HIGH-CLASS JOINT

The Compassion Flower Inn Opens Its Doors In Santa Cruz For People Who
Can Benefit From Medicinal Marijuana

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.

Making its debut Thursday in a restored 1860s Victorian with a
cannabis-leaf mosaic on the front walk, the Compassion Flower Inn
invites the ill to openly smoke medicinal marijuana while visiting the
coast.

``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 today will be guests from as far as Florida who booked all
five rooms three months before the grand opening at prices running
from $125 to $175 a night.

``Our phone's been ringing off the hook,'' Mallek-Tischler
said.

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 medicinal marijuana clubs. The ordinance, modeled on a
1998 Oakland law, aims to bolster medicinal 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.

``It seems like synchronicity of some kind,'' Mallek-Tischler
said.

A welcome weed

Even before the law, weed wasn't exactly unwelcome in Santa Cruz. The
town is so liberal that some locals think the socialist councilman who
wrote the marijuana law is conservative. County voters gave a
resounding thumbs-up to medicinal marijuana four years before
Proposition 215 passed.

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 medicinal 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.

``I couldn't get this kind of care or support or love anywhere else in
the country,'' said James Greenbaum, a 45-year-old AIDS patient who
came to Santa Cruz from Philadelphia to join a medicinal marijuana
collective.

Greenbaum was among dozens of local patients and marijuana activists
who gathered at the inn for grand-opening festivities that included a
pagan blessing on an altar with a marijuana plant.

``This is a sanctuary,'' said local activist and medicinal marijuana
user Theodora Kerry. ``Most places in the country don't even recognize
a patient's right to medical marijuana. This will dispel a lot of fear.''

Activists for decades

Mallek-Tischler and her partner, Andrea Tischler, have been medicinal
marijuana activists since the 1980s, when they noted the drug's
benefits to friends who had AIDS.

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 medicinal 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
only smoke it outdoors in a ``toking area'' by the redwood hot tub.

City officials said the inn appears to satisfy terms of their new
law.

``I support it,'' said Councilman Mike Rotkin, co-author of the law.
``It wasn't the kind of thing we were thinking about, but I think it's
probably covered by our ordinance.''

Since Proposition 215, local police have trod lightly on medicinal
marijuana, working with patient collectives to keep legitimate users
from getting swept up in drug busts.

Even though the Compassion Flower Inn is just blocks from a high
school and across the street from a Foster's Freeze, no complaints
have arisen.

A welcome idea

Local boosters think the inn is a grand idea, noting the owners'
efforts to restore a crumbling historic home.

``It's beautifully refurbished,'' said Maggie Ivy, chief executive
officer of the Santa Cruz County Conference and Visitors Council. ``I
think it will be nice new accommodations for visitors in Santa Cruz,
with a special humane intention for certain people with
illnesses.''

IF YOU'RE INTERESTED For more information on the inn, visit its Web
site at www. compassion flowerinn.com Contact John Woolfolk at
jwoolfolk@sjmercury.com or (831) 423-3234.