Hazel Rogers’
Birthday Was On 4/20! And Good Journalism From the Associated Press
(Ed. note: I frequently knock the AP, so I am
happy to offer an example of excellent, humane journalism from one of their writers.)SF
Marijuana Club Reopens to Cheers
See
Hazel Rogers New
Head Of San Francisco Cannabis Healing Center As Peron Begins Run For Governor
By Richard Cole
Associated Press Writer
April 21, 1998
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A San Francisco marijuana club reopened under another name
Tuesday just a day after a court order shut down its predecessor.
About 40 patients and supporters cheered as Wayne Justmann, head of security for the
new Cannabis Healing Center, unlocked the front door.
First in line was Gilbert Abeyga, who said he couldn't understand why state Attorney
General Dan Lungren had pursued the court order that shut down the Cannabis Cultivators
Club on Monday.
``I'm in pain, and it helps a lot. It keeps me going,'' said
Abeyga, adding he used marijuana to fight AIDS symptoms. ``If it wasn't for this I'd be
skinny and dying by now.''
Replacing the former director and club founder Dennis Peron, who is running against
Lungren in the Republican gubernatorial primary, was Hazel Rodgers,
who celebrated her 79th birthday Monday as sheriff's deputies locked the club's doors.
Rodgers said she believed legal attacks on the center would continue. ``There's too
much opposition,'' she said.
The attorney general's office did not immediately return phone
calls from The Associated Press.
The court order that shut down Peron's club was based on its sales to ``care givers,''
rather than directly to patients. On Tuesday, Justmann posted a large sign banning care
givers from entering the club.
Rodgers is introducing a new brand of marijuana -- Holy Smoke -- to celebrate the
center's opening. The name emphasizes the spiritual nature of the drug, she said, noting
it was used for religious purposes in Jamaica.
Rodgers, who suffers from glaucoma and diabetes and has had
breast cancer, said she began using marijuana in 1992. Along with relieving her symptoms,
pot had an unexpected side effect, she said.
``It's helped my relationship with my 44-year-old son,'' she said. ``We were estranged
but now we speak the same language.''
(Ed. note: One of the leading opponents of medical marijuana
is the Family Research Council!)
© Copyright 1998 The Associated Press
Supported