SAN FRANCISCO MARIJUANA CLUB REOPENS PEACEFULLY TO CHEERS

SAN FRANCISCO -- A San Francisco marijuana club reopened under another name
yesterday just a day after a court order shut down its predecessor.

About 40 patients and supporters cheered as Wayne Justmann, head of security
for the new Cannabis Healing Center, unlocked the front door.

First in line was Gilbert Abeyga, who said he couldn't understand why state
Attorney General Dan Lungren had pursued the court order that shut down the
Cannabis Cultivators Club on Monday.

"I'm in pain, and it helps a lot. It keeps me going," said Abeyga, adding he
used marijuana to fight AIDS symptoms. "If it wasn't for this I'd be skinny
and dying by now."

Replacing the former director and club founder Dennis Peron, who is running
against Lungren in the Republican gubernatorial primary, was Hazel Rodgers,
who celebrated her 79th birthday Monday as sheriff's deputies locked the
club's doors.

Rodgers said she believed legal attacks on the center would continue.
"There's too much opposition," she said.

Rob Stutzman, spokesman for Lungren's office, said the attorney general was
considering action against the new center.

"You can change the name on the door, but it's still an illegal drug house,"
Stutzman said.

The attorney general contends that Proposition 215, the medical marijuana
initiative approved by California voters in 1996, "allows only primary care
givers to supply the marijuana," the spokesman said.

The court-ordered shut down Peron's club was based on its sales to "care
givers," rather than directly to patients. Yesterday, Justmann posted a
large sign banning care givers from entering the club.

Rodgers is introducing a new brand of marijuana -- Holy Smoke -- to
celebrate the center's opening. The name emphasizes the spiritual nature of
the drug, she said, noting it was used for religious purposes in Jamaica.

Rodgers, who suffers from glaucoma and diabetes and has had breast cancer,
said she began using marijuana in 1992. Along with relieving her symptoms,
pot had an unexpected side effect, she said.

"It's helped my relationship with my 44-year-old son," she said. "We were
estranged but now we speak the same language."