State Lawyer asks Judge to Close Cannabis Club

April 03, 1998 - Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO -- Describing San Francisco's major medical marijuana club as a ``drug house,'' a state lawyer urged a judge Friday to change his mind and order the club closed immediately.

The latest faceoff between Attorney General Dan Lungren's office and Dennis Peron, founder of the Cannabis Cultivators' Club, took place in a courtroom filled 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 tentative 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, now scheduled April 27.

Garcia said there appeared to be disputed factual questions, to be resolved at a trial, about whether Peron and his club could qualify as ``primary caregivers'' allowed to furnish medical marijuana under Proposition 215. The November 1996 initiative, sponsored by Peron, allows patients or their primary caregivers to cultivate and possess marijuana if recommended by a doctor to treat the effects of AIDS, cancer therapy and other illnesses.

But Senior Assistant Attorney General John Gordnier said a state appeals court has already decided that Proposition 215 did not legalize clubs like Peron's that distribute marijuana to large numbers of patients.

``Drug houses like the one Mr. Peron operates are not sanctioned by the voters,'' Gordnier told Garcia. ``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 caregiver'' 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 caregiver 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 in the near future.

The U.S. Justice Department is also seeking to close six medical marijuana clubs in Northern California, including Peron's, the oldest and largest. The government 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.

Peron's club, then called the Cannabis Buyers' Club, has been allowed to operate by San Francisco 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 who were unable to get it themselves.

The 1st District Court of Appeal overruled Garcia and said the club was not a primary caregiver, a ruling that Lungren's office contends could be used to close all marijuana clubs in the state. But the ruling did not prohibit charging patients for the cost of growing and supplying marijuana, and specified that someone like a hospital administrator could be the primary caregiver for multiple patients -- language that Peron contends could be applied to him.

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