CANNABIS CLUB VOWS TO STAY OPEN

Court Orders It To Shut Down In 30 Days, But Operators, Customers Say
They'll Fight

With the help of marijuana, Thomas Buskirk has survived chemotherapy and
colon cancer. He has survived five years of HIVrelated illness.

Now, he says, he's willing to survive jail, if he has to, in order to save
what he sees as The City's greatest haven for the ill and dying.

After years of serving patients seeking pain relief through the use of
marijuana, San Francisco's Cannabis Buyers Club is once again in the
crosshairs of state law enforcement officials following a Friday court
ruling ordering it shut down.

On Saturday, as several hundred clients, many suffering from chronic pain
or terminal illness, lined up under the greenpainted marijuana leaves on
the club's windows, it was clear the fight isn't over.

"I would stand here and let them arrest me," said Buskirk, who has come to
the club for years to purchase the marijuana that helps him cope with pain
and gain weight. "We can't let it go. It's a family to me here. It brings
so much joy to so many people."

Despite last year's passage of Proposition 215 allowing medical use of
marijuana in California, the state Court of Appeal ruling on Friday started
the clock ticking on an injunction that gives the club 30 days to stop
doing business or be closed by police.

Club founder Dennis Peron said he will fight the decision with further
court appeals and, if necessary, with civil disobedience.

"I feel like we're fighting the second revolution here," said Peron. "I'm
ready to go to jail. I'm not going to send AIDS patients and cancer
patients back out to (buy marijuana in) the parks. (State officials) can
bring in tanks if they want."

Peron founded the club six years ago to provide marijuana for people with
AIDS, cancer and other lifethreatening diseases. It also serves as a
comfortable meeting place for seriously ill patients.

"I don't have much choice. I have to buy marijuana or be sick," said
60yearold Eugene Morris, who suffers from cancer of the bladder. "If this
place closed, I'd have to buy it on the street."

On Saturday night, customers lounged on four levels of gathering rooms
connected by a maze of stairways and decorated with bright paper swans
hanging from the ceilings. While there was no sign of alcohol, the air was
thick with the sweet smell of marijuana.

To join the club, clients must bring a letter from a doctor prescribing
marijuana and get their picture taken for a photo ID card.

On the third floor, a line formed at the marijuana sales counter where
clients can get baggies of Mexican or Californian pot that vary in amount
and potency, with prices ranging from $3 to $35.

Phil Murphy, who was injured while serving at an Army post in Korea, rolled
his wheelchair to the counter and plunked down $20 for a bag of
mediumgrade pot.

"It puts the pain in the back seat," he said. "If this place closes, I'll
get it somewhere else."

The injunction against the club was originally issued before voters passed
the medical marijuana initiative last year, but a Superior Court judge
subsequently allowed it to reopen after the election.

Attorney General Dan Lungren cheered Friday's reversal of that ruling,
saying it will give law enforcement the right once again to shut down San
Francisco's club if it doesn't do so voluntarily.

Prop. 215 allows growing and possessing marijuana if it is recommended by a
doctor for treatment of symptoms from AIDS, cancer, arthritis, glaucoma,
migraine or other conditions.

Yet the issue addressed by the court had more to do with who has the right
to sell patients marijuana, than whether patients have the right to use it.

In January, Superior Court Judge David Garcia had decided the San Francisco
club could sell marijuana if it were designated a "primary caregiver" by
patients. But the appeals court ruled the buyers club could not be a
"primary caregiver" because the term is defined as someone "who has
consistently assumed responsibility for the housing, health or safety of
that person."

Retired UCBerkeley immunology Professor Robert Mishell said the ruling was
an example of the courts putting politics before human kindness.

"I think it's outrageous for the court to give the finger to the voters,"
said Mishell, adding that he would like to see the appellate court judges
recalled for their ruling. "As a physician, I think gravely ill patients
ought to be allowed to use marijuana to relieve their pain. I think doctors
ought to be making these decisions, not politicians."

John DePaul, a 74yearold with multiple sclerosis, who with his red hat
and natural white beard looks exactly like a marijuanatoking Santa, said
he will lead the protests for the club.

"This Dan Lungren must be an idiot," he said, gesturing around the room,
from his wheelchair. "These people are sick and dying. They need this place."

©1997 San Francisco Examiner