April 4, 1998

LUNGREN PUSHES CLOSING POT CLUB

San Fransisco

The latest faceoff between Attorney General Dan Lungren’s office and Dennis Peron, founder of the Cannabis Cultivator’s Club, took place in a courtroom packed with Peron’s clients and supporters and presided over by a judge who has issued a tentative ruling in Peron’s favor.

Superior Court Judge David Garcia’s decision, issued before the hearing to guide lawyers’ arguments, was to deny closure of the club and send Lungren’s civil suit to a jury trial, scheduled for April 27.

Garcia said there appeared to be a question about whether or not Peron and his club could qualify as "primary caregivers" allowed to furnish medicinal marijuana under the state’s voter-approved Proposition 215.

The November 1996 initiative, sponsored by Peron, allows patients or their primary care-givers to cultivate and possess marijuana if recommended by a doctor to treat the effects of AIDS, cancer therapy and other illnesses.

Senior Assistant Attorney General John Gordnier told Garcia: "Drug houses like the one Mr. Peron operates are not sanctioned by the voters. He wants to continue to provide drugs to thousands, and the court of appeal has said you can’t do that."

Peron’s lawyer, J. David Nick, argued that the appellate court had merely denied the "primary care-giver" label to businesses that sold marijuana to patients coming in off the street, without establishing a long-term exclusive relationship of providing health care.

He said he could show that Peron, since passage of Proposition 215, was acting legally as the exclusive care-giver for his clients, charging them only for the cost of growing and providing marijuana.

"This man is doing the work of God," Nick said, as Peron sat in the front row.

Garcia said he would rule soon.

The U.S. Justice Department is also seeking to close six medicinal marijuana clubs in Northern California, including Peron’s, the oldest and largest. The Clinton Administration contends the clubs violate federal laws against possessing and furnishing marijuana, regardless of Proposition 215. A federal judge has deferred a ruling until after a final round of written arguments, due April 16.

That federal suit does not include the Santa Clara County Medical Cannabis Center in San Jose—a facility that experts say also should remain unscathed by Lungren’s efforts to close Peron’s operation. On Monday, San Jose center co-founder Peter Baez is scheduled to be arraigned in Santa Clara County Municipal Court on a felony charge of illegally selling pot.

Peron’s club, then called the Cannabis Buyers’ Club, has been allowed to operate by San Fransisco authorities. But Lungren ordered a raid in August 1996 by state agents, who said they seized large amounts of marijuana, found minors on the premises and saw marijuana being sold to customers who lacked a doctor’s recommendation.

Lungren obtained a criminal indictment from an Alameda County grand jury against Peron and five others. He also got an injunction shutting down the club.

But Garcia allowed it to be reopened after Proposition 215 passed, saying the initiative allowed the club to act as a primary caregiver and provide marijuana to patients unable to get it themselves.

The 1^st District Court of Appeal overruled Garcia and said the club was not a primary caregiver, a ruling Lungren’s office contends could be used to close all the state’s pot clubs.