POT CLUB FOUNDER PERON WANTS GOP GUBERNATORIAL NOMINATION

Dennis Peron, founder of San Francisco's beleaguered Cannabis Cultivators
Club, began his campaign for the Republican nomination for governor
yesterday with a petition drive to place his name on the statewide ballot.

``We need to collect 10,000 signatures in 30 days,'' Peron, surrounded by
50 chanting supporters, told reporters during a brief press conference and
campaign rally at his Market Street headquarters yesterday afternoon. ``I
think we got about 1,000 already today, so we've got a start.''

Peron's Republican candidacy places him in competition for votes with state
Attorney General Dan Lungren, the Republican who is currently prosecuting
Peron for violating state marijuana laws.

In August 1996, state agents raided the Cannabis Club and a state grand
jury in Alameda indicted Peron two months later. His trial is still
pending, and in October, an Alameda County Superior Court judge ordered
that the trial be held in San Francisco because it appeared that the
attorney general had arranged the indictment in Oakland in an attempt to
secure a more favorable jury.

During his press conference yesterday, Peron stressed that his campaign
will focus on ending the death penalty, opening the border between Mexico
and California and protecting individual rights.

``My message is for everybody,'' he said. ``It's about trying to bring the
state together instead of dividing it.''

©1997 San Francisco Chronicle