POLICE SHUT DOWN SAN FRANCISCO POT CLUB

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Police shut down San Francisco's embattled main
medical marijuana club Monday, enforcing a court order to close the
operation for violating state drug laws.

Dozens of people evicted from the downtown club chanted pro-marijuana
slogans as sheriff's deputies went through the building cataloging its
contents before locking it shut.

Sheriff Mike Hennessey said the court-ordered closure, which followed
agonized wrangling over California's 1996 state law that legalized medical
marijuana, probably spelled the end for the trailblazing San Francisco club.

``As far as we're concerned, it's shut down for good,'' Hennessey told KCBS
radio after the raid.

``The federal government is involved in this site, the state government is
involved in this site. It's a pretty hot location at this point.''

Superior Court Judge William Cahill last week ordered the club closed,
saying the San Francisco Cannabis Healing Center did not fit provisions in
the 1996 state law which specified that only patients and ``primary
caregivers'' could legally possess marijuana for medical use.

Cahill's order ended a legal drive by state Attorney General Dan Lungren to
close the San Francisco club, which he charged with being a ``drug house''
that freely sold marijuana to the public at large.

Federal officials, meanwhile, have separately obtained preliminary
injunctions against six northern California medical marijuana clubs, saying
they violate federal anti-drug laws.

Three of the clubs, including the one in San Francisco, had vowed to stay
open in defiance of the injunction, seeking a court trial to put the issue
before a jury.

Local California officials, many of whom support the medical marijuana clubs
as a relatively safe way to dispense the drug, are due to hold a summit with
police officials and others in Sacramento Tuesday to discuss possible
alternate ways to distribute marijuana to sick people.

California's 1996 state law legalized the use of marijuana, under a doctor's
advice, for treatment of symptoms of illnesses ranging from AIDS and cancer
to glaucoma and nausea.

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett