CALIF. COURT CLOSES MARIJUANA CLUB

San Francisco A state appeals court ruled that marijuana clubs cannot
legally sell the drug to patients, despite California's medical marijuana
initiative approved by voters last year.

The 1st District Court of Appeal's ruling Friday reinstated an injunction
that shut down the Cannabis Buyers' Club in San Francisco after a raid by
state agents in August 1996.

The club had been allowed to operate by San Francisco authorities, but the
state attorney general's office claimed marijuana was being sold to people
without doctors' prescriptions and was then resold on the street.

Proposition 215, approved by voters in November 1996, allows possession and
cultivation of marijuana with a doctor's recommendation to ease the pain
and nausea of AIDS, cancer, glaucoma and other conditions.

After the measure passed, a state judge allowed the reopening of the club,
ruling that Proposition 215 allowed a nonprofit organization to sell
marijuana to patients who designated the club as their "primary caregiver."

But Presiding Justice J. Clinton Peterson said in Friday's opinion that a
primary caregiver cannot be a commercial enterprise like the Cannabis
Buyers Club.

It didn't matter that thousands of patients designed the club as their
primary caregiver, Peterson said. Otherwise, he ruled, "any marijuana
dealer in California (could) obtain a primary caregiver designation from a
patient before selling marijuana, and ... thereby evade prosecution."

The only way a patient can obtain marijuana legally is to grow it or obtain
it from a primary caregiver who has grown it, Peterson said. "If the
drafters of the initiative wanted to legalize the sale of small amounts of
marijuana for approved medical purposes, they could have easily done so,"
he said.

The club's founder, Dennis Peron, who was also the author of the
Proposition 215, said the initiative "never said you couldn't assign an
entity as your caregiver."

"We envisioned cooperatives that would supply marijuana to people until the
government started centers," said Peron, one of six people who face various
charges associated with the raid.

"Now ... they have to go back on the street, buy marijuana on the street
and the people's vote means nothing."

He said he would appeal the ruling, which takes effect in 30 days unless
stayed on appeal.

Attorney General Dan Lungren indicated his office would move to shut down
the club if the owners do not voluntarily do so, once the ruling takes
effect.

Copyright Los Angeles Times