SUMMIT AIMS TO RESCUE POT'S LEGAL STATUS

Prop. 215: A coalition seeks to clarify and bolster the 1996 measure.

With Proposition 215 wilting from repeated legal assaults, an unlikely
coalition led by state Sen. John Vasconcellos of San Jose has scheduled a
long-awaited ``summit'' next Tuesday to consider ways to rescue
California's medicinal marijuana initiative.

In a conference call with the media on Monday, Vasconcellos and an array of
public officials and Proposition 215 backers revealed they will hold a
four-hour ``Medical Marijuana Distribution Summit'' in Sacramento in an
attempt to sort through the chaos surrounding the voter-approved
legislation.

Vasconcellos, the Democratic chairman of the state Senate Committee on
Public Safety, has been pushing for such an event since last year. He was
joined Monday by a number of law enforcement officials, including Santa
Clara County District Attorney George Kennedy and San Francisco District
Attorney Terence Hallinan.

California voters in November 1996 approved Proposition 215, which permits
the distribution of marijuana to seriously ill patients suffering from
diseases such as AIDS and cancer.

But since the measure went into effect it has been the target of legal
challenges from state Attorney General Dan Lungren as well as the Clinton
administration, which argues the ballot measure conflicts with federal drug
laws. On Thursday a San Francisco federal judge nudged the state's pot
clubs closer to extinction by siding with the U.S. Justice Department in
its lawsuit seeking to close six Northern California operations.

Also, many owners of clubs established to distribute marijuana to patients
have wound up in other types of legal trouble.

Among others, Peter Baez, co-founder of Santa Clara County's only pot
dispensary, had to close his operation after being arrested for illegally
distributing marijuana. On Monday, Baez surrendered at the Santa Clara
County Sheriff's Department after a grand jury last week indicted him on
seven felonies, including two new counts of grand theft and maintaining a
drug house.

The Santa Clara County Medical Cannabis Center had operated under
regulations approved by Kennedy's office, the San Jose Police Department
and the San Jose city attorney. Kennedy, president of the California
District Attorneys Association, said Monday the summit is needed to address
the many problems confronting Proposition 215, which he noted has the
support of ``many people in California.''

According to organizers of the summit, Lungren, who has gone to court to
close the San Francisco marijuana club owned by Proposition 215 co-author
Dennis Peron, will send representatives to testify at the meeting.

However, the federal government will be conspicuously absent; Justice
Department officials declined to take part in the summit.

Vasconcellos described their refusal to participate as ``pretty lame.'' But
Kennedy said the summit could help bridge the gap between state and local
efforts to implement the law and the federal government's objections to it.

Peron, meanwhile, said he was not invited to join the summit.

``I guess I'm the bad boy,'' said Peron, whose rural Northern California
farm last week was raided by federal agents, with 250 marijuana plants
seized. ``I don't want to go where I'm not invited. I'm not crashing this
party.''

Checked-by: jwjohnson@netmagic.net (Joel W. Johnson)