JUDGE ORDERS POT CLUB CLOSED AGAIN

A Superior Court judge has ordered the San Francisco Cannabis Cultivators'
Club to close, saying founder Dennis Peron admitted selling marijuana to
non-patients.

Wednesday's ruling did not address the question of whether the club could
legally operate as a primary caregiver for its members under Proposition
215, the November 1996 medical marijuana initiative that Peron sponsored.

Instead, Judge David Garcia cited Peron's admission that he had sold
marijuana through the club to people who were acting as primary caregivers
for bedridden or hospital-bound patients. Those sales are not authorized
under any interpretation of Proposition 215 and justify an order
permanently closing the club, Garcia said.

Peron said he had no intention of shutting his operation and added that he
had halted all sales to non-patients as soon as he learned of the judge's
decision.

"There are too many technicalities (within the laws), and I never knew
(selling to primary caregivers instead of patients) was against the law,"
he said. "We'll be here until they bring the troops in."

Peron said he planned to appeal the ruling, which he blamed on Attorney
General Dan Lungren's ambition to be governor.

"This is a one-man vendetta," he said. "I know it is not over. This
scenario is going to continue until we have a new attorney general."

Lungren said the decision to shut the San Francisco club reaffirmed his
belief that marijuana clubs were illegal.

"Today's decision is based on the club's own admission that they were
selling to other cannabis buyers' clubs, which is clearly against the law,"
he said. "The only individual who can provide marijuana under state law to
another person is a primary caregiver -- a person who tends to all of an
individual's needs, not just supplying the marijuana."

Garcia ordered the operators of the Cannabis Cultivators' Club to cease
"selling, serving, storing, keeping, manufacturing, cultivating or giving
away marijuana at 1444 Market Street," and prohibits them from selling from
any location to primary caregivers.

However, the ruling says the defendants can legally cultivate and provide
marijuana to patients for whom they are bona fide primary caregivers.

Under the court order, the San Francisco sheriff is empowered to take
possession of the club's property, or, "if the sheriff declines," the state
Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement will do the job.

Sheriff Michael Hennessey said he was consulting with the city attorney to
determine whether that wording meant he had the option to decline to
enforce the order.

"If it means I'd be in contempt of the judge's order, I'll comply," he
said. "But the state has pursued this matter and has secured the order and
apparently is prepared to enforce it. I'd rather not expend local resources
on this issue if it's not required."

District Attorney Terence Hallinan was more outspoken in his dismay at the
ruling.

"This is a really bad situation," he said Wednesday night, vowing to do
"whatever I can do to make sure these patients are able to legally obtain
marijuana for legitimate medical purposes."

Peron's club and five others in Northern California are also the target of
a civil suit by the U.S. Justice Department, which says they are violating
federal marijuana laws and must be closed.

The club has been allowed to operate by San Francisco authorities. But
Lungren ordered a raid in August 1996 by state agents and obtained a
criminal indictment from an Alameda County grand jury against Peron and
five others. He also got an injunction shutting the club.

Garcia let it reopen in early 1997 after passage of Prop. 215, which
allowed patients or their primary caregivers to cultivate and possess
marijuana if the drug is recommended by a doctor to ease the effects of
cancer therapy, AIDS and other illnesses. In that ruling, the judge said
the club could act as a caregiver.

The 1st District Court of Appeal then overruled Garcia and said the club
was not a primary caregiver. But the court said someone who consistently
provided care for a patient could charge for the cost of growing and
supplying marijuana, language that Peron argued would permit his club to
operate.

However, Lungren returned to Garcia's court and sought the club's immediate
closure, describing it as a drug house that could not operate legally under
Proposition 215.

Wednesday's ruling leaves open the possibility that Peron or others might
legally supply marijuana at another location to patients for whom they are
primary caregivers. Jim Herron Zamora of The Examiner staff and the
Associated Press contributed to this report.

)1998 San Francisco Examiner