RULING CAUSES STAMPEDE AT S.F. POT CLUB: WITHOUT STATUS AS CAREGIVER, SALES
ILLEGAL, COURT SAYS

By John Lyons
Bee Correspondent

SAN FRANCISCO Hundreds of anxious marijuana buyers surged into San
Francisco's Cannabis Cultivators Club Monday in the wake of an appellate
court ruling Friday that such stores are illegal.

"The scene is panic buying," said Dennis Peron, owner of the marijuana
outlet. "Everyone is trying to stockpile. We're trying to tell them to calm
down."

The long lines were the result of a California Court of Appeal ruling that
Peron can't continue to sell marijuana from his club because he does not
meet the law's definition of a "caregiver."

The ruling goes into effect in 30 days unless an appeal is filed. It closes
the San Francisco Cannabis Cultivators Club and seriously threatens the 20
or so other clubs operating across the state.

Peron vowed to keep the club, the country's largest medical marijuana
dispensary, open for business despite the court ruling.

"We are going to take a page out of the civil rights era, go limp and wait
to be carried away," said Peron, a coauthor of Proposition 215, which
essentially legalized possession of the plant last year for the seriously
ill and their caregivers.

Peron said he plans to appeal to the state Supreme Court and also to
petition a Superior Court judge to designate his club a caregiver.

Word of the ruling produced a mad rush at Peron's fourstory club in
downtown San Francisco, where 5,000 patients with doctors' recommendations
have been issued photo identification cards to purchase marijuana.

About 700 people showed up first thing Monday at the store, many crying.
"The worst part about it was (that) there were about 150 people in
wheelchairs," Peron said.

By the end of the day, the club had sold 15 pounds of marijuana about 50
percent more than usual.

San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan has criticized the ruling
for violating the spirit of Proposition 215, making it nearly impossible
for patients to legally obtain the medical marijuana the law says they can
have. Legal analysts said the ruling was expected because the definition of
a "caregiver" is very narrow.

Club owners, however, may be able to argue to the Supreme Court that they
provide the only practical means for seriously ill patients without growing
expertise to legally obtain marijuana. "It goes a long way toward narrowing
the law down so it only applies to the neediest," said Michael Vitiello, a
professor at the McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento.

"But very often, the neediest are the least likely to be able to grow it
themselves. There has to be some legal mechanism for patients to obtain the
marijuana if the law is going to actually work," he said.

Law enforcement officials have accused the club of profiting from the sale
of marijuana to members whom they say do not suffer from the kinds of
serious illnesses that the law was intended to cover.

State Attorney General Dan Lungren hailed the ruling, saying it provided
clear guidance to local governments and law enforcement agencies that have
been grappling with how to implement the state's 1yearold medical
marijuana law.

Lungren vowed to shut down the club if Peron does not comply with the
ruling or appeal it within 30 days.

Voters passed Proposition 215 in November 1996, essentially legalizing
marijuana for medical use. Implementation of the law largely has been left
up to individual counties and district attorneys, leaving a jumble of
sometimes contradictory marijuana codes and regulations.

About 20 marijuana "clubs," where hundreds of patients gather daily to
purchase medical marijuana, have sprung up in cities such as Oakland, San
Jose and Berkeley.