CALIFORNIA TO SHUT CANNABIS CLUBS

CALIFORNIA'S simmering marijuana wars moved closer to an open showdown
yesterday, with the prospect of a court-ordered shutdown of the state's
marijuana clubs.

The California Attorney General, armed with a sympathetic court ruling, was
to seek an injunction to close up to 20 clubs, his spokesman said.

The clubs, which claim only to dispense marijuana to the sick, sprang up
across the state after California voters legalised the personal medical use
of marijuana. But they have been the prime target for government officials
determined to nip the legalisation of marijuana in the bud.

Dennis Peron, operator of the Cannabis Cultivators Club in San Francisco,
which is said to sell as much as 50lb of marijuana a week to 8,000 clients
from a city centre office building, promised to defy any court order.

"We're going to stay here until the tanks come," he said.

Mr Peron's club is the most visible operation, where pot is freely sold in
what critics say is a party atmosphere thick with marijuana smoke. The club
was raided and shut down once under orders from Attorney General Dan
Lundgren, a conservative Republican now in the thick of his campaign for
the California governorship.

In November 1996, a solid majority of California voters passed Proposition
215, allowing seriously ill people or their "primary care-giver" to grow
and use marijuana on a doctor's recommendation.

Activists in six other states and Washington DC are pushing to put similar
bills on the ballot this year, but President Clinton's administration has
led efforts to contain the fall-out and prevent medical marijuana use
becoming a national phenomenon.

In a hearing next month, US prosecutors will separately seek injunctions to
close at least six clubs. The clubs claim that they serve as the "primary
care-giver" under Proposition 215, giving them the right to supply and sell
marijuana. But the California Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed that
argument after a series of appeals.

"The courts have essentially said that cannabis clubs are not allowed,"
said a spokesman for Mr Lundgren.

It remains to be seen how rapidly his office will move against the clubs,
but there was little doubt that Mr Peron's operation is the first on the
list of closures.

Mr Peron, a larger-than-life California personality, and a gay Vietnam
veteran who co-authored Proposition 215, insists all marijuana is "medical".

His inflammatory statements have not endeared him to clubs in other cities,
where patients are more carefully screened and which operate quietly,
sometimes with the co-operation of local police.