First US cannabis cafe hot as it gets

Will Halverson, pictured left, smokes from a bong as Mimi Bui lights a joint with their meal at Lowell Farms, the first cannabis cafe in the US in West Hollywood, California.

It offers diners an array of weed products and aims to rival Amsterdam’s famed coffee shops.

Called Lowell Farms: A Cannabis Cafe, the muchhyped 240-seat establishment is open to people 21 and over. They order from a cannabis menu just like they would do for wine.

“Flower Hosts” or “budtenders” help patrons navigate the menu, giving advice to connoisseurs or novices on what strain of cannabis to order with their meal and the potency and flavour of each.

On offer are prerolled joints starting at $18 (R272) apiece, highly potent concentrates, some edibles and accessories such as bongs, pipes and dabbing devices.

“It’s amazing to be a part of making history, I never thought I would have been,” said executive chef Andrea Drummer as she surveyed diners at the soft opening of the eatery on Monday.

“It’s important to have a safe space to consume in a very communal setting,” she added. “The only other place that I know that to be the case is Amsterdam.”

She said customers were flying in from different parts of the country. One couple even travelled from Britain to take part in the grand opening on Tuesday.

The cafe’s launch comes as more and more states across America have legalised marijuana in recent years, both for medicinal and recreational purposes. The drug, however, remains illegal at the federal level.

In California, which has the world’s largest legal marijuana market, recreational pot became legal last year. –