Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1998. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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The San Francisco Examiner; Friday, February 26, 1998
Tyche Hendricks of the Examiner Staff
"If this club closes, I will be out here protesting. I will go to jail," said Wayne Justmann, 53, a volunteer at the club who is HIV positive. "What kind of society would allow this to happen? There are a lot of sick people here, going through a lot of pain."
Justmann was responding to news Wednesday that the state Supreme Court had unanimously let stand an appellate court decision, issued last December, that said Proposition 215, the 1996 medical marijuana initiative, did not allow anyone to sell marijuana and did not allow a commercial outfit to furnish marijuana as a "primary caregiver" to sick people.
The appellate ruling is now binding on trial courts statewide.
Dennis Peron, founder of the San Francisco club, and author of Prop. 215, insisted that his operation complied with the appellate decision. "We're not selling; we're cultivating for others" he said, explaining that the group merely accepted reimbursement for cultivation costs, and that it had changed its name from the Cannabis Buyers Club to conform with the appellate ruling. "This is not going to affect our operations one bit."
"If they do try to arrest me," he went on, passionately, "I assure you eight or nine thousand people here will not let them, will not go to the back of the bus."
A spokesman for Attorney General Dan Lungren said the state would ask a San Francisco judge on Thursday to order Peron's club closed.
"We'd like to move forward with reinstating the full injunction" to shut the cannabis club, said spokesman Rob Stutzman.
The ruling by the state Court of Appeal, and Wednesday's state Supreme Court decision not to review it, stem from a civil case brought by the attorney general against Peron's club. The state got a judge to shut the club, but it was reopened in January 1997 after the passage of Prop. 215 by Superior Court Judge David Garcia.
The proposition, which was passed in November 1996, allows possession and cultivation of marijuana upon a doctor's recommendation to ease the pain and nausea of AIDS, cancer, glaucoma and other conditions.
Garcia said the measure allowed a nonprofit organization to sell marijuana to patients who had named the club as their "primary caregiver." However, the 1st District Court of Appeal overruled Garcia last December and said state law prohibited anyone, including a nonprofit organization, from selling marijuana or possessing it for sale.
Presiding Justice J. Clinton Peterson wrote that the only way a patient could obtain marijuana legally was to grow it or obtain it from a primary caregiver who had grown it.
A primary caregiver - defined by the initiative as an individual who has consistently assumed responsibility for the housing, health of safety of the patient - cannot be a commercial enterprise like the cannabis club, Peterson said.
An aid to relaxation
Wednesday evening, patrons of the Cannabis Cultivators Club considered the club's future.
"If this place didn't exist, it would be hard. I'd have to find another source," said Larry, 51, who lost both his legs to a blood disease that led to gangrene. "Marijuana helps me relax. It controls the spasms in my legs." He didn't want his last name used.
The attorney general hopes the action by the court will pave the way for the closure of the dozens of cannabis clubs around California.
"We think this means local law enforcement around the state should be advising clubs they should cease to operate," said Stutzman. "If they continue to operate, they should close them down."
But San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan has no plans to shut down Peron's club.
"It's still up in the air. We have to wait and see what Garcia's going to do," he said. "Lungren will try to shut down Peron's club, but we're trying to work out our own medical approach for San Francisco."
Hallinan said he and Supervisor Tom Ammiano had requested that the Board of Supervisors develop rules to regulate cannabis clubs as medical centers.
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