 p.m. to get
high.

While the scene at the inn was not entirely unlike a giggling dorm-style
70s pot party, the mood here was decidedly reflective.

"It's so wonderful to have it be so open," said Isadora Karcher, a Felton
resident attending the inn's grand opening that began at - you guessed - it
4:20 p.m.

Karcher and other guests touring the 216 Laurel St. establishment couldn't
help but let a mischievous snicker slip when they saw the tiled marijuana
leaf mosaic in the master suite's bathroom, complete with hemp toiletries
and towels.

"This is a new age," said Daniel Duncan, eyes darting around the
135-year-old Victorianis half-million-dollar face-lift.

Too new perhaps for Santa Cruz police, who were unaware hemp hotel existed.
Police and city officials are still grappling with the finer points of the
city's ordinance allowing medical marijuana use passed earlier this month.

"Everybody is jumping into this before it is finalized," said Deputy Police
Chief Jeff Locke, a co-author of the law. "I can see both sides of it. From
their standpoint, this (fight to legalize medical marijuana) has been going
on for years."

The ordinance allows city-recognized medical marijuana associations to
provide the drug to qualified patients.

The inn's proprietors say they are not in the supply business, but simply
are providing a sanctuary for those who use marijuana to stave off
suffering due to illnesses such as HIV and cancer.

Guests must provide their own pot and a physicianis medical marijuana
certification to "partake of their medicine in a safe, supportive environment."

"We've been in the medical marijuana movement for a long time," said Maria
Malleck-Tischler, who co-owns the inn with partner Andrea Tischler. "We've
seen a lot of friends die from AIDS. We've also seen that medical marijuana
made their last days easier. We feel a lot of compassion and that is why we
came up with this idea."

Business owners in the building next door have not objected to the venture,
Malleck-Tischler said.

Aside from their Web site, the couple has done virtually no advertising.
But the inn's five rooms, which range from $125 to $175 per night, are
booked through July. Guests - the curious and the suffering - are coming
from as far away as New Zealand, thanks to the overwhelming media attention
the three-year labor of love has received.

"I wasn't prepared for that," Malleck-Tischler said of the coverage.

Neither was Chas Sneyers, who had a view of the action on the toking deck
from his bar stool inside the Poet & Patriot Irish Pub.

"I live a block away and read about it in the New York Times," Sneyers
laughed. "If it helps people, I think it is great."