The five-bedroom bed-and-breakfast, just a stoner's throw from the beach, exists as a safe—and perfectly legal—haven for people who smoke marijuana for medical reasons. "Motel 6 guests probably smoke it quietly in their rooms," says Andrea Tischler, 57, who with her partner, Maria Mallek-Tischler, 46, opened the inn in a restored Victorian in April. "This is more out of the closet."
Guests who show up hoping to be provided with marijuana go away disappointed; the Compassion Flower is strictly BYOP. And, as required by California law, a doctor's note is also necessary. Tischler, who grew up in Chicago, and German-born Mallek-Tischler, a couple since 1979, have been pot-legalization activists since the 1980s in San Francisco. "We had a lot of friends with AIDS," says Tischler. "They were taking AZT, and marijuana seemed to bolster their appetite."
Out in the sunshine-soaked "toking area," a new arrival, Scott Byer, 53, of Clearlake, Calif., who smokes to ease spinal pain, has taken out a small porcelain pipe and is filling it. He doesn't even have his room key yet.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
