EVEN FOR A CITY with a coffee shop on every corner, a new
café in Northeast Portland will be a first: patrons of the
planned Cannabis Café will be able to light up a joint while
they sip their drinks.
“Hi guys! My name is Anna and I smoke weed!” said Anna Diaz, of the
Oregon chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana
Laws (NORML), welcoming 50 medical marijuana cardholders to a volunteer
training session for the state’s first cannabis café. At 4:20 pm
on Friday, November 13, NORML hopes to open the doors of the NE Dekum
café formerly known as Rumpspankers as a new private club open
seven days a week to patients who want to hang out and smoke up.
“It will be a place to medicate out of public view where they can
have a community and feel safe and sane,” said Diaz, standing amid the
glare of all-red Christmas lights in the sofa-lined café during
last week’s meeting.
Diaz says the café will be a big boon to out-of-town
cardholders who travel to Portland to visit doctors at OHSU or the
veterans’ hospital but have nowhere to legally smoke up after they
leave the hospital. Patients will pay a monthly membership fee to use
the café.
Though growing and consuming medical marijuana has been legal in
Oregon since 1999, selling pot in the state is a felony. NORML says the
café will operate on a purely bring-your-own and donation basis,
unlike cannabis cafés in California which sell medical
marijuana. Cardholders were optimistic about getting donations.
“Technically patients are only supposed to have 24 ounces, but if
you’re any good at growing you’ll have much more than that,” explains
Bob, a glaucoma patient who plans to volunteer at the café.
The café staff will take care of selling food, coffee, and
snacks while volunteer NORML “budtenders” will handle the distribution
of pot. As the opening date nears, café organizers are worried
about coming under the scrutiny of local police and neighbors.
“This is the first of its kind in Oregon. It will definitely be
easier to work in the second one,” said Rumpspankers owner and medical
marijuana cardholder Eric Solomon. Rumpspankers is already hosting a
number of alternative events, like a monthly “Pants Off Dance Off” and
bondage night.
“One thing about this café is we’ll be out loud and proud,”
says Solomon.
And from yelp dot com:
As another reviewer mentioned, they have gone through some changes in the past few months, including closing down to do renovations. I watched as they filled dumpsters with drywall and various other things, imagining big changes inside the restaurant. When they reopened and looked very much the same, I was perplexed. I asked someone in the neighborhood about it, and they told me that the renovations involved adding small backrooms for “private parties, if you know what I mean,” which I didn’t. Or at least I didn’t want to just go by some rumor. I was told that they were hosting all sorts of fetish and orgy-type after hour parties, thrown by someone called The Dark Lady. I googled both Rumpspankers and the Dark Lady and lo and behold found advertisements for just such events, where guests could “indulge in a sex positive, GLBT, straight, poly, mono, swinger, kinky, vanilla, 18 and older friendly environment while enjoying a tasty meal from Rumpspankers” and enjoy “Safer Sex Supplied Play Spaces Upstairs” in the historic building that also houses a RESTAURANT that already has issues with CLEANLINESS.
Hahahhaha seriously? This is right around the corner from my office. I’ve been wondering what it was as my bus passes it each day.
Guess it isn’t the next place I’ll check out as a lunch option….
Martin — If you must tell tall tales, at least get my name right if you’re going to tell them about me.
It’s Darklady.
While you’re getting that right, consider not making up quotes and attributing them to a professional writer. Which would be me. The person who didn’t write what you claim.
Thanks so much.
Darklady,
I was quoting an article I read on yelp dot com that was linked to on the Portland Sentinel’s website. I am not the author of the above quote. Perhaps I should have made that more clear in my original post.
Cheers.
Wow. Soup house to sex club to pot cafe.
Were you high when you wrote that business plan? Oh right…
how long before the gangbangers stick this place up and harsh some serious mellows?
I’d like to know why Rumpspankers couldn’t find a space in a larger retail area of the city? This is a very small business district in a largely residential area, and now one of the main buildings is inaccessible to the community that lives there. First a bug-infested cafe, an after-hours sex club and now this? WTF?