At precisely 4:20 p.m. last Friday afternoon, the Cannabis Café, the first coffee house in the United States catering to licensed users of medical marijuana, opened for business in Portland, Ore.

The new cafe went into operation just weeks after the Justice Department announced that people who use marijuana for medical purposes and those who distribute it to them will not face federal prosecution, provided they act according to state law. The time of day for the opening was a pot-smokers’ in-joke: “420″ has been used as code for the drug or its use since the early 1970s.

This video report from The Oregonian’s Web site shows patrons excitedly filing into the northeast Portland cafe, which is run by the Oregon branch of The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML:

As Anne Saker of The Oregonian explained:

The café, in the space that once featured Rumpspankers restaurant, looks like nearly every other coffeehouse in town, except that shiny silver Volcano vaporizers are plugged into outlets lining the tiled bar. 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.

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