It's No Time for Pot Clubs to Party

By Ira Eisnberg

THE NATIONAL Institutes of Health have called for the controlled studies
that could free marijuana from the limbo of banned substances, instead
making it a controlled medicine that doctors may legally prescribe.

National drug czar Barry McCaffrey has given his blessings, and next month
the National Institute for Drug Abuse is to begin reviewing research
proposals.

"Medical marijuana may be in the final stages of approval," observes drug
policy reformer Kevin Zeese. "We could be just six to nine months away."

That is if Dennis Peron and the San Francisco Cannabis Cultivators Club
don't blow it with their outlaw posturing and boneheaded antics linking
medical marijuana with the unrelated issue of its recreational use.

Indeed, federal narcotics agents on Monday raided Flower Therapy, another
S.F. medical marijuana outlet, seizing 331 plants but leaving its supply of
dried medical marijuana behind. It was the first such action since state
drug agents raided Peron's club last fall, before Proposition 215 passed.

Peron, who authored the initiative, celebrated its victory by defiantly
smoking a joint for the TV cameras at the club's Market Street
headquarters. A convicted dope dealer who spent several years in prison for
peddling marijuana, he is fond of proclaiming that "all marijuana use is
medical."

"My goal is to serve sick people, not make pot available for recreational
purposes," said Peter Baez, operator of the Santa Clara County Medical
Cannabis Club in San Jose.

"We have much more to fear from ?eron right now than we do the police,"
leclared Bill Zimmerman of Americans or Medical Rights, a group that
campaigned for Proposition 215.

Many people do share Peron's desire to end the prohibition against
recreation al pot smoking by adults. But that's clear ly not why 5.2
million Californians voted yes on Proposition 215 last November. Linking
medical with recreational use only confuses the issue and undermines the
argument that doctors rather than cops should decide whether and for whom
marijuana is good medicine.

As state Attorney General Dan Lungren rightly points out, the initiative is
too loosely written. It arguably gives legal cover to virtually any drug
dealer whose customers include AIDS patients, and to any pot grower
designated as a "caregiver" by someone whose doctor has recommended the
therapeutic use of marijuana.

"People with criminal backgrounds are already trying to move in on us,"
said Baez, the South Bay club operator. "Dope growers have been offering us
free pounds of marijuana if we designate them as caregivers."

Lungren has filed a lawsuit aimed at putting all medical pot club operators
out of business, but that would only drive them underground. The city of
San Jose has come up with a much better idea: Allow the clubs to conduct
business openly but according to strict rules.

"Proposition 215 presented us with a challenge," said San Jose City
Attorney Joan Gallo. "How do we make sure those who need marijuana for
medicinal purposes get it without raising the issue of recreational use?"
Her answera zoning ordinance, since enacted by the City Council, licensing
and regulating medical marijuana dispensaries. The clubs are restricted to
certain neighborhoods, prohibited near schools and offlimits to minors.
Pot smoking at the premises is forbidden. The city doesn't intend to
prosecute them, so long as they report earnings, account for inventory,
verify customers and limit the amount of pot
sold in a single transaction.

But the "Peronistas" who control the San Francisco club don't want to be
regulated and believe Proposition 215 is all the protection they need
against another shutdown by the attorney general. Peron also claims he's no
longer in the marijuana business for profit, yet refuses to incorporate as
a nonprofit organization.

The enemies of 215 are hoping the initiative's sloppy language will give
the Peronistas sufficient rope with which to hang themselves, and to doom
the movement to reschedule marijuana. This means that until patients who
really need the drug as medicine can buy it at pharmacies, those dealing
pot in the name of compassion must be squeaky clean and thoroughly
transparent.

San Francisco would be wise to adopt an ordinance like San Jose's if for no
other reason than to protect the city's foremost medical marijuana outlet,
and all who depend on it, from the hubris of its founder and leader.

Ira Eisenberg is a Bay Area journalist who writes frequent/y on drug policy
matters.