Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1997. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The Associated Press; Saturday, December 13, 1997 06:57:00
Bob Egelko, Associated Press Writer
The 1st District Court of Appeal's ruling Friday reinstated an injunction that shut down the Cannabis Buyers' Club in San Francisco after a raid by state agents in August 1996.
The club had been allowed to operate by San Francisco authorities, but the state attorney general's office claimed marijuana was being sold to people without doctors' prescriptions and was then resold on the street.
Proposition 215, approved by voters in November 1996, allows possession and cultivation of marijuana with a doctor's recommendation to ease the pain and nausea of AIDS, cancer, glaucoma and other conditions.
After the measure passed, a state judge allowed the reopening of the club, ruling that Proposition 215 allowed a nonprofit organization to sell marijuana to patients who designated the club as their "primary caregiver."
But Presiding Justice J. Clinton Peterson said in Friday's opinion that a primary caregiver cannot be a commercial enterprise like the Cannabis Buyers Club.
It didn't matter that thousands of patients designed the club as their primary caregiver, Peterson said. Otherwise, he ruled, "any marijuana dealer in California (could) obtain a primary caregiver designation from a patient before selling marijuana, and ... thereby evade prosecution."
The only way a patient can obtain marijuana legally is to grow it or obtain it from a primary caregiver who has grown it, Peterson said.
"If the drafters of the initiative wanted to legalize the sale of small amounts of marijuana for approved medical purposes, they could have easily done so," he said.
The club's founder, Dennis Peron, who was also the author of the Proposition 215, said the initiative "never said you couldn't assign an entity as your caregiver."
"We envisioned cooperatives that would supply marijuana to people until the government started centers," said Peron, one of six people who face various charges associated with the raid. "Now ... they have to go back on the street, buy marijuana on the street and the people's vote means nothing."
He said he would appeal the ruling, which takes effect in 30 days unless stayed on appeal. Attorney General Dan Lungren indicated his office would move to shut down the club if the owners do not voluntarily do so, once the ruling takes effect.
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