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Pot Club's Co-Founder 'Shaken-Up'
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Contact: http://www.sjmercury.com/
Pubdate: Wed, 25 Mar 1998
Author: Raoul V. Mowatt - Mercury News Staff Writer
POT CLUB'S CO-FOUNDER 'SHAKEN UP'
A day after his arrest, Peter Baez, co-founder of the Santa Clara County
Medical Cannabis Center, said he doesn't understand why he's accused of
selling marijuana without a doctor's approval. He also criticized his
treatment during his 13-hour jail stay, and wondered if the sympathetic
relationship he said he once had with San Jose police had changed.
He and the center's other founder, Jesse Garcia, said they have a good
track record, working under the guidance of city and county officials since
they began operating a year ago.
``I feel I've done nothing wrong,'' Baez added.
While the center, which has about 270 members, is slated to be open for
business today, Baez said he would take a indefinite leave of absence. He
also said that while at the Santa Clara County Jail, he was denied some of
the medications he takes for colon cancer.
``This has really shaken me up physically,'' he said. ``The stress is not
the thing I need right now.''
A jail spokesman defended the care Baez received while in custody.
Both Baez and Garcia mused that with the departure of San Jose Police Chief
Lou Cobarruviaz, who is retiring, the department might be taking a
different approach to their center. But police said the arrest doesn't mark
a departure from their policy on medical marijuana.
Baez, ``knowing the set of rules, went outside the set of rules,'' said
Sgt. Chris Moore, a police spokesman. ``He's being held accountable to that
end.''
In a separate development, attorneys for the U.S. Justice Department and
lawyers for six Northern California medical-marijuana facilities argued for
nearly four hours Tuesday in federal court over a lawsuit brought by the
Clinton administration that could effectively eviscerate the state's
medicinal cannabis law.
Lawsuit details
The lawsuit, filed last month, seeks to close two clubs in San Francisco
and four in Santa Cruz, Marin, Oakland and Ukiah. The Justice Department
argued that California's Proposition 215, the 1996 state measure that
legalized use of the drug for medical reasons, is superseded by a federal
prohibition on the sale of pot. U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer
asked both sides to file final briefs by April 16.
About 200 medical marijuana supporters protested loudly outside San
Francisco's federal courthouse earlier, demanding that the U.S. government
back off.
Federal authorities haven't targeted the Santa Clara County center, which
has operated with approval -- and under strict regulation -- by the
district attorney's office, police and the San Jose city attorney.
Baez's arrest stems from authorities' attempts to check out the contention
of Enrique Robles, who faces a misdemeanor charge of possessing marijuana.
Robles said he was taking it in accordance with Proposition 215.
Robles joined the center, on Meridian Avenue in midtown San Jose, because
of a back injury. Baez sold marijuana to Robles nine times between October
1997 and February, worth a total of $400, court records said.
But Baez maintained that one of Robles' doctors had given an oral OK for
him to receive pot, court records said. Police say they checked with three
of Robles' doctors and none sanctioned that treatment, the records said.
That led to officers obtaining an arrest warrant Thursday, and serving it
on Baez at the center Monday afternoon.
``Though jailing Peter Baez puts him in the good company of Martin Luther
King and Mahatma Gandhi, it interrupts . . . vital work . . . and no doubt
causes great embarrassment to the community at large,'' said his cousin,
folk singer Joan Baez, in a statement. ``The farcical charges against him
must be dropped immediately, and consideration given to Peter's own
life-threatening illness.''
In a Tuesday interview at Peter Baez's Gilroy home, both he and Garcia
repeatedly stressed that many doctors are afraid to admit they've
recommended marijuana as medicine out of fear that federal authorities
would strip them of their licenses. But they stopped short of saying that
was what happened in the Robles case.
``I'm sure all the facts will be played out in court,'' Baez said. Baez is
next scheduled to appear in court on April 6.
No sanctions
A San Francisco federal judge, in a decision last year, said the Clinton
administration could not seek sanctions against California doctors for
recommending marijuana for medical reasons under Proposition 215. Baez and
Garcia said there was nothing to gain from drumming up patients who didn't
meet the criteria of Proposition 215, and Baez added that he has turned
away people who were plainly ill who could not get their doctor's approval
for using pot.
A deputy district attorney contradicted Baez, saying he had not met his
obligations in the Robles case.
``There is no middle road,'' said prosecutor Denise Raabe. ``You are either
in compliance or not in compliance and it is clear in this case they are
not in compliance.''
Baez also said he was not allowed medications until he contacted his
lawyer, and that the delay was disruptive, particularly since he had just
undergone surgery.
Rick Kitson, a spokesman for the Department of Correction, said officials
learned that Baez was taking a dozen medications, and had finished his
dosage of three of them.
A fourth was to be taken on an as-needed basis. During the rest of his
stay, he took five other medications. The remaining three would have been
administered at 6 a.m. because the jail pharmacy had closed and because
Baez's doctor said taking the drug then would be fine, Kitson said.
But Baez was released before that time, in lieu of $5,000 bail.
Baez also said when he was taken into custody that he told an officer that
his center had an agreement with the chief, who retired Saturday. He said
the officer replied, ``Cobarruviaz isn't here any more, so now you'll have
to deal with us.''
But Moore scoffed at the notion that the department had changed policies
overnight with the ascension of Acting Chief Walt Adkins.
``Whoever is chief of police has nothing to do with our criminal
investigation,'' Moore said.
The spokesman said the department has gone out of its way to allow truly
ill people to obtain marijuana, including the way in which they busted
Baez. They made the arrest at day's end, didn't confiscate cash, took only
a small sample of pot and didn't ask for high bail.
The department seized and copied the files of the center's 270 clients.
Moore said it would take detectives several weeks to go through that
paperwork: ``If there are in fact any other violations, that will come out
in that investigation.''
Mercury News Staff Writers Rodney Foo, Jeordan Legsn and Howard Mintz and
the Associated Press contributed to this report.