April 16, 1998

From the San Francisco Chronicle

Glen Martin, Chronicle Staff Writer

In a huge blow to the medical marijuana movement, a San Francisco Superior Court judge yesterday ordered the immediate closure of San Francisco's Cannabis Cultivators Club, the nation's largest dispenser of medicinal pot.

Superior Court Judge David Garcia rejected the argument of the club's founder, Dennis Peron, that the mass sale of medical marijuana was legal under Proposition 215, the medical marijuana initiative passed by state voters in 1996.

Reached at the club yesterday, Peron sounded shaken, sometimes on the verge of tears.

``This isn't the greatest day in my life,'' he said, ``but it gives me resolve to fight all the more.''

Peron said the club would continue to operate in spite of Garcia's orders.

Matt Ross, a spokesman for Attorney General Dan Lungren, said he did not know when or if state agents would move to close down the club.

In 1996, before the passage of Proposition 215, state narcotics officers shut the club, on 1444 Market St., during a raid. A criminal case is still pending against Peron and several co-defendants as a result of that action.

Before yesterday's ruling, Peron had argued that he could provide marijuana to sick and injured people because he was a ``primary caregiver'' as defined by the language of the initiative.

But Garcia said that only patients and their immediate caregivers could possess and cultivate pot under Proposition 215. Under his ruling, marijuana clubs and other outlets do not fall within that category, and pot may not be exchanged between one caregiver and another.
(Ed. note: The ruling --in effect -- requires someone who is bedridden to get up and go buy some marijuana at the club or find someone to grow it for them or buy it for them on the streets if the club is closed. Just how is this supposed to work? )

Garcia ruled that the evidence that Peron was engaging in the illegal sale of marijuana ``was uncontradicted.'' And he granted a nuisance abatement order that allows either the San Francisco County Sheriff's Department or the California Bureau of Narcotics to close the club and seize its contents.

Peron said the judge's ruling is the latest in a series of attempts to undermine the will of the voters.

``It's all this technicality crap,'' he said. ``They hinge the whole thing on `caregivers.' It's not about caregivers. It's about a system that won't give up -- it's about automatic hate.''

Peron said that as he understands the judge's orders, ``we can do what we're doing as long as we are being reimbursed directly by the patients, not other caregivers.''

Lungren said Garcia's decision was based on admissions by San Francisco Cannabis Club staff members that they were selling to other clubs.

``That's clearly against the law,'' he said. ``(Under state law), the only individual who can provide marijuana to another person is a primary caregiver, a person who attends to all an individual's needs, not just the marijuana.''

Lungren said he wanted to put the debate about cannabis clubs behind him and instead finance studies to determine whether marijuana has any genuine medical efficacy.

``We've said in the past that we wouldn't do that,'' he said.

``I'm afraid we'll have a burst of illegal marijuana dealing in the city,'' Hallinan said. ``It's a sad situation.''