S.J. POT CLUB GETS SUPPORT

Courtruling reaction: Operation differs from S.F. club, authorities say.

BY JEORDAN LEGSN
Mercury News San Francisco Bureau

Despite a recent court ruling barring marijuana clubs from selling the drug
to patients, local law enforcement gave a thumbsup Monday for the Santa
Clara County Medical Cannabis Center to continue providing pot to the sick
and dying.

The decision came after a meeting involving San Jose City Attorney Joan
Gallo, Police Chief Lou Cobarruviaz and Santa Clara County District
Attorney George Kennedy. The three found that Friday's ruling by the 1st
District Court of Appeal specifically targeted San Francisco's Cannabis
Buyers' Club, where state agents said they saw marijuana sold to people
without prescriptions and then resold on the street. The investigation,
which culminated in a raid and several arrests, also found children on the
premises.

But San Jose's Cannabis Center on Meridian Avenue is ``not a place where
people go and smoke. It's not a place where there are children,'' Gallo
said. ``We think the (court) decision turns a great deal on the facts of
the Cannabis Club in San Francisco. . . . We have a very different model
here. . . . We don't think this ruling really impacts us.''

Matt Ross, spokesman for California Attorney General Dan Lungren,
disagreed. He said law enforcement agencies statewide would be advised that
in accordance with Friday's ruling, ``Cannabis buyers clubs are not
allowed. Plain and simple.''

In November 1996, California voters approved Proposition 215, which allows
possession and cultivation of marijuana if its use is recommended by a
doctor. Since then, medicinal marijuana clubs have opened in more than a
dozen cities throughout the state including San Jose, Santa Cruz and
Berkeley to provide the drug to people experiencing pain and nausea
associated with AIDS, cancer, glaucoma and other conditions.

Dennis Peron, founder of San Francisco's club and an author of Proposition
215, said Friday's decision was an affront to the voters of California and
that he would appeal. The ruling will take effect in 26 days unless it is
stayed on appeal.

Lungren said Proposition 215 said nothing about opening large storefronts
such as the Cannabis Buyers' Club in San Francisco, where hundreds of
members come daily to buy and smoke marijuana and to mingle.

``Had the people of the state of California believed they were voting for
the purpose of establishing Cannabis Buyers' Clublike operations around
the state, they probably would have defeated this proposition,'' Lungren
said in a statement.

Peter Baez, executive director and cofounder of San Jose's Cannabis
Center, said he was relieved to hear of the ruling's interpretation by
local law enforcement. The center, which gets about 25 visitors daily,
received more than 100 requests for marijuana Monday from members worried
that police would order it closed, Baez said.

``It's a doctor's office type of setting,'' he said. ``There is no smoking
on the premises. No displays of marijuana or bongs. It's all done very
discreetly.''

Baez has worked closely with authorities, agreeing to bar juveniles from
the center and to establish a buffer zone between the center and schools,
churches and day care providers.

But the most important distinction, Baez said, is that the 221 members of
his operation are required to declare the Cannabis Center as their
``alternative medical provider'' working in conjunction with their primary
physicians.

Friday's ruling said that the only way a patient could use marijuana
legally was to grow it or obtain it from a primary caregiver, not a
commercial enterprise such as San Francisco's Cannabis Buyers' Club.

Karyn Sinunu, a Santa Clara County assistant district attorney, and Gallo
both agreed that the San Jose center met the definition of primary care
provider for its members.

Voters who approved Proposition 215 were clear in their intent to provide
sick and dying patients with the medical help they needed, Sinunu added.
``We have a duty to make the safe and affordable distribution of marijuana
for medical use possible,'' she said.

The latest round in the fight over medicinal marijuana has spurred San
Mateo County Supervisor Mike Nevin. He wants to start a pilot project that
would distribute marijuana seized in drug stings to approved patients
through the county's health clinics.

His proposal must first be cleared by the attorney general and state
legislators, but Nevin said it would be a good way of preventing dope
dealers from shielding themselves with Proposition 215.

``We need an alternative to carry out the spirit of Proposition 215 while
eliminating concerns over underground, forprofit and criminal issues,''
Nevin said.

He hopes such a plan would end the drawnout court skirmishes over
Proposition 215.