L.A. gets its first pot-friendly hotel

A hotel that opened in the ’20s in L.A.’s Koreatown is having another grand opening tonight in celebration of what owner’s hope will be its new cliente: pot smokers.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the building will become “Dennis Peron’s Normandie Hotel,” named after the marijuana activist, who has teamed up with a real estate investor by the name of John Evangelista.

Their marketing guru, Richard Eastman, says they already have a motto for the rechristened establishment, which could become America’s first pot-friendly hotel.

“Forget Amsterdam… You won’t need a passport to come to the Normandie Hotel. You won’t need a plane ticket to come to the Normandie Hotel.”

But the 106-room hotel is already running into some financial troubles. Evangelista is in a lawsuit with the former owner and is consequently about $200,000 behind in loan payments.