Thing: Fruit-flavored rolling papers available at The Hippie House

Made by: Zig Zag and Juicy

For sale at: The Hippie House

Located: 3109 Sixth Ave., Tacoma

Co-owners: Justin Stieglitz and John Anderson

Opened: May 21, 2011

Not your: Normal, dirty head shop

Considered: The Nordstrom of head shops

If only: I could visit Santa at a head shop

Christmas with the in-laws: Would be more tolerable

After watching a close family friend suffer for almost seven years from the side effects of chemotherapy and a brain tumor, Hippie House co-owner Justin Stieglitz was relieved to see her gain life back with the use of medical marijuana. She was no longer nauseated and uncomfortable. Instead, she was able to eat, sleep and function again.

But what he witnessed on his friend's journey to natural pain relief bothered him. Every head shop they entered to purchase smoking accessories was, "ghetto and dirty, selling crack pipes, spices and stuff that made you feel like a thief," Stieglitz describes. 

This eventually bothered him enough that he created The Hippie House, a relatively new Sixth Avenue business that Stieglitz says is a "clean and safe atmosphere where you feel comfortable buying stuff and not like you are doing anything wrong."

Walk inside and you'll see what he's talking about. The floors are a nice hardwood. The cabinets are actually from Nordstrom. And the art on the walls was once housed in the Tacoma Art Museum.

There are no crack pipes, spices or junk for sale. All items are made in America, and 100 percent of the glass is made in the Pacific Northwest.

Stieglitz is not afraid to kick a person out for looking high, either, and has had to do so a couple of times already. "We're setting a standard here. There are no tweakers allowed, and I have no problem eighty-sixing people," he boldly admits, adding, "I want to change the image and show what a head shop really should be about."

With that change comes an honest, sanitary establishment where users of medical marijuana can add to their pain relief a little bit of tasty fun, specifically Zig Zag and Juicy brand fruit-flavored smoking papers.

The most popular among Hippie House guests are Juicy's watermelon papers, though a combo blueberry/blackberry flavor offered by Juicy -  Stieglitz's personal favorite - also does well. The Hippie House offers other choices, including grape and strawberry, with more flavors being added to the shelves by next week.

[The Hippie House, 3109 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.267.1708]