Not sure if this has anything to do with anything:
http://qpdx.com/2009/11/fruitcake-on-hiatu…

"Dearest dancing queers and allies,

I lament to inform you that Rumpspankers has gotten their liquor license revoked by the OLCC as of today and therefore Fruitcake will be postponed until further notice. We love and honor your support! Needless to say, we’ll be back soon!

Stay tuned,
Fruitcake Xxo"

WOW, we thought about going, but I'm glad we didn't. $60 cover? Save your money and buy a bag indeed.

Since this place is known for it's private parties, I wonder if that's not part of what's motivating the steep prices. Like, if nobody pays to become a member, maybe they'll continue to let their friends in for free or something. Or maybe they have to charge the fees in order to make it all legal...

sgtgrumbles: I'm fairly sure it isn't legal. The only thing is that the federal courts said that they weren't going to enforce that law, in other words: people won't go to jail, but that is quite a bit different than legal. As such, I'm not sure that charging or not charging fees, (nor how much the actual fees are themselves,) changes anything at all. I can imagine that their insurance company might have some things to say about criminal activity and coverage, (probably, that it isn't,) and maybe that explains the fees, but until we hear from the owner, we can only guess...

For the people whining about $60... What, you thought a vapor bar with no-purchase cannabis would be free? A meeting place where people can gather to smoke cannabis - a dream never to be realized in most of the country - and people want to grumble?

Look, the club has to be private, only open to Oregon NORML members, in order to satisfy "out of public view" requirements of the OMMA. Annual membership in the org has always cost $35. $20 monthly club fee pays the rent and utilities. $5 entry fee covers operating expenses. Did people expect a place not selling liquor and especially not selling cannabis to be able to keep the lights on selling coffee and muffins? It's not Starbucks where they can rely on heavy volume to cover the expenses.

Sheesh, people complaining that being able to freely smoke pot in a cafe setting is too expensive? It's much cheaper than a flight to Amsterdam!

Ommp patients have had a place to go smoke with others it is called OREGON GREEN FREE
we are a non-profit orgniation you must be a Ommp card holder to get in. We are a resource center with a day room to medicate in. Our membership fees are 5 dollars a month or 60 a year for a single person and for a couple it is $7.50 a month or $90 a year. We dont charge a fee every time you walk thru the door. Hope to see some of you there!:)

The cafe is amazing and it is a must check out. $60. cover is not a cover charge. It is well worth the cost to support NORML in all they do. Broke down it is $35.00 for 1 year of Norml Membership that gets you into all the WONDERFUL meetings normaly 2 a month. There you can get given a clone to grow. Many wonderful strains are given away each meeting. Then the $25 is for a MONTH of entering the cafe. Cheeper if you pay for a year but check with them for that LOL. It is NOT $60 as a cover charge that would be each time. Come on people. NORML is also a non-profit orgniation.

Huh... finally - with the feds called off in a truly gentler kinder nation - we see the monetization of OMM without breaking any laws, based on the need to socialize. It's social capital becoming productive. Oregon's fiscal structure could stand to be informed by this.

this place is creepy, the facade looks extremely uninviting, like a boarded up building, i am bummed, but i also know this place wont last. I love that this neighborhood is trying to clean itself up a little, the old buildings are coming back to life...this place is counterproductive and creepy.

Frankly, I find the idea of a place where people can "socially medicate" kind of absurd. It seems to me that the basic idea of this marijuana cafe is logically equivalent to having virtually any kind of medicine added to a social environment. Prozac cafe, anyone? Lithium? Let's all kick back together and pop some of our prescribed pills... ahhh, I feel better already! You know, I get frequent headaches... where's a nice Ibuprofen cafe where I can meet other frequent headache sufferers and, you know, network?

Of course, one can certainly claim that alcohol consumption in a bar is quite literally "socially medicating", and I would not dispute that, and in full disclosure, do that with some regularity. The difference between that and a marijuana cafe, however, is that alcohol consumption doesn't purport to be a "medicine" in the literal sense (not even in the case of drinking a glass of red wine a day for the health benefits), doesn't require a prescription (beyond simply being old enough to legally purchase and consume it), and is consumed almost explicitly for its intoxicating effect.

And therein lies the issue about this marijuana cafe, as I see it: intoxication masquerading as medication. If the only purpose for consuming medical marijuana in any form were to secure its medicinal benefits, then its consumers might perhaps see the absurdity in gathering in groups to take their dose of medication. They should, also, be fine with a synthesized form of marijuana that doesn't include any, or a greatly inhibited intoxicating effect.

But they wouldn't like that much, would they? While there is indisputable evidence that marijuana has medicinal applications, the fact is that many people who receive a prescription for medical marijuana simply want to be able to get high legally, and it seems likely that they hurt, rather than help the cause of legalization. These are the kind of people who would find the idea of a marijuana cafe extremely appealing, and perhaps even reminiscent of the cafes in Amsterdam they've either visited or want to visit. Problem is, those cafes are like bars - they make no claims about serving medicine. They know they're serving an intoxicating drug to people who want to get high, and that's fine. They aren't hiding behind the idea of it being "medicinal".

So, which one is it going to be, people? Is marijuana going to be a medicine or an intoxicating drug? While complete legality seems like a possibility (which I happen to support), perhaps it would behoove activists and proponents of legalization to unequivocally clarify which aspect of marijuana use they're advocating.

Free us.

Are there really enough people using MJ as a medicine to support this type of establishment? Seems it would take a lot of people. Why not have a restaurant along with the smoking area? Wouldn't that bring in a lot more money? I'm not an MJ user, that's why I'm asking these questions.

What Charlie means to say is that this place needs to be turned into another Yoga studio for yuppie MILFs, now that's a neighborhod that's movin' on up!

>>>>Ommp patients have had a place to go smoke with others it is called OREGON GREEN FREE
we are a non-profit orgniation you must be a Ommp card holder to get in. We are a resource center with a day room to medicate in. Our membership fees are 5 dollars a month or 60 a year for a single person and for a couple it is $7.50 a month or $90 a year. We dont charge a fee every time you walk thru the door. Hope to see some of you there!:)>>>>>>>>>>>>

Funny, they never advertised that. All I've seen is fees for grow classes to pay some self-avowed expurt (board member) and ticket sales for parties and 3 easy steps on how to influence members with deceptive politics. They commonly disparage gays and minorities.
The only Oregon non-profit MMJ group that appoints it's officers and board members rather than elect them. Members get no say. Incest is best!

@caregiver4now: Besides insulting Snagglepuss, you don't seem to actually have said why he was wrong. If anything you just proved his point. See, public consumption of alcohol is frowned upon too. Yes, there are bars with outdoor seating areas, but try opening a bottle of wine in a public park and you might as well be smoking MJ there. But nobody asks any questions if you take regular prescription drugs in public. As such, the cafe seems to reinforce the recreational aspect in people's mind, not the medical aspect. As for how the one cafe is better than going home every half hour (seriously? Yeah, he would have trouble getting around,) I don't know, maybe you should move closer to town. Many of the things that are helped by MJ preclude driving (I'm assuming people with MS don't bike or walk long distances,) across town to go to the cafe. For instance, if(when) I'm suffering from insomnia, it is probably late at night, and if I cure it, I'll be asleep, which will mean that I'll be in no state to drive home. However, in any case, the $60 cover charge seems like it is a lot more expensive than the legal prescription stuff, or just using the stuff at home like everyone in line did on opening night. And if you want to socialize over it, as far as I know you can always invite people over to your house.

@stukasoverpdx: I think most people would prefer a place full of MILFs to a place full of sick people with chronic illnesses. Just saying.

Caregiver4now, your comment was beautiful, conscious, and not at all insulting. Snagglepuss, and Matthew D are quite young, I suspect, with no experience of illness, and have not, as yet, developed their compassionate natures. Perhaps they will some day. Or, they are simply drug warriors clinging on like grim death, and perhaps they won't.

Matthew, caregiver4now was quite explicit in answering snagglepuss, but in order to understand, you have to open your heart. Actually, I suspect snagglepuss 'get's' it, and doesn't need or want your defense. Also, you should read the original article, and the additional comments. You will find that the so called "$60 cover charge' is a onetime charge to fulfill the membership requirements, with some additional charges when and if returning.

From a marketing perspective, it could, perhaps have been handled better, but this cafe was not created with you in mind, Matthew (as your response to stukasoverpdx clearly indicates).

@Brinna: Thanks for making me laugh. I do dissagree with snagglepuss on one thing. See, most of my family has mental health problems and until fairly recently, one of the few, (other than 'being locked up in an asylum for life',) methods of treating that was to drink. And doctors used to even say as much. It is fairly likely that many of my ancestors would have killed themselves before reaching reproductive age without the benefit of self medication in the form of alcoholism. (Actually, it isn't just likely, I know that to be true.) In other words, I wouldn't be alive today if it wasn't for the fact that people could get drunk and that they did. And you are wrong: if I was young and naive instead of bitter and jaded, I would sugar coat that better, but I don't.

However, that isn't the point. The point is that alcohol has gotten a bad rap, people see it as something people do for fun, it is recreational, not something they do because otherwise they'd shoot themselves. The recreational users of alcohol significantly outnumber the medical users at this point, and they've even gone so far as to tax the stuff. Imagine if they levied a tax on Tylenol, most people would throw a fit, and for good reason. They are taxing the sick! And it is the bars that have created that problem, the people that want to go out and drink and socialize are clearly the recreational users of the drug, and they've ruined it for the truly desperate. The people that are taking alcohol for mental health reasons get drunk quietly alone in the corner like, say the people on almost every other drug that people take for medical reasons. For instance, I know of very few people that hang out in hospitals for fun. People do go to the hospital to visit a sick relative or etc, but nobody hangs out the the dialysis clinic to meet other people with kidney problems, it just doesn't happen.

So if the MMJ lobby wants MJ to be taken seriously as a medical cure, the last thing they should do is follow alcohol's example and be creating "bars." If the goal is just to let people get high, (and I don't have a problem with that, as long as we admit it,) then the cafe is perfect, but realize what the example you are following, and especially realize how this will play out with the uninformed public. And so all I'm doing is pointing out the the empire has no clothing, and you are calling me uncompassionate for it, that if I was really compassionate I would assume that the MMJ lobby's intentions are purely medical and not the full on legalization of the drug. In other words, you are saying that I'm uncompassionate because I'm calling people hypocrites. And that is fine, I don't have a problem being insulted, (although not by people that claim to be compassionate. That seems, well, hypocritical.) However, if you want to prove otherwise, don't insult me, that makes me even less likely to agree with you in the future. Tell me WHY I'm wrong.

P.S. Nice sock puppetry.

@caregiver4now - I'm sorry to hear that your husband has MS. A friend of mine also has it, and I bear witness to how difficult it can make life for someone on a regular basis. Your husband's situation sounds to me like a paradigm case for someone who needs medical marijuana, and benefits from it. Your husband's narrative is compelling, and is exactly the kind of human story that needs to continue being told in the fight to legalize medical marijuana, and reduce the stigma that accompanies its use.

As I previously stated, I believe that the evidence for the efficacy of marijuana as a medicine is largely indisputable. I have absolutely no problem with people using it for medicinal (or recreational) purposes.

I do, however, still find the notion of a marijuana cafe specious, but not necessarily for people like your husband. Given that he, and likely many people like him need to use it regularly throughout the day, and can't do so in public, a place where they could inconspicuously take their dosage sounds like a reasonable idea. But... what sounds like an even better idea is legally sanctioned use in public for them, and/or pills that are not prohibitively expensive. I can indeed sympathize with his plight, but I can't deny how absurd (to me) the logical similarities I noted in my first post are.

So, it's not cases like your husband's that I have a problem with. Instead, it's people who use medical marijuana as a trojan horse for their desire to simply get high. But don't misread me: I support full legalization of marijuana for both medicinal and recreational use. Legalize it, regulate it, and tax it. What I don't support, however, is dishonesty, and it strikes me as dishonest for "stoners" to piggyback onto the medical marijuana movement for their own personal gain.

I've met several people in Portland who have medical marijuana cards. One of them has an illness every bit as serious as your husband's. The rest... have very few qualms about openly admitting to lying to their doctors to secure medical marijuana prescriptions for such things as anxiety or depression. It seems to me that these people's dishonesty insults and diminishes the suffering that people like your husband endure. It is at THEM that my disdain is directed. They seemingly haven't the courage to stand up and fight for full legalization and put themselves at the same risk that the average "stoner" faces without a medical marijuana card.

@Brinna - For what it's worth, I'm in my middle 30's, and I'm no stranger to illness, as my mother happens to be dying from breast cancer.

For comparison, $60 is like 6 pizzas, or more than 2 sets of Spongebob seasons 1-3 on DVD. I dunno about blue ray.

Indeed, Demondog.

I miss the old Rumpspankers. Pot Cafe is dumb.

I know there are a lot of chronically ill people who use medical mj, and I say more power to them. There are also a lot of loser hangers-on with fake prescriptions. Though my impression is that Oregon has been much better about managing the program than California, where they seem to hand out prescriptions on the street corner.

Seems a challenge to cater to the truly sick, and protect the neighborhood from walking dead stoners. We'll see how it works out. I'm sympathetic to pot use. I don't think it's that bad, but I've been to parts of Amsterdam and Vancouver BC that might be fun to visit, but you wouldn't want to live there. I'd hate to see any Portland neighborhood be allowed to decay like that. The fact is that if you legalize, you invite the negative aspects of drug culture along with it.

And it's called "Rumpspankers"? Was it named by 15 year olds?

Why would you ever need to charge a cover? They're smoking weed! You can just stock up on Cheetos and make $60 per person within the hour!

there is already a yoga studio for milfs. i just dont want a place with blackened windows, is that so wrong? but yeah i was thinking a bead shop or.....

I love the cafe.
I am an elected officer of Oregon Green Free (sorry you had a bad experience LearnedTheHardWay, I guess some folks could even have a bad time at Disneyland), and a long time member of Oregon Norml.
The two groups are completely different, and I support both.
Both groups are here to help patients, and this cafe is a huge resourse for patients.
As for the cover, it's only $5. Thats less than a movie. It's about the same price as a fast food cheeseburger with fries.
Even the ymca charges a membership fee, and charges for individual visits too.

Kudos to ORNORML for opening up this cafe.

Some comments here illustrate that many Oregonians do not understand medical marijuana. Marijuana is medicine. The human body uses endocannabinoids to regulate many physiological processes. Google endocannabinoids and check it out. Marijuana happens to be a medicine that makes people feel good. Some literature refers to euphoria as a negative side effect. How ridiculous. Feeling good is part of good health. Socializing in a wholesome environment is therapeutic.

People reflect their prejudice and ignorance about cannabis. This cafe is a good thing. It will help people. Get over the stereotypes. Open your eyes and look at the science. Yes, cannabinoids can cause the munchies. After you finish with the cheerios jokes maybe you will realize that for many patients, increasing their appetite is a matter of life and death. Yes, cannabinoids can affect memory (and dreams). After you finish with the dumb stoner jokes maybe you will realize that for people suffering from PTSD, slective forgetting can be lifesaving.

Cannabis is an amazing complex plant. The prohibition of cannabis is rooted in racism, ignorance and hate. It is a crime against humanity.

Harrah to NORML and everyone else that works to end the war on drugs.

Kudos to ORNORML for opening up this cafe.

Some comments here illustrate that many Oregonians do not understand medical marijuana. Marijuana is medicine. The human body uses endocannabinoids to regulate many physiological processes. Google endocannabinoids and check it out. Marijuana happens to be a medicine that makes people feel good.

Some literature refers to euphoria as a negative side effect. How ridiculous. Feeling good is part of good health. Socializing in a wholesome environment is therapeutic.

People reflect their prejudice and ignorance about cannabis. This cafe is a good thing. It will help people. Get over the stereotypes. Open your eyes and look at the science. Yes, cannabinoids can cause the munchies. After you finish with the cheerios jokes maybe you will realize that, for many patients, increasing their appetite is a matter of life and death. Yes, cannabinoids can affect memory (and dreams). After you finish with the dumb stoner jokes maybe you will realize that for people suffering from PTSD, slective forgetting can be lifesaving.

Cannabis is an amazing complex plant. The prohibition of cannabis is rooted in racism, ignorance and hate. It is a crime against humanity.

Harrah to NORML and everyone else that works to end the war on drugs.

It sounds like cafe owners have created a nice, safe place for people to use a relatively safe and effective therapy in a pleasant social setting. What a great idea! Both the American College of Physicians and American Medical Association have expressed support for investigation of marijuana for medicinal purposes. Marijuana in various forms, not necessarily smoked, has been used therapeutically for centuries in many parts of the world. Marijuana appears to provide relief from pain, nausea, and other symptoms, with fewer ill effects and a greater margin of safety than the narcotic drugs commonly administered for pain, and safer even than the non-narcotic drugs such as aspirin, ibuprofen and related compounds that are responsible for a few hundred deaths each year (www.acponline.org/journals/annals/15sep97/…).

The American College of Physicians position can be found at (www.acponline.org/advocacy/where_we_stand/…)

The American Medical Association position is available at http://www.ama-assn.org/assets/meeting/mm/… (the Medical Marijuana section begins on page 12 of the 27 page document).

I hope that anyone who can benefit from the medical use of marijuana is allowed to do so safely, without having to go to a criminal drug dealer and without fear of prison for himself or herself, and using it in a pleasant social setting seems all the more positive.

(And hey, cafe owners, be sure to be a good neighbor: Clean parking lot, tidy exterior, no outside loitering, pick up any litter outside, etc. LOTS of people will be watching you; you can set the standard for a new American model of responsible marijuana culture!)

whatever happened to the FREEDOM that AMERICA promised.....what difference does it make wether we drink alcohol or take prescription medications or smoke a lil grass....the way a person medicates his or her specific ailment shouldnt be judged by the general population ...I dont see the place having issues with fights and cops due to OVER medicating .....as happens in bars..I just think that most peeps are nervous about the unknown ...if there isnt a big stink made out of what MIGHT happen then there prolly wont be a problem....see what I mean??....No negative energy ....no possible negative outcome...

Hey Charlie..........they have a lithia water fountain in the public Plaza in Ashland Oregon, and have had it for years. I would call that public and I would call that a specified place of gathering and socializing. Get with the program people, quit bitching. If you do not want to support this effort, THEN DON'T!!! But do not limit the rights of others because of your judgments, that is a ridiculous passage of your rights to government. Also, I lived in downtown Portland for many years and the stench of cigarette smoking is too thick to decipher other smells, unless of course you're standing outside of a restaurant with strong seasonings. Also, restaurants in the area will bring in more customers because it is true that marijana hightens your senses of hunger and taste. Please stop the bitching, it is like nails on a chalkboard, and so uneducated.

Marijuana contains just as much and most say even more carcinogens than tobacco. It makes sense since you hold it in for a longer period of time than a person that is smoking a cigarette. However i do believe it should be legalized. In the past few years marijuana was the best selling cash crop in the United States, it even beat out corn, which is in everything we eat and drink these days. I'm sure the government makes enough money off of probation fee's, and fines, but it's not a sliver of what the country could gain by legalizing it. I've heard alot of people say, "If you are for legalizing marijuana, then you should be okay with a store selling marijuana right across from your child's school." Which is just absolutely retarded. You don't ever see a bar, or a specialty tobacco store directly across from a school. They have zoning laws and sh*t for that. Marijuana is a completely natural plant, and to me it's like telling me i can't have grapes because eventually they will ferment, i will become drunk and ruin society. Marijuana is funding terrorism? Well legalize so people can grow their own, and smoke it in the privacy of their own homes or in special places like this. "What's to stop them from legalizing other drugs, like crack and sh*t?" Well as i mentioned before, marijuana is a completely natural plant, there is no chemical process that takes place to actually make it indigestible. If somebody wanted to chew on a coca leaf, go right ahead. It's a plant, and i, nor anybody else should be able to tell you how to use something you can grow naturally in your backyard. I believe there should be harsher penalties on man-made narcotics such as meth, heroine, and cocaine. You could even argue beer should be outlawed, and it has caused more deaths and criminal cases than any of the aforementioned drugs. But one things we've learned from history is that Americans are not willing to let go of their drink! XD This is a big step forward, and i commend them. However i do not have a medical marijuana license, in fact, i don't even smoke. I used to, quite a bit, but i just grew out of it. We need more common f*cking sense with these things. Eventually the government will get hungry for all the money they can make off of it, and we will have a debate over that. With people dressed like indians, throwing casks of marijuana into San Fransisco Bay. I get that people are worried, but it's a fear that isn't really based in any rational idea. Moderation has always been key, some people just can't handle it. Eventually it will be legalized, but f*ck if i know when that will be. Have a good one.

"Sadly, the Portland Cannabis Cafe is closed."
(No news organ has covered this yet and there's nothing on the web about it. )

All things considered, the Portland Cannabis Cafe was a lovely institution, but with flaws.
The types of errors that occur in a new business - the petty power struggles, the menu problems - along with the apparent "fear of selling Cannabis" by the cafe owners and their legal advisors, which now appears unjustified considering the success of "Sophia's Registry" right across town here in 'Potland, could have all been factors which led to the Cannabis Cafe closing it's doors.

That's right, it's closed. But the real question is "Why did it close?"

The Cafe WAS a Registry of medical canabis patients, care givers and growers, that in the opinion of this writer should have been allowed to sell Cannabis "to it's members." But it's almost as though the proprietors of the Cafe didn't understand that it was in fact a Registry. There were also no medibles in the Cannabis Cafe for sale, which I understand was due to a concern that the amount of THC was possibly inexact in medibles from a liability standpoint.

Were we simply too afraid, to have a real Amsterdam style Cafe? Isn't that what everyone really wanted?

I don't blame the pioneers who opened the Portland Cannabis Cafe for their caution. The two men I saw who did most of the work on the cannabis side of the Cafe - "R.A.M. Junior " and "Frog" - were dedicated, knowledgeable and friendly. Sadly some serious mistakes were made. I know that a long time patient and member of the Cannabis Scene in Portland was treated unfairly.
She is a disabled woman and medical cannabis patient who ran afoul of Madeline in an unrelated matter, and who was not allowed to enter the Cafe through the first floor "handicapped entrance", even though she met all of the state and federal standards for being permanently handicapped, presented letters from her physician and her attorney and had an acutely broken foot. That was a rather shameful incident, which I am sorry to say I witnessed first hand.

The Portland Cannabis Cafe is now closed.
How could it close? Was the rent too high? Was the fact that no cannabis was available for sale off putting, to some? Were the financial managers inexperienced at running a restaurant? I do not know the answer.
I feel that it is a sad event that the Cafe closed. it was exactly the sort of space the patients , growers and caregivers of NORML needed. Where were the lawyers, and the CPAs? How and why did NORMLs Portland Cannabis Cafe end up closed just six months after it opened it's doors? I don't know. All I know is that it was a great place to party with other medical cannabis patients, caregivers and growers. Perhaps the next time a Cannabis Cafe opens in Orygun, it will be an actual "Cannabis Cafe" that legally sells cannabis to card carrying patients at sufficient profit to keep it's doors open. In fairess, I should add that the Cannabis Cafe did provide donated cannabis bud to smoke free of charge in small amounts for on premise consumption only, and that the Cafe was truly a "Vapor Bar", with vaporized bud and sometimes hash oil available all day and evening to cafe patrons.

I miss the 'Potland Cannabis Cafe. I'm betting that many other people do too. I'd like to thank "Linda from the Oregon NORML Board," "R.A.M. II", and "Frog" for all of the good work they did in keeping the Cafe open for as long as it was. I wish them all good luck in the future.