Cannabis Cafe ... and Then Some

Never mind what side of the medical marijuana debate you're on, and think back to that catchy jingle from the show "Cheers" — the one "where everyone knows your name." That one.

How nice it must be to really have a watering hole like that, and if not a watering hole, then a pot pub, or ganja bar, or whatever you would prefer to call it. I mean, if you needed that kind of thing. And by need, I mean, in a medically-licensed kind of way.

The first of its kind, The Cannabis Cafe, opened Friday afternoon in Portland, Oregon making it America's first legal coffeehouse in the "European tradition," let's say.

But pay attention: there is a catch, and that catch would be that only those who need the marijuana for medical purposes, and are card-carrying members of The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) are admitted. And, by the way, no pot is sold on the premises, according to Oregon Law. (But not according to what your cousin Jimmy's friend's brother says ... )

We kid, we kid!

It's an idea whose time has come. Medicinal marijuana is useful for cancer patients in getting their appetite back after chemo, and for helping sufferers of glaucoma, as well as a host of other issues.

Just don't go asking for the daily special.

Photo courtesy of Gerhard Taatgen@sxc.hu.