S.F. MARIJUANA CLUB CHANGES NAME, REOPENS

Marijuana advocates have the upper hand for now in their battle with
Attorney General Dan Lungren.

San Francisco-The club is dead. Long live the club-the San Francisco
marijuana club, that is, which reopened under another name Tuesday 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 and
announced the center was open.

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

"Why is everybody putting such a strain on the club?" he asked. "It's not
hurting nobody, nobody."

Abeyga said he uses marijuana to fight AIDS symptoms.

"I'm in pain, and it helps a lot. It keeps me going. If it wasn't for this,
I'd be skinny and dying by now," he said.

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.

She said she will appoint a medical director to make the center more legitimate.

Rodgers said she believed that despite the state's medical marijuana law
and the center's policy changes, legal attacks on the center would
continue.

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