POT CLUB'S FUTURE IN JEOPARDY

San Jose police searching center's files

A flurry of new criminal charges were leveled yesterday against the
director of the Santa Clara County Medical Cannabis Center and could force
the organization to fold by the end of the month.

Center Director Peter Baez pleaded innocent yesterday in a San Jose
courtroom to six counts of selling marijuana without a doctor's
recommendation, charges that carry a possible punishment of nine years in
prison.

Baez was first arrested on March 23 and charged with selling pot to one
patient without a valid medical recommendation. Five more counts were added
yesterday based on a review of patient files seized from the center by San
Jose police.

Investigators are continuing to search the files for more alleged
violations. In addition, prosecutors are trying to seize the center's
$29,000 checking account under asset forfeiture laws that allow them to
confiscate drug dealers' profits.

Baez, 34, remained free on $5,000 bail yesterday and faces addition court
proceedings on May 6.

``I've made up my mind that I have to get out of (running the center),''
said Baez, who suffers from colon cancer. ``My health can't take it. I just
want to enjoy what time I have left in this world.''

Baez said he and center co-founder Jesse Garcia will leave the center by
the end of the month which, along with the loss of their bank account, will
likely result in the center's closure. The San Jose center was the only
medical marijuana dispensary in Santa Clara County.

With the cannabis clubs in San Francisco, Oakland and Marin threatened with
closure by federal officials and the Santa Cruz club out of business,
medical marijuana users in the Bay Area may soon be limited to buying pot
from two small clubs in San Francisco and one in Hayward. Of course,
marijuana is freely available on the black market.

``I think we're really in danger of thwarting the will of the population''
that voted for Proposition 215, the voter initiative that legalized medical
marijuana in California, said Ben Schatz, executive director of the San
Francisco-based Gay and Lesbian Medical Association.

Medical and civil rights groups as varied as the ACLU and the California
Medical Association have expressed concern about the prosecution of Baez
because it is based on a police seizure that some think violated patients'
confidential.

Santa Clara County prosecutors and San Jose Police say they never intended
to close the San Jose center, and do not want marijuana denied to
legitimate patients. They said they targeted Baez with criminal charges
because he handled almost all of the center's direct sales.

``We didn't shut them down, we left most of their marijuana and a
significant amount of working cash,'' said Deputy District Attorney Denise
Raabe. ``If they decide to close, that's a business decision they can make.
But it wasn't what . . . police were trying to do.''

Baez said he feels betrayed and entrapped by police, who he worked with
closely to set up the center and write workable regulations after
Proposition 215 was passed. He said that the prosecution's case is based on
notes and documentation he scrupulously compiled in an attempt to keep his
operation in line with the law.

Baez and his attorneys claim that center workers received either a verbal
or written recommendation for marijuana use from the physician of every
client, but noted that many doctors fear losing their license if they admit
to police that they have recommended pot use to patients.

``I put my heart in this place from the very beginning,'' Baez said.
``Through surgeries and chemotherapy and other battles with my health, I
put 100 percent into (the center). I got blacklisted at the other
(cannabis) centers for (cooperating with the San Jose police). When I look
back at what has happened, I'm heartbroken, just heartbroken.''

)1998 San Francisco Chronicle