CHIEF OF S.F. POT CLUB QUITS, SAYS FACILITY WILL OPEN AGAIN

SAN FRANCISCO -- San Francisco's medical marijuana guru Dennis Peron
resigned Thursday as chief of his Cannabis Cultivators Club, effectively
closing the busy medical marijuana outlet with the promise that it would
reopen under a new name.

"It all may seem like a semantic shell game, but we're obeying the spirit
of Proposition 215," Peron said, referring to the 1996 law legalizing
marijuana possession for the seriously ill and their caregivers.

Peron said the operation would shut down at the conclusion of business
today. The announcement came one day after a Superior Court judge ordered
the outlet closed, ordering Peron and his followers to vacate their
downtown San Francisco headquarters and quit the business of selling pot.

Under Peron's plan, Hazel Rodgers, an elderly but high-profile cannabis
club member who says marijuana eases her glaucoma symptoms, would take over
the club's lease and reopen the operation as the Cannabis Healing Center,
Peron said.

Peron would have no official role in the new operation, but would instead
dedicate himself full-time to campaigning against Attorney General Dan
Lungren for the Republican nomination for California governor, he said.

San Francisco Sheriff Michael Hennessey said Thursday he would send
deputies into the club early next week to seize the keys to the building
and any contraband inside, as ordered by the court.

In the past, Hennessey has been reluctant to act against the club, which
enjoys considerable political support in the city. And his decision to shut
the club down appears to have been made with the approval of Peron himself.

"It's better all around if Hennessey comes in because he won't break
everything," Peron said. "When the (state Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement)
raided us, they came in with rubber gloves, made all kinds of nasty jokes
and they broke every door in the place."

Judge David Garcia ordered the closure Wednesday because the club, which
claims to distribute pot under the medical marijuana law, sold it to
non-patients.

In his ruling, Garcia called on the San Francisco Sheriff's Department to
seize the club's property. But he added that "if the sheriff declines,"
state drug agents would be authorized to enter the club. The court order
shutting down Peron's club stems from a 1996 civil suit filed by Lungren.

Peron also faces criminal charges brought by Lungren in Alameda County
Superior Court, and a federal civil case brought by the Justice Department
seeking to close down six Northern California pot clubs.