Pubdate: Tue, 14 May 2002 Source: San Francisco Examiner (CA) Copyright: 2002 San Francisco Examiner Contact: http://www.examiner.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/389 Author: Dan Evans Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California) PRESSURE SMOKES OUT POT CLUBS Free love has gone to pot in the medical marijuana community. Suspicion and infighting are raging through groups that run the City's pot dispensaries, after the recent closure of two local marijuana clubs and reports that one man arrested in a February DEA pot raid is talking to the feds. CHAMP -- Californians Helping Alleviate Medical Problems -- closed its doors at 194 Church St. earlier this month, and the Sunset Medical Resource Center recently announced it would no longer provide marijuana to sick patients. Fellow pot club proprietors say the clubs got out of the marijuana business because of increased pressure from the federal government. But reports that James Halloran, who was arrested in a February raid of the Harm Reduction Center on Sixth Street, talked to federal agents, is fueling community paranoia and pitting some in the community against one another. Dale Gieringer, spokesman for the California chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, downplayed Halloran's federal chat. Gieringer said it is understandable that the 61-year-old, who has hepatitis C and faces at least 10 years in prison on charges he grew thousands of plants, would want to cooperate. "He wouldn't have said anything incriminating other than that people were selling marijuana to sick people, and everyone knows that anyhow," Gieringer said. Dennis Roberts, Hollaran's attorney, was not available for comment. Jim Green, who runs the Market Street Club and is regarded as a renegade among the cannabis club community, sneered at the latest informant debacle. "It doesn't surprise me at all," he said. "You're going to be looking at an escalating mess. What kind of honor do you have among street drug dealers? This sort of thing happens with the mob." The U.S. Attorney's Office in San Francisco, which is prosecuting Halloran along with Edward Rosenthal, Kenneth Hayes and Richard Watts, declined to discuss information gathered in the aftermath of the pre-dawn February raid. Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman Richard Meyer also declined comment. It is not the first time informants have taken a toll on San Francisco's pot clubs. A priest connected to the Harm Reduction Center wrote at least two letters to the DEA, claiming the medical marijuana movement was moving toward greed and profiteering. A few days later, the club on Sixth Street was raided. Court documents dealing with the raid show DEA agents had been watching operations at the nearby CHAMP club. Pressure on pot clubs has also been increased in the courtroom. On May 3, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer ruled the federal administration is allowed to regulate drug activity, even those activities that take place entirely within a state's borders. California legalized medical marijuana with Proposition 215 in 1996. The federal ruling, and the February raid, was enough to persuade CHAMP to close, said Wayne Justmann, a longtime medicinal marijuana activist who runs the San Francisco Patients' Cooperative pot club. "We regret to inform you that CHAMP is now closed," stated the club's answering machine. No other information was given, and representatives of the club did not return repeated phone calls. The club decided to shutter operations after meetings with its lawyer, Oakland attorney Bill Panzer. Panzer, while saying he could not describe the meetings because of attorney-client privilege, acknowledged CHAMP would most likely be a target of a criminal raid if it remained open. District Attorney Terence Hallinan, a longtime supporter of medical marijuana, said he was saddened by CHAMP's closure. He said the cannabis clubs have greatly reduced street marijuana dealing, and fears the illegal commerce will increase if the feds continue their crackdown on the clubs. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth