CALIFORNIA INN SEEKING USERS OF MARIJUANA AS A MEDICINE

SANTA CRUZ, Calif., April 19 -- It looks like a traditional bed and
breakfast, at first. In the grand tradition, it stands proudly Victorian,
with fancy flourishes, quirky nooks and painstakingly picked 19th-century
antiques. But the Compassion Flower Inn also boasts an elaborate marijuana
mosaic in the tile surrounding the hot tub in the lovers' suite, and walls
stenciled with marijuana leaves in the "hemp bedroom."

As the nation's first bed and breakfast inn catering to medical marijuana
users, the Compassion Flower Inn is receiving more attention for its
opening than a five-star hotel. The co-owners, Andrea Tischler and Maria
Mallek-Tischler, had spent so much time fielding calls in recent weeks that
today, on the day before their big opening party, they and a small army of
volunteers were still fussing with finishing touches.

"We don't really understand all the attention," said Andrea Tischler, a
longtime proponent of the medical use of marijuana.

"We had this idea to create something beautiful and do something for the
medical marijuana community. We don't really think it's such a big deal."

Here in tolerant Santa Cruz (population: 52,000), where socialists become
mayor and law enforcement has long looked the other way when it comes to
prosecuting medical marijuana users, the opening of the Compassion Flower
Inn is part of the message the city is sending to the rest of the country:
that the time has come for the legal use of medical marijuana. Last week
the Santa Cruz City Council approved an ordinance that made the city the
first in the nation to legalize the production and sale of medical
marijuana without a doctor's prescription as long as it is sold at cost or
given away.

The ordinance, which takes effect on May 11, is Santa Cruz's effort to
implement Proposition 215, the medical marijuana initiative that California
voters approved in 1996. After the state initiative passed, then-Attorney
General Dan Lungren, as well as the federal government -- whose position is
that any use of marijuana is illegal -- continued to prosecute those who
grew or used the drug for medicinal purposes.

The medical marijuana movement was essentially shut down through lawsuits
by state and federal officials.

That situation has eased since Bill Lockyer became California's attorney
general last year. Mr. Lockyer appointed a medical marijuana task force,
which issued recommendations for guidelines on implementing Proposition
215. The guidelines became a state Senate bill, but it was tabled last fall
when Gov. Gray Davis threatened to veto it.

In September a federal appeals court permitted a cannabis club to continue
operating in Oakland, which passed an ordinance in 1998 allowing the use of
medicinal marijuana under certain guidelines. Now, Santa Cruz has gone
further -- allowing the medical use of marijuana with a doctor's note
certifying that the patient has a condition for which marijuana is
considered helpful, including AIDS, cancer, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma,
anorexia, chronic pain, arthritis and spastic diseases.

Despite that federal court ruling, federal prosecutors say Santa Cruz does
not have the power to circumvent federal drug laws.

Santa Cruz officials are confident, though. The hope, said City Councilman
Mike Rotkin, is that Santa Cruz's law could serve as a model for other
cities in California, as well as other states that have approved the use of
medical marijuana only to find themselves locking horns with federal officials.

Santa Cruz's law protects doctors who have been threatened with the loss of
their license by federal officials if they prescribe medical marijuana. It
allows them to write a note stating that the patient suffers from a serious
condition that marijuana has been known to alleviate.

The Santa Cruz law also makes the growing of marijuana contingent on its
being sold for the cost of production or given away so that the medical
marijuana user does not have to resort to buying the drug at street prices,
said Valerie Corral, director of the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical
Marijuana, a medical marijuana collective in Santa Cruz.

Ms. Corral, who uses marijuana to alleviate grand mal seizures suffered
from epilepsy, said members of the collective pay $2 for an eighth of an
ounce of marijuana, as compared to $50 to $85 on the black market. "This
ordinance creates a closer, compassionate community in Santa Cruz," she added.

Watching friends dying of AIDS in San Francisco in the mid-1980's who were
helped by medical marijuana persuaded Andrea Tischler and Maria
Mallek-Tischler to become active proponents of the drug's legal use for the
seriously ill. The two helped to found a cannabis buyers club in Santa Cruz
(one of a half-dozen clubs shut down by the federal government) and lobbied
for the statewide initiative, which passed in Santa Cruz with 76 percent of
the vote.

It has taken three years to turn a falling-down house into the Compassion
Flower Inn, including a full year of Ms. Mallek-Tischler's talents as an
artist. She created all the faux marble treatments on the doors as well as
all the watercolors on the walls, the mosaics in and outside the house, and
the gardens.

Ms. Tischler, who spent 25 years renovating Victorian houses in San
Francisco, supervised the project.

"You know," Ms. Tischler said, as she pointed out the green and cream color
scheme of the exterior, "anyone can stay here -- anyone with an open heart
and mind."