Source: Sacramento Bee Contact: http://www.sacbee.com/about_us/sacbeemail.html Pubdate: Tue, 16 Dec 1997 Website: http://www.sacbee.com/ RULING CAUSES STAMPEDE AT S.F. POT CLUB: WITHOUT STATUS AS CAREGIVER, SALES ILLEGAL, COURT SAYS By John Lyons Bee Correspondent SAN FRANCISCO Hundreds of anxious marijuana buyers surged into San Francisco's Cannabis Cultivators Club Monday in the wake of an appellate court ruling Friday that such stores are illegal. "The scene is panic buying," said Dennis Peron, owner of the marijuana outlet. "Everyone is trying to stockpile. We're trying to tell them to calm down." The long lines were the result of a California Court of Appeal ruling that Peron can't continue to sell marijuana from his club because he does not meet the law's definition of a "caregiver." The ruling goes into effect in 30 days unless an appeal is filed. It closes the San Francisco Cannabis Cultivators Club and seriously threatens the 20 or so other clubs operating across the state. Peron vowed to keep the club, the country's largest medical marijuana dispensary, open for business despite the court ruling. "We are going to take a page out of the civil rights era, go limp and wait to be carried away," said Peron, a coauthor of Proposition 215, which essentially legalized possession of the plant last year for the seriously ill and their caregivers. Peron said he plans to appeal to the state Supreme Court and also to petition a Superior Court judge to designate his club a caregiver. Word of the ruling produced a mad rush at Peron's fourstory club in downtown San Francisco, where 5,000 patients with doctors' recommendations have been issued photo identification cards to purchase marijuana. About 700 people showed up first thing Monday at the store, many crying. "The worst part about it was (that) there were about 150 people in wheelchairs," Peron said. By the end of the day, the club had sold 15 pounds of marijuana about 50 percent more than usual. San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan has criticized the ruling for violating the spirit of Proposition 215, making it nearly impossible for patients to legally obtain the medical marijuana the law says they can have. Legal analysts said the ruling was expected because the definition of a "caregiver" is very narrow. Club owners, however, may be able to argue to the Supreme Court that they provide the only practical means for seriously ill patients without growing expertise to legally obtain marijuana. "It goes a long way toward narrowing the law down so it only applies to the neediest," said Michael Vitiello, a professor at the McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento. "But very often, the neediest are the least likely to be able to grow it themselves. There has to be some legal mechanism for patients to obtain the marijuana if the law is going to actually work," he said. Law enforcement officials have accused the club of profiting from the sale of marijuana to members whom they say do not suffer from the kinds of serious illnesses that the law was intended to cover. State Attorney General Dan Lungren hailed the ruling, saying it provided clear guidance to local governments and law enforcement agencies that have been grappling with how to implement the state's 1yearold medical marijuana law. Lungren vowed to shut down the club if Peron does not comply with the ruling or appeal it within 30 days. Voters passed Proposition 215 in November 1996, essentially legalizing marijuana for medical use. Implementation of the law largely has been left up to individual counties and district attorneys, leaving a jumble of sometimes contradictory marijuana codes and regulations. About 20 marijuana "clubs," where hundreds of patients gather daily to purchase medical marijuana, have sprung up in cities such as Oakland, San Jose and Berkeley.