RumpSpankers review

For being such a place of extreme controversy you really expect there to be more. In fact you could probably walk by it and not even realize you were walking by America’s first cannabis café . Rumpspankers, a former gentlemen’s club, now cannabis cafe (they kept the name of the former gentlemen’s club) opened its doors Nov. 13.

Rumpspankers is the first café in America to allow medical marijuana patients, who have been told by the state they may use marijuana for medical purposes, a place to medicate This will be a major test of the Obama administration's and their claims to respect state's medical marijuana laws and not prosecute people are abiding by the states medical marijuana rules

When you walk inside you are greeted by quite a shock, an unexpected long list of fees to inter. You have to pay a $25 monthly club membership fee, a $5 entrance fee, and purchase a year’s membership to Oregon NORML at the price of $40.

I later found out that the owner of the café, Madeline Martinez, is also the executive director of Oregon NORML

After you have paid your fees you receive an unnecessarily large pot leaf stamp on your hand and a man who sounds a lot like Eeyore from "Winnie the pooh" directs you down some stairs.

As you inter the downstairs you are greeted by an overwhelming skunky smell that will linger on you for quite some time. The room is set up much like a café but with a small bar inside. The room is covered in Oregon NORML logos and marijuana memorabilia.

I took a seat and asked for a menu. It took them quite some time to retrieve me one. I got the feeling that people don’t often go there for food or coffee. The drinks were overpriced and all they had to eat were a few unappetizing sounding pastries.

By the time you have paid all your fees to get inside you’re hardly in the mood to waste any money on food.

I purchased a hot chocolate which was good, but not $74.50 good. Most of the people in the café were there for a specific reason and wanted to be left to themselves but I did have a chance to talk with one friendly man named Aaron Clark

“How often have you been coming here?” I asked him

“Well I try to get my money’s worth so as much as I can”

I mentioned how I was rather shocked myself at the price to simply set a foot in the door.

“This entire thing is about money, sure it’s cool that a place allows pot heads to smoke pot but they are going to charge you to do it”

Shortly after I finished my hot chocolate. I left feeling as if I had wasted a bunch of money for a membership that I’m probably never going to use.

In this writers opinion don’t waste your time at this media hype.

At a Glance Name : Rumpspankers What is it: Portland's cannabis cafe Where is it : 700 N.E. Dekum St Portland, OR 97211 When is it open: Monday Saturday 10a.m.-10p.m. Sunday 8a.m.-2p.m. The owner: Madeline Martinez More Information http://www.ornorml.org/

Pay to Print

So the morning rolls around and your printer is out of ink. The paper is due within an hour.

Now some of you may be thinking “No problem I will just print at LB”

WRONG!

Linn-Benton has recently changed its printing policy (you may have noticed the warning on every computer desktop around campus) to “Pay-to-Print”

A lot of you are probably asking yourself “why was I wrong earlier? I can still print at LB, I just have to pay”

Linn-Benton’s new pay to print policy operates on an “electronic money” only policy. You cannot use cash or change you find laying around your car.

Instead you have to pay money with a debit card online, or to the registration. And can you print once you have paid? No. You have to wait hours for the system to update and your funds to be available.

This matters because, there will be no more emergency printing at Linn-Benton for Students who have a printer at home, and no more free printing for the Students who cant afford to print.

I spoke with Ann L. Adams, Director Information Services at Linn-Benton Community College to ask her a few questions about the school’s new policy. Most importantly “Why?”

She was very polite and explained to me that;

“Asking Students to check how many pages they are printing helps them take responsibility for printing costs and waste. In the first week that the system has been used, paper usage has gone down by one third.

"We are also asking faculty to be aware of how much printing they ask Students to do.”

She also pointed to the fact that, “all the colleges around us were asking Students to pay for printing. As a result, some Students were coming to LB to print free which did not seem fair”

we can only speculate as to what school she is referring to but as a former OSU student I think I know what she is talking about.

Linn-Benton Students all can admit to at least knowing someone who has been wasteful when it comes to printing for free but is this really the only way to evoke change?

Yes it is successful at stopping paper waste but what do Students think about it?

I talked with student Paul Macotti, who is business major, at the Benton Learning Center to get his opinion on it.

“Isn’t that was our tuition is for?”

Tuition is expensive, however if does not seem that Linn-Benton is changing its policy because of the price of paper but because of Students level of waste.

I had to ask Ann Adams.

“How much does paper and ink cost in terms of dollars at Linn-Benton per term?”

I found her reply to be somewhat shocking

“For black and white printing, each page costs 3 cents for supplies. For color, the cost is 11 cents. This works out to about $8000 for supplies alone each term.”

$8000 a term is a lot of money to a college student, or any middle class family really, but I’m going to go out on a limb here and say it’s not a lot of money to a college.

According to the Linn-Benton website Linn-Benton has what it calls “the general fund budget”. For 2007-2008 it was set at $47.3 million.

If you also look at how much Linn-Benton is charging for “pay to print” you will notice that although they only charge for the cost of supplies for color paper they do make money every time we print on black and white paper.

Although student and teachers alike may debate whether pay to print was put into action to stop paper waste, or for Linn-Benton to make more money one thing is clear, it is going to accomplish both. Students can no longer waste paper at the expense of Linn-Benton, whether they can afford it or not.

if you have any questions in regards to pay to print feel free to e-mail or call Linn-Benton staff

At a Glance: What’s important?: Students having to pay to print Who’s affected: Students who print at LBCC Where: Printers all over campus Why: student waste and the cost of paper Questions: contact Ann Adams 5419174357