POT CLUB FOUNDER ROLLS WITH RULING, VOWS IT'LL REOPEN

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- San Francisco's sheriff promised Thursday to carry
out a judge's order to shut down the city's largest medicinal marijuana
club, while the club's founder vowed it would reopen immediately.

Sheriff Mike Hennessey said he would evict the 9,000-member Cannabis
Cultivators' Club from its Market Street building Monday.

``My intention is to attempt to carry out the court order in the safest way
possible,'' he said.

Club founder Dennis Peron said he intended to cooperate with Hennessey and
vacate the building -- for one day. By changing its name and its management
structure, he said, the pot emporium can comply with Wednesday's ruling by
Superior Court Judge David Garcia.

``We intend to allow the sheriff to close this club -- then we'll reopen
the next day as the Cannabis Healing Center,'' said Peron, who added that
he has resigned as director of the club.

Peron said he was particularly worried about the possibility of violence if
Hennessey didn't act and instead allowed the state Bureau of Narcotic
Enforcement to conduct the eviction. That agency raided the club in 1996,
and many members contended agents were politically motivated and too
aggressive.

Swarms of pot buyers descended as usual on the club Thursday. About 50
cheered as the doors swung open at 11 a.m.

In his order, Garcia cited Peron's admission that he has sold marijuana,
through the club, to people who were acting as primary caregivers for
bedridden or hospital-bound patients -- sales not authorized under any
interpretation of voter-approved Proposition 215.