Set in an older blue collar neighborhood in North East Portland, NORMLs Cannabis Café, occupies a building that was reputed to be a speakeasy, Rumpspankers restaurant, during Prohibition, alcohol Prohibition, that is. It includes a meeting/concert space upstairs for about 200+ people, in addition to the Café downstairs. Oregon NORML signed a lease with the onsite restaurant operator and took over the business. NORML volunteers worked there non stop to turn the building into the Cannabis Café. Its opening became a world wide press event. Apparently a lot more people than Madeline Martinez, the executive director of NORML and owner of Cannabis Cafe, thought the NORMLs Cannabis Café was an idea whose time had come. It looks like nearly every other coffeehouse in town, except that shiny silver Volcano vaporizers are plugged into outlets lining the tiled bar and jars of donated pot line the shelves behind the bar waiting to be smoked by licensed users. Wi-Fi is available. Coffee, soft drinks, trays of Marsee Bakery pastries and sandwiches are also offered as ammunition against the inevitable attack of the munchies. The only people permitted in the Cannabis Cafe are those licensed to smoke who also hold membership in the lobbying group Oregon NORML. Patrons will be charged $5 a day. They can bring their own or smoke donated marijuana. Oregon law says medical marijuana may not be sold. – The Oregonian
