S.F. MEDICINAL POT CLUB CLOSED -- FOR A WHILE

Member given building lease so she can reopen

SAN FRANCISCO -- With medical marijuana supporters openly smoking pot
outside, sheriff's deputies shut down this city's busy Cannabis Cultivators
Club on Monday.

But club officials said they'd be back a few hours later under a new name.

The closure was part of an arranged plan to comply with a court ruling
ordering the club's founder, Dennis Peron, to vacate his five-story
marijuana dispensary in downtown San Francisco and quit selling pot.

"We're complying with the letter of the law," said Peron, who claims the
club was operating lawfully under the successful 1996 initiative that
legalized marijuana for medical use in California.

Under the guidance of San Francisco Sheriff Michael Hennessey, about 10
deputies arrived at the club Monday to clear the building and change the
locks to its entrance doors.

Deputies confiscated about 10 boxes of pot paraphernalia, several live
marijuana plants and some smoking devices. No arrests were made.

Hennessey, who supports the club, said his mission was to close the
building and turn its keys over to the building owner. Whatever happened
next was "none of my business," he said, even if the owner gave the keys
back to club members to re-open the operation.

"We are having a cooperative eviction," Hennessey said outside the club.
"I'm sympathetic to medical marijuana users and to the law of the state. A
lot of people in this city support the club and would like to see the law
carried out."

A group of deputies visited the club Friday to prepare for Monday's action,
which came off peacefully as some club members, wearing pro-pot T-shirts,
occasionally chanted "Peron for governor."

Peron is running for the Republican nomination for governor against state
Attorney General Dan Lungren, who brought the civil case against the club
resulting in Monday's closure.

In a deal arranged last week, Peron passed the leadership of the club on to
one of its longtime members, Hazel Rodgers, 79, who says marijuana eases
her suffering from glaucoma. He also gave Rodgers the lease to the club's
downtown San Francisco headquarters with the understanding that she would
quickly reopen the club as the "Cannabis Healing Center."

Superior Court Judge David Garcia ordered the club closed April 15, ruling
that the club was "clearly engaging in the illegal sale of marijuana," by
distributing pot to people who are not recognized as patients -- a key
provision of the state law.

Lungren had no official reaction to Monday's events, a spokesman said.
Peron said the action by the Sheriff's Department was preferable to a
takeover by state drug agents, who raided the club at Lungren's direction
two years ago, and were authorized to close the club this time if the
sheriff declined to act.

Peron also faces criminal charges brought by Lungren in Alameda County, and
is a co-defendant in a federal civil case brought by the U.S. Justice
Department, which is seeking to close down six Northern California pot
clubs.

California's medical marijuana law, known as Proposition 215, legalized the
possession of marijuana by the seriously ill and their caregivers.