The Associated Press - 5 August 1996
Mark Evans, Associated Press Writer

"We don't have any marijuana, but we have each other," said volunteer Gilbert Baker as a dozen people lined up outside. "We have love and compassion. That's what the club's been about from the start."

But by late afternoon, at the state's request, a judge ordered the club shut, and members were scrambling to decide their next move, said Lee Sisneros, who works at the front desk.

"We're closed, we're closed," volunteer Tony Derenzo advised people who wandered by.

The Cannabis Buyers' Club has sold marijuana to the seriously ill since it was founded in 1991. Boasting 11,000 members, the club operated from a storefront on busy Market Street.

Club leaders made no secret of the fact they sold the illegal drug, and city police, under orders from elected officials, didn't disturb the operation.

But on Sunday, state agents burst into the club, seizing more than 100 pounds of pot, documents and more than $60,000 in cash. In raids on five homes in San Francisco, Oakland and Millbrae, they also seized 400 marijuana plants, along with more than 50 pounds of cookies, brownies, and muffins that may have been laced with the drug.

The raid came after a two-year investigation during which undercover agents allegedly saw minors buying pot and people selling the drug to "patients" with "doctor's notes" scribbled on napkins or scrap paper.

Although the club claimed to sell only small amounts of marijuana to treat individual members, undercover agents once videotaped club founder Dennis Peron selling two pounds of the drug for $1,800.

"These are not doctors or health care providers. These people are drug dealers," said Joe Doane, chief of the state's Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement.

Doane also showed photographs that appeared to show young children at a bar where marijuana was being smoked, and a videotaped interview with a 15-year-old boy who said he had made a purchase at the club.

While no arrests were made, Doane said, "I think we have a very solid case...all the hallmarks of a good criminal prosecution."

Peron, who was out of town during the raid, insisted the club has rigid restrictions on who should be sold marijuana, and said he has thousands of doctors' notes as proof. Some marijuana users say it can stimulate appetite and relieve the nausea caused by chemotherapy.

Several club supporters said they believed the raid was motivated by politics.

Proposition 215, a statewide initiative legalizing the sale of marijuana for medical purposes, is on the November ballot, and the second floor of the Buyers' Club served as local campaign headquarters. Attorney General Dan Lungren opposes the measure.

"From my perspective, it's calculated to inflame those who can be inflamed so that the medicinal marijuana initiative fails," said Tony Serra, Peron's lawyer.

Bill Zimmerman, campaign manager for the Yes on 215 campaign, said: "This is a nakedly political action on the part of Lungren. I can't remember a time when an elected official used police powers to interfere in an ongoing political campaign."

State officials said agents for Secretary of State Bill Jones entered the club first Sunday and made sure no campaign literature was disturbed, even sealing off a room that appeared directly related to the campaign.

But District Attorney Terence Hallinan, a former city supervisor who has voted in support of medical use of marijuana, said he was angry that state officials hadn't notified him of their probe.

"I must say I'm very disturbed that a state agency would come in like this without contacting local officials - this is highly unusual," he said.

Signs posted on the club's headquarters Monday read: "Fight Back - Hands Off Our Medicine" and "Dan Lungren - What About AIDS?"

"They could put all of us in jail, and the other club members would open a new club by themselves," said volunteer Jeff Bullard.

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