RULING BY TOP COURT MAY SHUT POT CLUBS

But patrons vow fight, and DA won't aid closure in S.F.

Through a cloud of marijuana smoke, patrons at the San Francisco Cannabis
Cultivator's Club voiced their outrage and dismay over a state Supreme
Court decision that could lead to the closure of all medical marijuana
clubs in California.

"If this club closes, I will be out here protesting. I will go to jail,"
said Wayne Justmann, 53, a volunteer at the club who is HIV positive. "What
kind of society would allow this to happen? There are a lot of sick people
here, going through a lot of pain."

Justmann was responding to news Wednesday that the state Supreme Court had
unanimously let stand an appellate court decision, issued last December,
that said Proposition 215, the 1996 medical marijuana initiative, did not
allow anyone to sell marijuana and did not allow a commercial outfit to
furnish marijuana as a "primary caregiver" to sick people.

The appellate ruling is now binding on trial courts statewide.

Dennis Peron, founder of the San Francisco club, and author of Prop. 215,
insisted that his operation complied with the appellate decision.

"We're not selling; we're cultivating for others" he said, explaining that
the group merely accepted reimbursement for cultivation costs, and that it
had changed its name from the Cannabis Buyers Club to conform with the
appellate ruling. "This is not going to affect our operations one bit."

"If they do try to arrest me," he went on, passionately, "I assure you
eight or nine thousand people here will not let them, will not go to the
back of the bus."

A spokesman for Attorney General Dan Lungren said the state would ask a San
Francisco judge on Thursday to order Peron's club closed.

"We'd like to move forward with reinstating the full injunction" to shut
the cannabis club, said spokesman Rob Stutzman.

The ruling by the state Court of Appeal, and Wednesday's state Supreme
Court decision not to review it, stem from a civil case brought by the
attorney general against Peron's club. The state got a judge to shut the
club, but it was reopened in January 1997 after the passage of Prop. 215 by
Superior Court Judge David Garcia.

The proposition, which was passed in November 1996, allows possession and
cultivation of marijuana upon a doctor's recommendation to ease the pain
and nausea of AIDS, cancer, glaucoma and other conditions.

Garcia said the measure allowed a nonprofit organization to sell marijuana
to patients who had named the club as their "primary caregiver."

However, the 1st District Court of Appeal overruled Garcia last December
and said state law prohibited anyone, including a nonprofit organization,
from selling marijuana or possessing it for sale.

Presiding Justice J. Clinton Peterson wrote that the only way a patient
could obtain marijuana legally was to grow it or obtain it from a primary
caregiver who had grown it.

A primary caregiver - defined by the initiative as an individual who has
consistently assumed responsibility for the housing, health of safety of
the patient - cannot be a commercial enterprise like the cannabis club,
Peterson said.

An aid to relaxation

Wednesday evening, patrons of the Cannabis Cultivators Club considered the
club's future.

"If this place didn't exist, it would be hard. I'd have to find another
source," said Larry, 51, who lost both his legs to a blood disease that led
to gangrene. "Marijuana helps me relax. It controls the spasms in my legs."
He didn't want his last name used.

The attorney general hopes the action by the court will pave the way for
the closure of the dozens of cannabis clubs around California.

"We think this means local law enforcement around the state should be
advising clubs they should cease to operate," said Stutzman. "If they
continue to operate, they should close them down."

But San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan has no plans to shut
down Peron's club.

"It's still up in the air. We have to wait and see what Garcia's going to
do," he said. "Lungren will try to shut down Peron's club, but we're trying
to work out our own medical approach for San Francisco."

Hallinan said he and Supervisor Tom Ammiano had requested that the Board of
Supervisors develop rules to regulate cannabis clubs as medical centers.

)1998 San Francisco Examiner Page A1