SAN JOSE POT CLUB WILL SHUT ITS DOORS FOREVER NEXT WEEK

Faced with mounting legal problems and a frozen bank account, Santa Clara
County's only medical marijuana center will close for good next week,
Executive Director Peter Baez announced yesterday.

``We're going out of business at 3 p.m. May 8,'' Baez said. ``We're planning
to wear black and hold a memorial service, because we feel that we've been
killed by the police and the district attorney.''

While the San Jose club was announcing its closure yesterday, the Cannabis
Healing Center in San Francisco was winning a judicial ruling keeping its
doors open.

San Francisco Superior Court Judge William Cahill instead ordered the Market
Street marijuana dispensary to do a better job of policing activities out front.

Attorney General Dan Lungren had sought a temporary restraining order
against the center, claiming it is merely a sham to thwart a court-ordered
closure of its predecessor at the site, the Cannabis Cultivators Club.

The closure of the San Jose marijuana center was agonizing, Baez said,
because the center's 270 clients now have almost nowhere to turn for legal
marijuana. The nearby Santa Cruz Cannabis Buyers' Club closed last month,
and two large clubs in San Francisco and Oakland are facing government lawsuits.

One San Jose woman cried in frustration yesterday over the planned closure
of the Cannabis Center there. She wondered where she will now find marijuana
for her 78-year-old husband, who is dying of cancer.

``The week after they took out his esophagus he went from 189 pounds to 134
pounds,'' said the tearful woman, who asked that her name not be printed.
``We gave him some marijuana candy and he gained five pounds. Now that this
place is closing what am I going to do?

``The doctors say there's no hope for him, and all I want is to help him
feel better for a little longer,'' she said. ``It's not fair.''

The future of the Santa Clara County Medical Cannabis Center has been in
question since March 23, when San Jose Police arrested Baez and charged him
with one count of selling marijuana without a valid doctor's recommendation.

After searching through the center's patient files, county prosecutors filed
five more felony counts against Baez on April 6, and seized a bank account
holding about $29,000. The charges, which Baez denies, could lead to a
sentence of nine years in prison.

Deputy District Attorney Denise Raabe, who is handling the case against
Baez, said police went out of their way to prevent the club's closure,
leaving some operating cash and most of the marijuana after the March raid.

Baez said he has run out of cash and credit since the police raid, and is
also dealing with a resurgence of his colon cancer, which will require
further surgery in June.

``I owe $17,000 to growers, $1,200 for rent, and $15,000 in legal bills,''
Baez said. ``My credit is out. I can't get any more marijuana.''

Prosecutors said they are not responsible for the closure.

``It sounds to me like they made a business decision to close,'' Raabe said.
``I don't think it has much to do with the pending charges against them.

``Proposition 215 (the law legalizing medical marijuana in California) is
still in effect,'' Raabe said. ``Patients can still possess marijuana and
cultivate it.''

But Kathleen Wells, attorney for the now-closed Santa Cruz club, said the
result of closure will be more money for street-level drug dealers.

``I know our former patients are out there scrounging for what they can get
from the black market,'' Wells said. ``Is that what the government wants?
What good is this law if there's no access to legal marijuana?''

In San Francisco, Judge Cahill found that there was not enough evidence of
what was going on inside the Cannabis Healing Center to justify the
immediate closure of the center.

He ordered that the center ensure that areas within 150 feet of the center
be free of drug use, drug transactions, littering and underage drinking.

In court on Tuesday, Cahill heard conflicting arguments that the new center
is either an illegal ``drug house'' or a legal operation providing care to
people in need of medicinal marijuana.

J. David Nick, attorney for the center, said that its current operator,
Hazel Rodgers, is a legally authorized ``care-giver'' to 300 to 500 patients
a day. The 79-year-old Rodgers began operating the center the day after club
founder Dennis Peron closed the Cannabis Cultivators Club on April 20.

©1998 San Francisco Chronicle