An informal collection of news articles and e-mail occasioned by the California state police raid on the San Francisco Cannabis Buyers' Club on Sunday morning, Aug. 4, 1996. Additional stories may be added as they become available. (Contributions of additional material are always welcome.) What follows is more or less chronological, beginning with the first news alerts.
The San Francisco Cannabis Buyers' Club Raid
Return-Path: aal01@teleport.com
Date: Sun, 4 Aug 1996 17:49:32 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Anti-Prohibition Lg."
Subject: Re: SFCBC BUSTED (fwd)
Sorry if you got this but it's too important to take a chance that YOU
don't know...
Thanks.
Floyd.
AMERICAN ANTI-PROHIBITION LEAGUE 3125 SE Belmont Street
Floyd Ferris Landrath - Director Portland, Oregon 97214
AAL01@teleport.com 503-235-4524
"Drug War, or Drug Peace?"
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 4 Aug 1996 19:36:22 -0500 (CDT)
From: adbryan@onramp.net
Subject: Re: SFCBC BUSTED
Ralph Hodges posted the following to the DPFT list.
This is TOTAL BULLSHIT!!!!! I think we should launch
a series of phone calls tomorrow. Could someone provide
pertinate telephone & fax numbers. I'm not talking about
the media. I would like the numbers for every law enforcement
agency involved.
***
According to local radio reports, the cannabis buyers club in San Francisco
has been raided by state police. There have been no arrests so far. The
buyers club supports the doctor-certified medical needs of approximately
10,000 AIDS, cancer and other patients in the San Francisco Bay area.
The buyers club was directed by Dennis Peron until he recently stepped down
to concentrate on the California medical marijuana initiative. Initiative
headquarters, housed in the same building, was not disturbed in any way.
According to reports, approximately 100 state police officers were involved
in the raid. The state police are at the beck and call of Gov. Pete Wilson,
who twice vetoed California state legislation which would have allowed
limited access to marijuana for doctor-certified medicinal purposes. Raids
on cannabis buyers clubs are at the lowest police priority, because of a San
Francisco city ordinance so ordering. Therefore harassment can only come
from the state or federal levels of government.
Passage of the medical marijuana initiative this November would clearly be
a snub of Gov. Wilson's policies. It is unclear at this time whether his
jack-booted tactics will cause a backlash reponse on the part of the voting
public.
--- Ralph Hodges
--------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: mregen@ix.netcom.com
Date: Sun, 4 Aug 1996 17:58:41 -0700
From: mregen@ix.netcom.com (Marnie Regen)
Subject: Re: SFCBC BUSTED
You wrote:
>At noon tomorrow (Aug. 5th) a rally to protest this OUTRAGE will be
>held at the State Building on Mc Allister & Van Ness.
Just talked to CCU in SF - tonight is a march at 5:00 pm at Castro &
Market, tomorrow's 12:00 pm rally at the state bldg will be followed by
a protest at 1:30 pm at the courthouse at 850 Bryant. Start writing
those letters - the gov't is proving what we've been saying all along -
it is time for a LEGALIZED and REGULATED system of distribution for
medical marijauna!
More to come,
Marnie Regen
--------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: mregen@ix.netcom.com
Date: Sun, 4 Aug 1996 18:10:38 -0700
From: mregen@ix.netcom.com (Marnie Regen)
Subject: SFCBC: Wilson's phone & fax, CA state police
Alan B. wrote:
>Could someone provide pertinate telephone & fax numbers. I'm not
>talking about the media. I would like the numbers for every law
>enforcement agency involved.
Apparantly state police were called in under the jurisdiction of Gov.
Wilson. Here are phone & fax numbers:
Governor Pete Wilson
916-445-2864 phone
916-445-4633 fax
CA State Police - Golden Gate Division
707-648-4180 or 707-648-5550 phone
- UPDATE - San Francisco, August 4, 1996, 8 pm PDT
S.F. MEDICAL MARIJUANA BUYERS' CLUB RAID
Protest Rally Mon., Aug. 5, Noon at State Building, McAllister & Van Ness, S.F.
Court Hearing at Hall of Justice, 850 Bryant St., 1:30pm.
State narcotics authorities raided the San Francisco medical
marijuana buyers' club this morning.
The raid was conducted by 100 agents from the state Bureau of
Narcotics Enforcement, directed by Attorney General Dan Lungren (contrary
to initial reports, Lungren was not personally present at the raid).
The San Francisco Cannabis Buyers' Club, which has 11,000 members,
serves patients with medical need for marijuana. BNE spokesmen charged
that the club was being used to distribute marijuana to other persons as
well. They said agents had bought marijuana at the club, and that it has
been under investigation for two years. CBC spokesmen said they have
striven to restrict use to medical patients, and actually refused
admittance to narcotics agents who had tried to gain entry without medical
credentials.
The raid began at 7:30 Sunday morning, a time when the club was
not serving clients. Gun-toting agents broke down the doors and carried
away the club's medical records, 40 pounds of pot, and an undisclosed
amount of cash. Five other locations associated with club personnel were
raided. Several club personnel, including CBC manager Beth Moore, an AIDS
patient, were taken into custody, but subequently released. CBC founder
Dennis Peron was on a speaking engagement out of the country. No arrest
warrants have been filed.
Law enforcement officials claimed that the raid was aimed against
the directors of the club, not its customers. They said that the purpose
of the raid was to collect evidence. Noting that the CBC is also involved
in the Proposition 215 campaign to legalize medical use of marijuana, BNE
spokesman stated they were "specifically staying away from campaign
materials" having to do with the intiative. Attorney General Lungren and
the California Narcotics Officers Association are avowed opponents of Prop.
215.
California NORML coordinator Dale Gieringer denounced the raid,
saying, "This raid proves the need to pass Prop. 215. The Attorney
General has made it plain that he not opposes medical use of marijuana, but
is also intent on wasting taxpayers' money enforcing laws against it."
CBC managers vowed to reopen the club tomorrow. It is uncertain
whether the club will be allowed to remain open, or whether the state will
obtain an injunction against its operation.
A rally to protest the CBC raid will be held at the State Building
in San Francisco, Mc Allister & Van Ness Ave, at noon, Monday, August 5th.
CBC supporters also plan to be on hand for a court hearing at the
SF Courthouse, 850 Bryant St., at 1:30 PM.
--------
Dale Gieringer (415) 563-5858 // canorml@igc.apc.org
2215-R Market St. #278, San Francisco CA 94114
--------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: borden@intr.net
Aug 1996 21:19:22 -0400 (EDT)
Date: Sun, 4 Aug 1996 21:19:22 -0400 (EDT)
From: David Borden
Subject: SF Buyers' Club Raided - Protests Tonight & Tomorrow (8/4-8/5)
Drug Reform Coordination Network (DRCNet)
Rapid Response Team
Please copy and distribute.
---------
The San Francisco Cannabis Buyers' Club, which provides
medical marijuana to about 10,000 patients, and five other
smaller clubs in San Francisco, were raided at 7:30 this
morning (Sunday August 4). Reportedly, sixteen people were
taken into custody. This raid comes as the campaign for
Prop. 215, the California Medical Marijuana Initiative, and
the opposition to Prop. 215, have begun to move into gear.
We will be publishing more information on Prop. 215 and its
proponents and opponents in the next issue of The Activist
Guide, currently in preparation.
We have just learned that protests in San Francisco in
support of the Buyers' Club are planned for: 1) this evening
(Sunday 8/4), at 5:00pm, meeting at 18th & Castro, and
walking to Market St. (the whole street is blocked off, and
the media is there in force); 2) tomorrow (Monday 8/5) at
noon, at the State Building on McAllister & Van Ness; and 3)
tomorrow at the State Courthouse at 850 Bryant St. at
1:30pm. If you are in the Bay Area, or can get there,
please go to protest this human rights violation and misuse
of the criminal justice system for political purposes. And
please call Gov. Pete Wilson at (916) 445-2841 and Attorney
General Dan Lungren at (916) 448-3853 (campaign office) or
(916) 445-9555 (Justice Dept.) to express your outrage.
Californians for Medical Rights issued the following press
release following the raid:
Californians for Medical Rights
Yes on 215
For Release: August 4, 1996
CONTACT: Dave Fratello at (310) 394-2952
Buyers' Club Bust Underscores Need for Prop. 215
---------
SANTA MONICA, August 4 -- Reacting to news this morning that
the "Cannabis Buyers' Club" (CBC) in San Francisco has been
raided by police, Californians for Medical Rights, the Yes
on Prop. 215 campaign, issued the following statement:
"The Cannabis Buyers' Club, one of the many groups in
California supporting Prop. 215, has suffered a serious blow
this morning. For some, the San Francisco CBC was a beacon
of hope.
"Our hearts go out to the 10,000 seriously and terminally
ill people served by the CBC. These patients were willing
to risk arrest to use a medicine that reduced their pain and
suffering. Many of them will now be deprived of that
medicine, which their doctors agreed was beneficial.
"The arrests this morning underscore the need for passage of
Prop. 215 this November. The seriously and terminally ill
people of California who find medical benefits from
marijuana are not criminals. Prop. 215 will make that fact
explicit under state law.
"Surely the dozens of police officers who participated in
this morning's arrests can be better employed chasing hard
criminals, even on a Sunday morning."
###
Californians for Medical Rights (CMR) -- YES ON 215 is a
non-partisan, non-affiliated committee formed in 1996.
CMR's focus is on protecting the legal rights of doctors and
patients who find marijuana useful in medical treatment.
CMR was instrumental in gathering sufficient signatures to
place Prop. 215 on the ballot -- over 775,000 were turned
over to county registrars on April 24.
125 Sixth Street #202, Santa Monica, CA 90401
(310) 394-2952 Fax: (310) 451-7494
Please note that we have included the CMR press release for
informational purposes, but that DRCNet and CMR are not
otherwise affiliated. Please also be advised that our web
sites and official e-mail addresses at drcnet.org are
temporarily offline. We expect to be back up by late this
week; in the meantime please address correspondence to
borden@intr.net. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Please help DRCNet survive by sending in your membership dues or
donation and/or signing up for the DRCNet/Affinity long-distance
calling plan for guaranteed savings off your current rates. Tax
deductibility is available for donations over the amount of
basic membership, if you include a separate check made out to
the Drug Policy Foundation; please note on the check that it is
for the DPF/DRCNet collaboration. Call (202) 362-0030 or e-mail
"drcinfo@drcnet.org" for an auto-reply file with more info on
all the above topics. DRCNet now accepts Visa and Mastercard.
Drug Reform Coordination Network (DRCNet)
4455 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite B-500, Washington, DC 20008-2302
Phone: (202) 362-0030 Fax: (202) 362-0032
drcinfo@drcnet.org http://www.drcnet.org
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: owner-hemp-talk@blueberry.hemp.net
Date: Sun, 4 Aug 1996 20:36:41 -0700 (PDT)
Message-Id: <199608050336.UAA23088@mail.eskimo.com>
From: Tom Rohan
Subject: SF Buyers' Club Raided - Protests Tonight & Tomorrow (8/4-8/5)
Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net
Precedence: bulk
>Date: Sun, 4 Aug 1996 21:11:29 -0400 (EDT)
>From: David Borden
>To: TROHAN@ESKIMO.COM
>Subject: SF Buyers' Club Raided - Protests Tonight & Tomorrow (8/4-8/5)
>
> Drug Reform Coordination Network (DRCNet)
> Rapid Response Team
>
>Please copy and distribute.
>--------------------------
>
>The San Francisco Cannabis Buyers' Club, which provides
>medical marijuana to about 10,000 patients, and five other
>smaller clubs in San Francisco, were raided at 7:30 this
>morning (Sunday August 4). Reportedly, sixteen people were
>taken into custody. This raid comes as the campaign for
>Prop. 215, the California Medical Marijuana Initiative, and
>the opposition to Prop. 215, have begun to move into gear.
>We will be publishing more information on Prop. 215 and its
>proponents and opponents in the next issue of The Activist
>Guide, currently in preparation.
>
>We have just learned that protests in San Francisco in
>support of the Buyers' Club are planned for: 1) this evening
>(Sunday 8/4), at 5:00pm, meeting at 18th & Castro, and
>walking to Market St. (the whole street is blocked off, and
>the media is there in force); 2) tomorrow (Monday 8/5) at
>noon, at the State Building on McAllister & Van Ness; and 3)
>tomorrow at the State Courthouse at 850 Bryant St. at
>1:30pm. If you are in the Bay Area, or can get there,
>please go to protest this human rights violation and misuse
>of the criminal justice system for political purposes. And
>please call Gov. Pete Wilson at (916) 445-2841 and Attorney
>General Dan Lungren at (916) 448-3853 (campaign office) or
>(916) 445-9555 (Justice Dept.) to express your outrage.
>
>Californians for Medical Rights issued the following press
>release following the raid:
>
> Californians for Medical Rights
> Yes on 215
>
>For Release: August 4, 1996
>CONTACT: Dave Fratello at (310) 394-2952
>
>Buyers' Club Bust Underscores Need for Prop. 215
>
>SANTA MONICA, August 4 -- Reacting to news this morning that
>the "Cannabis Buyers' Club" (CBC) in San Francisco has been
>raided by police, Californians for Medical Rights, the Yes
>on Prop. 215 campaign, issued the following statement:
>
>"The Cannabis Buyers' Club, one of the many groups in
>California supporting Prop. 215, has suffered a serious blow
>this morning. For some, the San Francisco CBC was a beacon
>of hope.
>
>"Our hearts go out to the 10,000 seriously and terminally
>ill people served by the CBC. These patients were willing
>to risk arrest to use a medicine that reduced their pain and
>suffering. Many of them will now be deprived of that
>medicine, which their doctors agreed was beneficial.
>
>"The arrests this morning underscore the need for passage of
>Prop. 215 this November. The seriously and terminally ill
>people of California who find medical benefits from
>marijuana are not criminals. Prop. 215 will make that fact
>explicit under state law.
>
>"Surely the dozens of police officers who participated in
>this morning's arrests can be better employed chasing hard
>criminals, even on a Sunday morning."
>
> ###
>
>Californians for Medical Rights (CMR) -- YES ON 215 is a
>non-partisan, non-affiliated committee formed in 1996.
>CMR's focus is on protecting the legal rights of doctors and
>patients who find marijuana useful in medical treatment.
>CMR was instrumental in gathering sufficient signatures to
>place Prop. 215 on the ballot -- over 775,000 were turned
>over to county registrars on April 24.
>
> 125 Sixth Street #202, Santa Monica, CA 90401
> (310) 394-2952 Fax: (310) 451-7494
>
>Please note that we have included the CMR press release for
>informational purposes, but that DRCNet and CMR are not
>otherwise affiliated. Please also be advised that our web
>sites and official e-mail addresses at drcnet.org are
>temporarily offline. We expect to be back up by late this
>week; in the meantime please address correspondence to
>borden@intr.net. We apologize for the inconvenience.
>
> Please help DRCNet survive by sending in your membership dues or
> donation and/or signing up for the DRCNet/Affinity long-distance
> calling plan for guaranteed savings off your current rates. Tax
> deductibility is available for donations over the amount of
> basic membership, if you include a separate check made out to
> the Drug Policy Foundation; please note on the check that it is
> for the DPF/DRCNet collaboration. Call (202) 362-0030 or e-mail
> "drcinfo@drcnet.org" for an auto-reply file with more info on
> all the above topics. DRCNet now accepts Visa and Mastercard.
>
> Drug Reform Coordination Network (DRCNet)
> 4455 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite B-500, Washington, DC 20008-2302
> Phone: (202) 362-0030 Fax: (202) 362-0032
> drcinfo@drcnet.org http://www.drcnet.org
>
>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: mregen@ix.netcom.com
Sun, 4 Aug 1996 22:24:46 -0700
Date: Sun, 4 Aug 1996 22:24:46 -0700
From: mregen@ix.netcom.com (Marnie Regen)
Subject: update on SFCBC raid
Friends-
Some media coverage of CBC raid: the SF Fox affiliate interviewed Det.
Joe Doane of the state bureau of narcs who said the CBC is part of a
large mj distribution ring in SF (5 other places were raided in the
city). The raid is the culmunation of a two-year investigation in
which agents posed as patients entered the club and bought cannabis
with phony doctor's notes. He said "it's sad, some of the patients
actually think they feel better." (I guess that means it works)
They seized approx. 40 lbs and "a large amount of cash" and said
despite an ongoing investigation, they will not be targeting patients.
The detective did not comment on what will happen to the 11,000
patients who will go without medicine this week.
Jimmy asked:
>Any contact info on State Attorney General Dan Lungren
>would also be uesful.
Attorney General Dan Lungren
1515 K. street, #511
Sacramento, CA 95814
916-445-9555 phone
916-445-327-7892 fax
no e-mail
Sincerely,
Marnie Regen
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: owner-hemp-talk@blueberry.hemp.net
From: WWonders@aol.com
Mon, 5 Aug 1996 13:17:05 -0400
Date: Mon, 5 Aug 1996 13:17:05 -0400
Message-ID: <960805131705_253188781@emout18.mail.aol.com>
To: rainbowvalley@olywa.net, hemp-talk@hemp.net
Subject: Fwd: Details on Buyers' Club Bust
Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net
Precedence: bulk
High Folks
You need to express your outrage to Gov. Wilson.
Jimmy
---------------------
Return-Path: mregen@ix.netcom.com
Mon, 5 Aug 1996 06:50:28 -0700
Date: Mon, 5 Aug 1996 06:50:28 -0700
From: mregen@ix.netcom.com (Marnie Regen)
Subject: Lungren fax
Attorney General Dan Lungren
916-327-7892 fax
Last number I posted had too many numbers (thanks Alan).
This is the correct fax number.
Sincerely,
Marnie Regen
--------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: mregen@ix.netcom.com
Mon, 5 Aug 1996 07:29:22 -0700
Date: Mon, 5 Aug 1996 07:29:22 -0700
From: mregen@ix.netcom.com (Marnie Regen)
Subject: SJMN on CBC raid
San Jose Mercury News
letters@sjmercury.com
August 5, 1996
State raids marijuana club
Agents: Sales may not have been limited to medically needy
SAN FRANCISCO: (AP)-State narcotics agents raided the Cannabis
Buyers' Club on Sunday, shutting down the controversial group that
sells marijuana to AIDS, cancer and other terminally ill patients.
Armed with a search warrant, agents burst into the club's Market
Street headquarters about 7:45 a.m. and spent four hours hauling away
at least two computers, a cabinet full of client records, and an
unspecified amount of marijuana.
In addition, volunteers involved with Proposition 215 - a statewide
ballot initiative to legalize medicinal marijuana - said some of their
records were seized.
No arrests were reported.
State agents had been investigating the Cannabis Buyer's Club for
two years, and Sunday's raid was designed to seek evidence of "illegal
marijuana use, particularly by people who were not using it for medical
reasons," state Justice Department spokesman Steve Telliano said.
The state's probe included several undercover "buys" in which
agents purchased several pounds of the drug, Telliano said. On other
occasions, people bought the drug after presenting "doctor's notes"
scribbled on napkins or scrap paper and complaining of ailments as
minor as lower back pain or yeast infections, he said.
"Essentially, what we had is a large-scale marijuana distribution
ring for the entire Bay Area," he said.
Five homes in San Francisco and nearby cities also were raided
Sunday in connection with the case, but Telliano provided no additional
details. Those raids also involved no arrests, he said.
"At this point, we're not working toward any arrests - but that may
happen," he said.
Telliano acknowledged that some Proposition 215 materials may have
been seized in the raid, but added, "We've taken precautions that those
(campaign) materials will not be disturbed."
State Attorney General Dan Langrun opposed the initiative. Gov.
Pete Wilson has, since 1994, vetoed two bills that would have allowed
AIDS and cancer patients to grow and smoke the drug.
Gilbert Baker, an AIDS activist and volunteer for the Yes on 215
campaign, was visibly outraged as he wandered from floor to floor of
the club, alternating sobs with bursts of incredulous laughter.
On the fourth floor, he opened a refrigerator that once contained a
shelf full of marijuana brownies that sold for $5 each.
"Oh my God! Oh my God! They've gone through everything," he said.
"They even took the (marijuana) menu off the wall."
Calvin Martin, 46, said he was sleeping on the club's third floor
when agents burst in.
"I was under the impression it was a break-in," he said. "Ten of
them (agents) swept by, handcuffed me, then one pointed a gun at my
head. All of a sudden, all of this was happening."
Martin, who suffers from acquired immune deficiency syndrome, said
he bought $200 worth of marijuana Saturday, and all of it was seized.
"They even took four tiny roaches (marijuana cigarette butts) I'd set
next to the wall," he said.
The Cannabis Buyers' Club was founded in 1991, and its organizers
made no secret of the fact they sold the illegal drug. About a year
ago, the club moved its office from a relatively obscure site in the
lower Haight-Ashbury District to a storefront shop on Market Street,
the city's main thoroughfare. Managers boast of having roughly 11,000
members.
A pamphlet available at the door says the club was founded "in the
wake of the AIDS epidemic, with the goal of alleviating suffering." A
menu lists several grades of the drug, available in a variety of forms.
While prices aren't shown, Martin said that "three-star" Californian
goes for $55 a quarter-ounce while lower-grade Mexican-grown pot sells
for about one-third that price.
Also for sale were Marijuana Treats, Marijuana Tincture and Merry
Pills, a "high-grade marijuana soaked in virgin olive oil, lightly
heated and capsuled," according to the club's brochure.
Organizers maintain that marijuana is sold only to members, who
have to furnish a photo indentification and a doctor's letter
certifying a condition that could be alleviated by pot. Similar clubs
are said to exist in other major American cities, but the San Francisco
club is among the most visible.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: owner-hemp-talk@blueberry.hemp.net
From: WWonders@aol.com
Date: Mon, 5 Aug 1996 14:34:14 -0400
To: hemp-talk@hemp.net
Subject: News Stories on CBC bust
Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net
Precedence: bulk
High Folks
On channel 5 at noon "Hemp Education Day".
Jimmy
Here's some news stories from across the nation.
August 5, 1996
Agents Crack Down on Marijuana Buying Club in San Francisco
By TIM GOLDEN
SAN FRANCISCO -- After more than two years of uneasy tolerance, state
drug agents raided the biggest above-board marijuana emporium in the country
here on Sunday, striking back at activists who say they are helping thousands
of people seeking relief from ailments like cancer and AIDS.
The authorities did not immediately shut down the operation, the Cannabis
Buyers' Club of San Francisco, a five-story outlet in the city's Castro
district. But officials said the drug agents had seized more than 40 pounds
of marijuana and other evidence that would probably be used to arrest people.
"We are not targeting for prosecution anyone who was a customer of that
club," the chief of the California Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement, Joe
Doane, said at a news conference this afternoon. "We are targeting persons
who are believed to be operating a marijuana distribution ring in much of the
Bay area."
Organizers of the club angrily took issue with the idea that they were
mere drug dealers. While theirs was not always the most rigorously organized
of apothecaries, they said, it was not set up just to help ordinary people
get high.
"When you're dealing with something that is a social revolution, there is
no way to do it correctly the first time around," said Gary A. Johnson, an
administrator of the club. "Of course, there will be mistakes."
Speaking of the crackdown, Johnson said: "This is a way to hurt people
with AIDS. This is a way to hurt people with cancer."
The club had become a rallying point for people around the country who
advocate the legalization of marijuana for medicinal purposes. Its members
helped put an initiative on the November ballot in California that would
allow people with conditions like AIDS, glaucoma and multiple sclerosis to
possess marijuana for medicinal use.
While city officials in San Francisco have taken an openly tolerant
attitude toward the club, noting local public support for its aims, it had
been a burr in the side of law-enforcement agencies, almost from its
founding in a small apartment in the Castro district.
Drug Enforcement Administration officials, recruited to the case by the
San Francisco police, found the local office of the U.S. attorney unwilling
to prosecute, law-enforcement officials said. They added that like the
city's district attorney, federal prosecutors had declined the case because
they said it involved a relatively small amount of drugs and a high risk of
political fallout.
California's conservative attorney general, Dan Lungren, thought
differently. Although narcotics agents insisted today that they were moving
against people who had sold marijuana for commercial rather than medical
reasons, the state's action was met with skepticism.
"It's a highly unusual case," said the city's chief assistant district
attorney, David J. Millstein, "where the District Attorney and the Federal
government won't prosecute, and law enforcement has shopped the case around
to see who will."
Copyright 1996 The New York Times
--------------------------------------------------------------
This is the SF Chron story:
PAGE ONE -- State Raids Marijuana Buyers' Club
Hunt for evidence of nonmedical sales
Michael McCabe, Chronicle Staff Writer
The Cannabis Buyers' Club in San Francisco, founded five years ago to
provide marijuana to people with AIDS, cancer and other diseases, was
raided yesterday by agents of the California Bureau of Narcotic
Enforcement.
Armed with a search warrant, scores of armed agents seized truckloads of
evidence from the office at 1444 Market St., including more than 40 pounds of
marijuana, hallucinogenic mushrooms, weapons and ``tens of thousands of
dollars in cash,'' a bureau spokesman said.
No one was arrested, but agents expect to file charges against some of the
club's organizers later in the week and shut down the club as soon as they
have sifted through the evidence, several agents at the scene said.
The primary purpose of the raid was to gather evidence showing that the
distribution of marijuana went beyond the scope of medicinal use, said
Steve Telliano, spokesman for the bureau.
But Gilbert Baker, a club volunteer and longtime gay activist, insisted the
club sold marijuana only to those who had a doctor's prescription and could
show legal identification with photo.
The raid came after a two-year investigation that involved using dozens of
undercover agents to buy marijuana at the club, Joe Doane, chief of the
Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, said at an afternoon press conference. It
was the first such raid since the club was formed in 1991.
``We are targeting those people who we believe are running a marijuana
distribution ring in the Bay Area,'' Doane said. ``It involves the sale of
large amounts of marijuana to a large number of people under the guise
ofselling it for medicinal purposes.''
Doane said that five other locations connected with the club were also
raided yesterday and that nearly 100 agents took part.
The club, which says it serves 11,000 customers, advertises itself as a
not-for-profit organization open to all people being treated by a physician
for certain conditions -- particularly AIDS, cancer, glaucoma and multiple
sclerosis -- that can benefit from the use of marijuana. Potential members
must have a letter from a physician with the physician's name on it, on
letterhead stationery or a prescription pad.
After the raid, which began shortly before 8 a.m. and lasted nearly five
hours, several people who were on the premises when agents arrived appeared
visibly shaken and angry.
``I am outraged,'' said Baker. ``Any 15-year- old kid can buy marijuana on
the street in 15 minutes, yet people who are sick and in the hospital
cannot.''
VOLUNTEERS SAY IT'S POLITICAL
Baker and other volunteers were quick to blame Attorney General Dan
Lungren, who oversees the Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, for trying to
politicize the issue of using marijuana as medicine, particularly since the
issue will be on the November 5 ballot. Lungren is an opponent of the
initiative, known as Proposition 215.
Dennis Peron, the founder of the Cannabis Buyers' Club, submitted 763,000
signatures to qualify the measure, which would decriminalize the use of
medical pot by patients whose doctors recommend it. Peron was out of town
yesterday and could not be reached for comment.
``This is a compassionate use issue and Dan Lungren is making a political
point on top of people who are hurting and sick,'' Baker said during a tour
of the five-story office building where the club operates. He showed
reporters doors that he said were smashed with battering rams, ransacked
files and counters where pounds of marijuana lemon bars and brownies were
confiscated.
The organizers of the Cannabis Buyers' Club have made no secret of the
fact they sold the illegal drug. About a year ago, the club moved its office
from a relatively obscure site in the lower Haight-Ashbury area to a
storefront shop on Market Street.
IGNORED BY LAW OFFICIALS
Since the club opened, law enforcement officials generally had ignored it.
In April 1994, the Board of Supervisors and Mayor Frank Jordan said
marijuana should be legally available to terminally ill people. Jordan
signed a board resolution that supports a state Senate bill to classify
marijuana as a controlled substance that terminally ill patients may be
treated with. The state Legislature has passed bills to allow seriously ill
people to smoke marijuana for medicinal purposes, but they were vetoed
byGovernor Pete Wilson.
Telliano said agents made undercover videos of marijuana sales being made to
teenagers at the club who did not have any medical excuse for the drug. He
also said agents have evidence showing that many children under 10, ``in a
day-care-like situation,'' were breathing secondhand marijuana smoke.
``Secondhand marijuana smoke in the club's `smoking areas' was so potent
that one undercover agent, who was 6 feet 2 and 200 pounds, left the club
stumbling and so disoriented that he was unable to drive his car,''
Telliano said.
Volunteers at the club involved in the campaigning for Proposition 215 said
yesterday that some of their records were seized. Telliano acknowledged that
some Proposition 215 materials may have been seized in the raid, but he
added, ``We've taken precautions that those (campaign) materials will not be
disturbed.''
ANGER OVER SEIZED ITEMS
On the club's fourth floor, Baker opened a refrigerator that once contained
a shelf full of marijuana brownies that sold for $5 each.
``Oh, my God! Oh, my God! They've gone through everything,'' he said.
``They even took the (marijuana) menu off the wall.''
``This is bull--,'' yelled another man storming from room to room.
Calvin Martin, 46, said he was sleeping on the club's third floor when
agents burst in. ``I was under the impression it was a break- in,' he said.
``Ten of them (agents) swept by, handcuffed me, then one pointed a gun at
my head. All of a sudden, all of this was happening.''
Martin said he bought $200 worth of marijuana on Saturday, and all of it
was seized. ``They even took four tiny roaches (marijuana cigarette butts)
I'd set next to the wall.''
Baker said he expected the club to reopen for business this morning ``as
anact of civil disobedience. This whole thing is an act of civil
disobedience.''
--------------------------------------------------------------
August 5, 1996
Agents Crack Down on Marijuana Buying Club in San Francisco
By TIM GOLDEN
[S] AN FRANCISCO -- After more than two years of uneasy tolerance, state drug
agents raided the biggest above-board marijuana emporium in the country here
on Sunday, striking back at activists who say they are helping thousands of
people seeking relief from ailments like cancer and AIDS.
The authorities did not immediately shut down the operation, the Cannabis
Buyers' Club of San Francisco, a five-story outlet in the city's Castro
district. But officials said the drug agents had seized more than 40 pounds
of marijuana and other evidence that would probably be used to arrest people.
"We are not targeting for prosecution anyone who was a customer of that
club," the chief of the California Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement, Joe
Doane, said at a news conference this afternoon. "We are targeting persons
who are believed to be operating a marijuana distribution ring in much of the
Bay area."
Organizers of the club angrily took issue with the idea that they were mere
drug dealers. While theirs was not always the most rigorously organized of
apothecaries, they said, it was not set up just to help ordinary people get
high.
"When you're dealing with something that is a social revolution, there is no
way to do it correctly the first time around," said Gary A. Johnson, an
administrator of the club. "Of course, there will be mistakes."
Speaking of the crackdown, Johnson said: "This is a way to hurt people with
AIDS. This is a way to hurt people with cancer."
The club had become a rallying point for people around the country who
advocate the legalization of marijuana for medicinal purposes. Its members
helped put an initiative on the November ballot in California that
would allow people with conditions like AIDS, glaucoma and multiple sclerosis
to possess marijuana for medicinal use.
While city officials in San Francisco have taken an openly tolerant attitude
toward the club, noting local public support for its aims, it had been a burr
in the side of law-enforcement agencies, almost from its founding in a small
apartment in the Castro district.
Drug Enforcement Administration officials, recruited to the case by the San
Francisco police, found the local office of the U.S. attorney unwilling to
prosecute, law-enforcement officials said. They added that like the city's
district attorney, federal prosecutors had declined the case because they
said it involved a relatively small amount of drugs and a high risk of
political fallout.
California's conservative attorney general, Dan Lungren, thought differently.
Although narcotics agents insisted today that they were moving against people
who had sold marijuana for commercial rather than medical reasons, the
state's action was met with skepticism.
"It's a highly unusual case," said the city's chief assistant district
attorney, David J. Millstein, "where the District Attorney and the Federal
government won't prosecute, and law enforcement has shopped the case
around to see who will."
--------------------------------------------------------------
August 5, 1996
State raids marijuana club
Agents: Sales may not have been limited to medically needy
SAN FRANCISCO: (AP)-State narcotics agents raided the Cannabis
Buyers' Club on Sunday, shutting down the controversial group that
sells marijuana to AIDS, cancer and other terminally ill patients.
Armed with a search warrant, agents burst into the club's Market
Street headquarters about 7:45 a.m. and spent four hours hauling away
at least two computers, a cabinet full of client records, and an
unspecified amount of marijuana.
In addition, volunteers involved with Proposition 215 - a statewide
ballot initiative to legalize medicinal marijuana - said some of their
records were seized.
No arrests were reported.
State agents had been investigating the Cannabis Buyer's Club for
two years, and Sunday's raid was designed to seek evidence of "illegal
marijuana use, particularly by people who were not using it for medical
reasons," state Justice Department spokesman Steve Telliano said.
The state's probe included several undercover "buys" in which
agents purchased several pounds of the drug, Telliano said. On other
occasions, people bought the drug after presenting "doctor's notes"
scribbled on napkins or scrap paper and complaining of ailments as
minor as lower back pain or yeast infections, he said.
"Essentially, what we had is a large-scale marijuana distribution
ring for the entire Bay Area," he said.
Five homes in San Francisco and nearby cities also were raided
Sunday in connection with the case, but Telliano provided no additional
details. Those raids also involved no arrests, he said.
"At this point, we're not working toward any arrests - but that may
happen," he said.
Telliano acknowledged that some Proposition 215 materials may have
been seized in the raid, but added, "We've taken precautions that those
(campaign) materials will not be disturbed."
State Attorney General Dan Langrun opposed the initiative. Gov.
Pete Wilson has, since 1994, vetoed two bills that would have allowed
AIDS and cancer patients to grow and smoke the drug.
Gilbert Baker, an AIDS activist and volunteer for the Yes on 215
campaign, was visibly outraged as he wandered from floor to floor of
the club, alternating sobs with bursts of incredulous laughter.
On the fourth floor, he opened a refrigerator that once contained a
shelf full of marijuana brownies that sold for $5 each.
"Oh my God! Oh my God! They've gone through everything," he said.
"They even took the (marijuana) menu off the wall."
Calvin Martin, 46, said he was sleeping on the club's third floor
when agents burst in.
"I was under the impression it was a break-in," he said. "Ten of
them (agents) swept by, handcuffed me, then one pointed a gun at my
head. All of a sudden, all of this was happening."
Martin, who suffers from acquired immune deficiency syndrome, said
he bought $200 worth of marijuana Saturday, and all of it was seized.
"They even took four tiny roaches (marijuana cigarette butts) I'd set
next to the wall," he said.
The Cannabis Buyers' Club was founded in 1991, and its organizers
made no secret of the fact they sold the illegal drug. About a year
ago, the club moved its office from a relatively obscure site in the
lower Haight-Ashbury District to a storefront shop on Market Street,
the city's main thoroughfare. Managers boast of having roughly 11,000
members.
A pamphlet available at the door says the club was founded "in the
wake of the AIDS epidemic, with the goal of alleviating suffering." A
menu lists several grades of the drug, available in a variety of forms.
While prices aren't shown, Martin said that "three-star" Californian
goes for $55 a quarter-ounce while lower-grade Mexican-grown pot sells
for about one-third that price.
Also for sale were Marijuana Treats, Marijuana Tincture and Merry
Pills, a "high-grade marijuana soaked in virgin olive oil, lightly
heated and capsuled," according to the club's brochure.
Organizers maintain that marijuana is sold only to members, who
have to furnish a photo indentification and a doctor's letter
certifying a condition that could be alleviated by pot. Similar clubs
are said to exist in other major American cities, but the San Francisco
club is among the most visible.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: owner-hemp-talk@blueberry.hemp.net
Received: by arl-img-4.compuserve.com (8.6.10/5.950515)
Date: 05 Aug 96 18:03:20 EDT
From: Bob Owen <72643.3237@compuserve.com>
To: Talk Group
Subject: SF MJ Club still open
Message-ID: <960805220320_72643.3237_IHD73-1@CompuServe.COM>
Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net
Precedence: bulk
X-UIDL: 9e6ad87e3775ca7329f5f2a69aaf3550
Marijuana Club Remains Open; State Seeks Permanent Closure
By Associated Press, 08/05/96
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A club that openly sold marijuana to people with AIDS,
cancer and other diseases reopened its doors on Monday, a day after state drug
agents cleaned out its cupboards.
"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."
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 40 pounds of
pot, documents and an unspecified amount of cash.
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.
State Justice Department spokesman Steve Telliano said the club helped
distribute large quantities of marijuana throughout the San Francisco Bay area.
"This clearly was not a not-for-profit operation," he said. "We're still
counting" the money.
State attorneys will move to shut the club down permanently, Telliano said.
No immediate arrests were made, although Telliano said some are possible after
agents examine the evidence seized.
Club founder Dennis 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."
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.
AP-DS-08-05-96 1659EDT
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: owner-hemp-talk@blueberry.hemp.net
Message-ID: <960805151041_592816640@emout07.mail.aol.com>
To: hemp-talk@hemp.net
Subject: email address: Let them know how you feel.
Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net
Precedence: bulk
X-UIDL: f867dd0dffe3465fac0d0ab2ed580b0f
High Folks
Here some email address that need to hear from you. This war on Medical
Marijuana needs to STOP, lets end it here and now.
Jimmy
CALIFORNIA ASSEMBLY MEMBERS WITH E-Mail
Aguiar, Fred
E-Mail Fred.Aguiar@assembly.ca.gov
(916) 445-1670
Bates, Tom
E-Mail Tom.Bates@assembly.ca.gov
(916) 445-7554
Battin, Jim
E-Mail Jim.Battin@assembly.ca.gov
(916) 445-5416
Bordonaro, Tom
E-Mail Tom.Bordonaro@assembly.ca.gov
(916) 445-7795
Bowen, Debra
E-Mail Debra.Bowen@assembly.ca.gov
(916) 445-8528
Brown, Valerie
E-Mail Valerie.Brown@assembly.ca.gov
(916) 445-8492
Brulte, James L.
E-Mail James.L.Brulte@assembly.ca.gov
(916) 445-8490
Bustamante, Cruz M.
E-Mail Cruz.Bustamante@assembly.ca.gov
(916) 445-8514
Caldera, Louis
E-Mail Louis.Caldera@assembly.ca.gov
(916) 445-4843
Conroy, Mickey
E-Mail Mickey.Conroy@assembly.ca.gov
(916) 445-2778
Cortese, Dominic
E-Mail Dominic.Cortese@assembly.ca.gov
(916) 445-8243
Cunneen, Jim
E-Mail Jim.Cunneen@assembly.ca.gov
(916) 445-8305
Ducheny, Denise
E-Mail Denise.Ducheny@assembly.ca.gov
(916) 445-7556
Figueroa, Liz
E-Mail M.L.Figueroa@assembly.ca.gov
(916) 445-7874
Firestone, Brooks
E-Mail Brooks.Firestone@assembly.ca.gov
(916) 445-8292
Frusetta, Peter
E-Mail Peter.Frusetta@assembly.ca.gov
(916) 445-7380
Goldsmith, Jan
E-Mail Jan.Goldsmith@assembly.ca.gov
(916) 445-2484
Granlund, Brett
E-Mail Brett.Granlund@assembly.ca.gov
(916) 445-7552
Hauser, Dan
E-Mail Dan.Hauser@assembly.ca.gov
(916) 445-8360
House, George
E-Mail George.House@assembly.ca.gov
(916) 445-7906
Isenberg, Phillip
E-Mail Phil.Isenberg@assembly.ca.gov
(916) 445-1611
Kaloogian, Howard
E-Mail Howard.Kaloogian@assembly.ca.gov
(916) 445-2390
Knight, William "Pete"
E-Mail William.Knight@assembly.ca.gov
(916) 445-7498
Kuykendall, Steven T
E-Mail Steven.Kuykendall@assembly.ca.gov
(916) 445-9234
Machado, Mike
E-Mail Mike.Machado@assembly.ca.gov
(916) 445-7931
Martinez, Diane
E-Mail Diane.Martinez@assembly.ca.gov
(916) 445-7852
McPherson, Bruce
E-Mail Bruce.A.McPherson@assembly.ca.gov
(916) 445-8496
Murray, Kevin
E-Mail Kevin.Murray@assembly.ca.gov
(916) 445-8800
Murray, Willard
E-Mail Willard.Murray@assembly.ca.gov
(916) 445-7486
Olberg, Keith
E-Mail R.K.Olberg@assembly.ca.gov
(916) 445-8102
Pringle, Curt
E-Mail Curt.Pringle@assembly.ca.gov
(916) 445- 8377
Rogan, James
E-Mail James.Rogan@assembly.ca.gov
(916) 445-8364
Setencich, Brian
E-Mail Brian.Setencich@assembly.ca.gov
(916) 445-7558
Vasconcellos, John
E-Mail John.Vasconcellos@assembly.ca.gov
(916) 445-4253
Weggeland, Ted
E-Mail Ted.Weggeland@assembly.ca.gov
(916) 445-0854
CA. NEWS PAPERS
San Jose Mercury News
letters@sjmercury.com
408-271-3792 fax
San Francisco Chronicle
chronletters@sfgate.com
San Francisco Examiner
letters@examiner.com
San Francisco Bay Guardian
letters@sfbayguardian.com
San Francisco Beacon
beacon@well.com
LA Times
letters@latimes.com
213-237-7679 fax
San Diego Tribune
letters@uniontrib.com
editor@uniontrib.com
Sacramento Bee
opinion@sacbee.com
Contra Costa Times
cctletrs@netcom.com
Palo Alto Weekly
paweekly@netcom.com
Santa Rosa Press Democrat
pdletters@pressdemo.com
707-523-8073 fax
Redding Record Searchlight
bedkin@recsearch.com
San Mateo Times
smtimes@baynet.com
Santa Barbara Independent
editor@independent.com
letters@independent.com
Grass Valley Union
mail@TheUnion.com
Tahoe Daily Tribune
tribune@tahoe.com
Pacifica Tribune
pactrib@hax.com
Metro (San Jose)
dmc@livewire.com
Santa Cruz County Sentinel
sentcity@cruzio.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: mregen@ix.netcom.com
Date: Mon, 5 Aug 1996 08:11:55 -0700
Message-Id: <199608051511.IAA15168@dfw-ix8.ix.netcom.com>
From: mregen@ix.netcom.com (Marnie Regen)
Subject: Re: CA Media Contact
X-UIDL: 284879281e2d4695afa66a963e1a0dfa
Alan B. wrote:
>Could someone please take the time to post all Calif.
>media contact numbers?
Jim, Mark - can you fill in the blanks?
San Jose Mercury News
letters@sjmercury.com
408-271-3792 fax
San Francisco Chronicle
chronletters@sfgate.com
San Francisco Examiner
letters@examiner.com
San Francisco Bay Guardian
letters@sfbayguardian.com
San Francisco Beacon
beacon@well.com
LA Times
letters@latimes.com
213-237-7679 fax
San Diego Tribune
letters@uniontrib.com
editor@uniontrib.com
Sacramento Bee
opinion@sacbee.com
Contra Costa Times
cctletrs@netcom.com
Palo Alto Weekly
paweekly@netcom.com
Santa Rosa Press Democrat
pdletters@pressdemo.com
707-523-8073 fax
Redding Record Searchlight
bedkin@recsearch.com
San Mateo Times
smtimes@baynet.com
Santa Barbara Independent
editor@independent.com
letters@independent.com
Grass Valley Union
mail@TheUnion.com
Tahoe Daily Tribune
tribune@tahoe.com
Pacifica Tribune
pactrib@hax.com
Metro (San Jose)
dmc@livewire.com
Santa Cruz County Sentinel
sentcity@cruzio.com
---
Sincerely,
Marnie Regen
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: mregen@ix.netcom.com
Date: Mon, 5 Aug 1996 17:43:14 -0700
From: mregen@ix.netcom.com (Marnie Regen)
Subject: update from SF protest
X-UIDL: 18dc356ca9507f551b1f8872de5aae93
Friends-
I just returned from the SFCBC protest. A sad day indeed but this is
far from over, that's for sure. Dennis arrived at county court around
1:30 for the hearing in good spirits as usual. He and Beth thanked
everyone for their work and dedication. Some of us (me included) were
allowed inside the courtroom for support. Very little media coverage,
but what has been covered has been pretty positive. Judge Cahill's
hands are tied because of state and federal law so there is now a
court injunction against the CBC and staff members listed on the
court affidavid. No one involved in Sunday's raid will be arrested but
anyone who violates the injunction will be subject to prosecution.
Not one state cop showed up anywhere which was a surprise to most of
us. They left the SFPD, who pulled out of the 2-year investigation
months ago, to deal with their mess. The staties basically snuck in,
raided the club, and snuck back out of the city just in time for the
protest. The SFPD was cooperative as they didn't want this problem to
begin with. Willie Brown did not address the situation much to our
dismay. Like I said, THIS IS FAR FROM OVER. There is a candlelight
vigil tonight in front of the club for anyone who is interested.
Sincerely,
Marnie Regen
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: mregen@ix.netcom.com
Date: Tue, 6 Aug 1996 07:05:43 -0700
Message-Id: <199608061405.HAA26707@dfw-ix1.ix.netcom.com>
From: mregen@ix.netcom.com (Marnie Regen)
Subject: my published letter - CBC raid
X-UIDL: 215b47042dd402e0440f89477b09f029
Friends-
I wrote this letter when I heard about the raid. It was printed in
today's San Jose Mercury News.
Aug 6, 1996
Dear Editors:
Invading the Buyers' Club while it's closed? Is this Wilson's
poor and feeble attempt at looking "tough" on drugs?
It's bad enough he ordered state police to raid an underground club
where sick and suffering patients are forced to obtain illegal
medicine. But to do it while the club is closed only proves his fear
of looking bad in the public eye. And the raid only proves further
what millions of us have been saying all along - we are in desperate
need of a legalized and regulated system of distribution for medicinal
marijuana. Keeping it illegal and under control of the black market
forces patients to become criminals. What in heaven's name is this
accomplishing? Aside from wasting time, tax money and jail space,
nothing. Except, of course, serving private interests and political
gains of those who could care less about sick people.
Vote YES on Prop 215 and allow sick people LEGAL access to
medicinal marijuana.
Sincerely,
Marnie Regen
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: owner-hemp-talk@blueberry.hemp.net
Date: Tue, 6 Aug 1996 11:16:17 -0700 (PDT)
From: Dave Hall
To: Talk List All
Subject: Further Chron Coverage of Pot raid (fwd)
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net
Precedence: bulk
X-UIDL: 93897171c4a55c3575856a4eb1be3bb8
Dave Hall, Washington Hemp Education Network
"W.H.E.N. educated people know."
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 6 Aug 1996 07:57:05 -0700
From: Tom O'Connell
To: mercury7@loop.com
Subject: Further Chron Coverage of Pot raid
(To list via Bcc)
This appeared on 1st page of 2nd section of today's Chronicle:
Latest setback in founder's long crusade
By Maitland Zane
Chronicle Staff Writer
Dennis Peron has been defiantly dealing grass in San Francisco for more
than 20 years.
Long before he founded the Cannabis Buyers' Club, which was raided by state
narcotics officers Sunday, Peron was an advocate for the legalization of
marijuana. In the mid-1970s, he ran the Big Top pot supermarket on Castro
Street, which offered customers sample merchandise to taste, regular hours
and a mellow environment-until it became too blatant for police to ignore.
Peron was shot in the leg when police raided the operation in 1977.
Peron, 50, a Bronx-born Viet Nam veteran, called the marijuana emporium "a
service to the community." His claim that he was not in business for the
money was backed up at the time by a community activist named Harvey Milk,
then running for supervisor: "Dennis is the opposite of a profiteer'" Milk
said. "I've seen his money and energy going back to the community."
Peron ran unsuccessfully for the Board of Supervisors in 1989 on a platform
calling for the legalization of marijuana. The AIDS plague, especially the
death of his lover, Jonathan West, in 1990, turned him into a crusader for
medical marijuana.
"I've lost at least 200 friends," Peron said recently. "Toward the end of
his short life Jonathan's body was covered with KS lesions.
But he said marijuana really helped him. It gave him dignity; he could even
laugh sometimes. When he died at age 29, I decided to dedicate myself to
helping all people who were suffering and dying of HIV."
The Cannabis Buyers' Club opened for business in 1994, selling marijuana to
people with AIDS, cancer, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma or other painful
ailments. Local law enforcement authorities took their cue from sympathetic
city officials and looked the other way.
Peron said membership has tripled to 12,000 since the club opened. The
club, which started out in a loft at Church and Markel streets, recently
moved to a four story building on Market near Polk.
Inside, there is a big-screen TV and a big fern bar with couches and easy
chairs for patrons to socialize, as well as a sales counter, a snack bar, a
performance space for musicians, and a gift shop with pipes, pro-pot
T-shirts and Brownie Mary cookbooks.
Prices range as high as $80 for an eighth of an ounce of top-grade
sinsemilla. The pot comes sealed in baggies with a "Rx" sticker saying "Not
for Resale."
Peron works in an office with a poster of his hero, Milk, on the wall
and-until Sunday's raid-a dozen pot plants on his desk.
The club pays him a salary, as it does for several other staff members, but
Peron says he still lives "very simply" in a five-member commune.
Peron led the Northern California campaign that collected 763,000
signatures to put Proposition 215, which would legalize marijuana for
medical use, on the November ballot.
Peron said Sunday's raid, which happened while he was vacationing in
Canada, won't deter his efforts to legalize pot for medicinal purposes:
"Customers come in who upset and nauseous, and leave here with a smile on
their faces. If they weren't buying they'd be getting robbed and beaten up
in Dolores Park. Here, we're helping them stay alive."
===========
Tom O'Connell
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: owner-hemp-talk@blueberry.hemp.net
Date: Tue, 6 Aug 1996 11:15:29 -0700 (PDT)
From: Dave Hall
To: Talk List All
Subject: coverage of CBC bust (fwd)
Message-ID:
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net
Precedence: bulk
X-UIDL: c580293a484c1794bbee0a37ae94a714
This is from Dan Baum, the author of "Smoke and Mirrors," who now lurks on
DRCNet.
Dave Hall, Washington Hemp Education Network
"W.H.E.N. educated people know."
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 6 Aug 1996 13:12:58 -0400
From: DanBaum@aol.com
Subject: coverage of CBC bust
strikes me that the coverage of the CBC bust has been overwhelmingly negative
toward the raid and equally sympathetic to the CBC, its clients, and the
medical marijuana cause. this seems significant, as the mainstream press has
usually been a cheerleader for the war on drugs in all its forms.
i've been doing a lot of talk radio since the publication of "smoke and
mirrors" (about 50 radio shows) and am finding the response remarkable. I've
taken calls from maybe 300 people, and i don't think more than half a dozen
have been hostile. there have been a lot of callers who start out saying,
"i'm a conservative republican" and then go on to say, "i agree with you a
hundred percent." people call in to say their 15 year old daughters are in a
drug rehab, and then go on to say that the drug war is a disaster, that
flying awacs over the gulf of mexico isn't doing their kids any good, that
hunting down every non-addicted adult marijuana smoker is an unamerican
waste, and so on. this is even on some very right-wing shows. in fact, i
haven't had a single talk-show host -- not even right-wing fire-breather bob
grant out of new york -- disagree with the book's premise that the drug war
is wasteful, violent, counterproductive, unamerican, and makes drug problems
worse. again, this strikes me as significant. four years ago i did some talk
radio after writing a drug-war piece for the nation magazine, and the calls
then were overwhelmingly hostile (you're a druggie! you're a traitor! drugs
are killing out children!) something's happened in four years, and i think
the coverage of the CBC bust is indicative.
Dan Baum
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: owner-hemp-talk@blueberry.hemp.net
Date: Wed, 7 Aug 1996 10:18:41 -0700 (PDT)
From: Dave Hall
To: Talk List All
Subject: Reefer Maniac Shoots Own Foot Off (fwd)
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net
Precedence: bulk
X-UIDL: 74cf52ac5b2d8c07cedd5cd798821be4
This is an opinion of the media response to the CBC bust from someone
who's very close to the action down there.
Dave Hall, Washington Hemp Education Network
"W.H.E.N. educated people know."
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 6 Aug 96 21:00:25 -0800
From: R Givens
Subject: Reefer Maniac Shoots Own Foot Off
Yo Folks,
I've only seen the San Francisco media so far, but this looks like a case of
bigtime foot shooting on Lungren's part. There hasn't been one word of praise
for making war on sick and dying medical marijuana patients.
The only positive media for the narcs has come from a Reefer Maniac named
Savage on KGO radio. It is doubtful that Savage's extreme rants will win them
any support. Otherwise it has been pro-pot all the way.
The news media has definitely sided with medical marijuana. How do I know.
Well, they're putting our people in the "catbird seat." What this means is
that our spokespeople are being given the last word. To wit: The narcs rant
about how the CBC was a "major marijuana distribution ring...." Then they cut
to Hazel Rodgers puffing her pipe and telling people how the pot is saving her
eyesight from glaucoma and relieving her cancer symptoms. It's a KO punch for
the narcs and so far every news report has followed this pattern.
Choosing who to put in the "catbird seat" is how news directors slant a story.
This time most of them seem to be on our side.
"Hard Way" Dole can prove his nickname by putting a sure loser like Lungren on
the ticket. Lungren has lost hundreds of thousands of California votes with
his Reefer Madness assault on sick people. Lungren could insure the loss of
California and hence the whole election for Dole.
Can anybody find a single paper that praised Lungren for his attack on medical
marijuana users? Has one single editorial appeared promoting Lungren as a
viable national candidate because of this raid? Has any newspaper had a good
word for Lungren?
Lungren has a very poor understanding of propaganda or he would know better
than to attack societal mores like 'caring for sick people,' which is just one
step removed from an assault on mom and apple pie. If Lungren had done such a
monumentally lunatic move under Josef Goebbels, he'd have his back to a wall
by now for plain stupidity.
It is interesting to note that Lungren has not made a single media appearance
(that I've seen) about this raid, instead letting henchmen promote the raid on
TV and newspapers. If this has been the case everywhere, we can also tack the
adjective yellow coward dog to Lungren's name.
>From here, this looks like a total media disaster for Lungren. I'd say Lungren
has ruined any hope of being on the GOP slate in November.
What's happening in the rest of the state & country?
R Givens
--
Sent via the Guardian Online. 415.437.3600 N81 or bbs.sfbayguardian.com, 3004
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: owner-hemp-talk@blueberry.hemp.net
Date: Wed, 7 Aug 1996 10:23:05 -0700 (PDT)
From: Dave Hall
To: Talk List All
Subject: Buyers' Club (fwd)
Message-ID:
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net
Precedence: bulk
X-UIDL: af6b1dd0ec842840d3f10e6528fe5474
Here's another, more CBC-critical, opinion from another insider.
Dave Hall, Washington Hemp Education Network
"W.H.E.N. educated people know."
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 7 Aug 1996 21:52:54 +0000
From: Kai Alexis Price
Subject: Buyers' Club
I thought this was informative--tornado@best.com wrote:
UPDATE on the raid of the San Francisco Buyers' Club
Monday, August 5, 1996
For those of you who don't know, these are the details of the
San Francisco CBC (Cannabis Buyers' Club) bust. To the best of my
knowledge, all of the information provided is accurate. If there
are some facts that I have wrong, please correct me. I also
interject my personal views into this story, of which I expect to
take some heat.
To begin with, let me state that I am a strong proponent of
not only total marijuana legalization, but the legalization
of ALL drugs. I have also worked tirelessly--and continue to
do so--for the passage of Prop. 215. With no help from anyone, I
have collected 2,040 signatures for the initiative, registered 400+
voters in the process, and am currently circulating 2,000 Prop. 215
flyers.
THE STORY BEHIND THE RAID OF THE SAN FRANCISCO BUYERS' CLUB
Although there are CERTAINLY political reasons behind the raid
of the Cannabis Buyers' Club, I believe the bust occured only
because the the club was caught red handed operating in a manner
that made it very vulnerable to being busted.
The Cannabis Nazis who busted the CBC produced VIDEOTAPES of...
1) Dennis Peron (CBC founder) selling 2 pounds of cannabis to
an undercover cop who had no medical need.
2) A 15-year-old--with no medical need--purchasing and smoking
cannabis.
3) Cannabis was purchased by Narcs who produced letters--written by
themselves--recommending that they need cannabis for MINOR
illnesses. The Narcs told club personel that these letters were
written by their physicians. The club never checked the validity
of these letters and proceeded to serve the Narcs cannabis. At
least this is what the Narcs claim. I am not certain that the
Narcs have solid evidence to prove this. But from what I hear
and know about the SF CBC, I can believe it's true.
4) Videotapes showed a roomful of young children in the club.
Dennis Peron claims these kids were downstairs--where no smoking
is allowed--waiting for their parents to purchase medicine. That
may very well be true. But the Narcs got film of children
hanging inside a 'drug house.' And that's all the evidence they
need to convince the IGNORANT public we are 'evil.'
The CBC bust was the topic of discussion on 50,000-watt KGO
Newstalk radio in San Francisco. I heard 2 callers phone in
and discuss the lax rule enforcement of the club. One caller
was a member of both the San Francisco CBC and the Oakland CBC. She
said that getting into the Oakland CBC was like pulling teeth--they
had very strict rules, required patients to fill out lots of
documents, and verified illnesses by contacting physicians. This
same woman said that the San Francisco CBC was far more more lenient
in giving out medicine and that there were often children and minors
wondering around inside.
Another woman called the program and mentioned that her classmates
at Santa Clara University did a report on the San Francisco CBC,
went to visit the club, and returned with a tincture of cannabis
medicine. These students were NOT club members and had no illness.
San Francisco District Attorney Terrance Hallinan also spoke on KGO
radio about this issue. Keep in mind that District Attorney
Hallinan is a proponent of total marijuana legalization and a friend
of Cannabis Buyers' Club founder Dennis Peron. Hallinan said that
he recieved several complaints about the club selling marijuana for
non-medicinal purposes. Hallinan met with Dennis Peron in June and
told him to clean up the club or there could be trouble. Hallinan
recommended that Peron resign from the club to relieve the heat.
After that meeting, Peron did resign from the club and apparently
access to the club was tightened. I do not know if, or how much,
club access was tightened. If access was tightened, it may have been
to late.
As much as I despise Governor Wilson, Attorney General Dan Lungren,
and the Cannabis Nazis, I am also upset that the club was run so
carelessly. I believe the club manager(s) shot themselves in the
foot.
Because the club rules were so lax and often not enforced, those
running the club became wide open to being busted. Had the club
been run the way it should have (squeaky clean), I believe it would
still be open.
Had Lungren and the Cannabis Nazis raided a CBC that was only
admitting and serving adults with serious illnesses, Lungren and the
Cannabis Nazis would have looked like shit. But instead, they have
produced evidence that makes us look like shit.
In addition to that, the state gets to put a ridiculous spin on this
story--that we are shiftless drug dealers who exploit sick people in
order to profit from drug dealing. We all know that claim is pure
bullshit. We all know that the people involved in this movement are
compassionate and do care about the sick. Unfortunately, the club
sowed its own seeds of destruction because of carelessnes and
complacency.
Fortunately, all hope is not lost. Proposition 215 will be on
the ballot in November and we still have an excellent chance of
winning the war--if we don't keep shooting ourselves!
--Tom Bouril
Kai Alexis Price | kai@sirius.com | http://www.sirius.com/~kai
--------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: owner-hemp-talk@blueberry.hemp.net
Date: Wed, 7 Aug 1996 10:39:41 -0700 (PDT)
From: Dave Hall
To: Talk List All
Subject: More on CBC (fwd)
Message-ID:
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net
Precedence: bulk
X-UIDL: 3b271227ec717775189e12a96fd49bd7
Dave Hall, Washington Hemp Education Network
"W.H.E.N. educated people know."
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 7 Aug 1996 07:38:39 -0700
From: Tom O'Connell
To: Annette French
Subject: More on CBC
To list via Bcc:
In today's Chron, this atricle plus a letter from Marnie Regen.
Ammiano Urges S.F. to Clear Way For Medicinal Pot
He seeks `medical emergency' to get around California law or as way to
bypass state law
Glen Martin, Greg Lucas, Chronicle Staff Writers
In the aftermath of a state raid on a San Francisco club that openly peddled
marijuana for medicinal use, Supervisor Tom Ammiano has asked city officials
to declare a medical emergency that would allow for the distribution of the
herb.
Ammiano said he asked the Department of Public Health and the city attorney
to examine marijuana use at an Aug. 15 hearing, including ways state law
could be circumvented by declaring an emergency.
``We do it for hypodermic needle exchanges on that basis, so we'll give it a
shot,'' said Ammiano, referring to the city-sanctioned program that
distributes clean syringes to addicts as a means of fighting the spread of
AIDS.
The city attorney's office said it had no legal opinion on Ammiano's
proposal yet and Sandra R. Hernandez, the city's director of health,
remained noncommittal.
``The health department and the Board of Supervisors are reviewing the
matter with the city attorney,'' said Hernandez.
But attorney general press secretary Steve Telliano said county supervisors
do not have the authority to declare medical emergencies with the intention
of circumventing state law.
``The needle exchange in San Francisco is illegal,'' said Telliano, adding
that he could not comment on whether the state is contemplating any action
against that program. Meanwhile, the debate over Sunday's raid on the
Cannabis Buyers' Club at 1444 Market St. has taken on statewide
significance, fueling interest in Proposition 215, which is on the November
ballot.
The initiative, drafted by club founder Dennis Peron, would legalize
marijuana use for medical purposes, allow the cultivation of hemp for
personal use and provide legal protections for physicians who prescribe
marijuana to their patients.
Peron said he would obey a temporary restraining order forbidding the club
to sell marijuana until a court hearing is held on August 30. The club
premises will now be used as the state headquarters for Proposition 215, he
said.
``We're going to win in November, then sick and dying people will finally be
able to get the marijuana they need to function and live in dignity,'' said
Peron.
At a press conference held yesterday on the steps of the Capitol in
Sacramento, Bay Area lawmakers denounced the raid and its chief sponsor,
Attorney General Dan Lungren, as state Department of Justice staffers
vigorously defended it.
Lungren is the co-chairman of the campaign against Proposition 215.
``This is purely a political shot by the attorney general,'' said
Assemblyman John Burton, D-San Francisco. ``I think it will probably
backfire on him.''
``The attorney general refuses to sue the tobacco companies, which would
bring billions into the state, and instead is picking on people purchasing
medically necessary marijuana,'' said Burton.
Assemblyman John Vasconcellos, D-San Jose, said Lungren was misusing the
powers of his office to further a personal political agenda.
Vasconcellos, who has twice had bills to help seriously ill people buy
marijuana vetoed by Governor Pete Wilson, said he would write a letter to
U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, urging her to investigate Lungren's raid.
Telliano said politics had nothing to do with the timing of the raid.
``We didn't get involved until May, and the (state) Bureau of Narcotics
needed time to make their case,'' said Telliano. ``When they were ready, we
moved.''
He said state narcotics agents were called in by San Francisco police in
May.
``We worked with San Francisco police all the way through this,'' Telliano
said.
San Francisco police narcotics division supervisors have said they initiated
the case, but that only one city officer pursued it through to its
conclusion -- and he was temporarily attached to U.S. Drug Enforcement
Agency and the state Department of Justice.
Narcotics division Lieutenant Kitt Crenshaw said that while the Police
Department did not participate significantly in the case, narcotics
inspectors have long been angered by the club and the actions of Peron.
``(Peron) has been a thorn in our side for years,'' said Crenshaw, noting
that Peron has been arrested numerous times. ``We arrest other people for
those crimes -- why should we allow him to operate with impunity?''
State prosecutors stuck by their contention that the marijuana emporium was
run primarily for profit -- despite revelations from the attorney general's
office that investigators found little in the way of incriminating financial
records.
Telliano said that the only financial documents seized were ledger sheets
that showed some cash disbursements and income. He also said no bank records
or other documents relating to Peron had been seized. Prosecutors had
implicated Peron as a profiteer in the club's operation.
``This marijuana was often resold on the street, they were selling to
teenagers -- it was clearly above and beyond selling for medical use as they
claim,'' said Telliano. ``It's tough to argue that a club bringing in
$250,000 a week is not making a profit.''
No arrests have been made in conjunction with the case, though Telliano said
some may be made in the future.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: owner-hemp-talk@blueberry.hemp.net
Date: Wed, 7 Aug 1996 17:08:41 -0700 (PDT)
From: Dave Hall
To: Talk List All
Subject: MAP : LA Times CBC Protest (fwd)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net
Precedence: bulk
X-UIDL: c4bfb46a815fd40a1bece777357e0767
Dave Hall, Washington Hemp Education Network
"W.H.E.N. educated people know."
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 7 Aug 1996 13:47:03 +0000
From: Fire
To: fire@erowid.com
Cc: Media Awareness Project
Subject: MAP : LA Times CBC Protest
Letters to the Editor:letters@latimes.com
L.A. Times (on-line)
500 S.F. Marchers Protest Closure of Cannabis Club
Aug 7, 1996
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO--
More than 500 protesters marched through the city
Monday night to protest the closing of a club that
openly sold marijuana to patients with AIDS,
cancer and other serious illnesses.
Marchers blew whistles and carried candles and
signs with such slogans as "Marijuana Is Medicine"
and "Defend Your Right to Smoke Weed." No arrests
were reported.
Kevin Deffenbaugh, an AIDS patient and member
of the Cannabis Buyers Club, attended the march in his
wheelchair. Deffenbaugh said he is suffering from
pneumocystis but signed himself out of San Francisco
General Hospital for the protest.
"When I joined the club three years ago, I was bedridden,
weighed 109 pounds and had a T-cell count below 50.
Now I've quit taking every drug but marijuana, I'm 170
pounds and I'm going to walk again," Deffenbaugh said.
"The state wants to take my life away."
Drug enforcement agents raided the club's headquarters
early Sunday after a two-year investigation revealed
evidence of nonmedical marijuana sales. The agents
seized more than 100 pounds of pot, documents and
more than $65,000 in cash.
The club briefly reopened Monday until San Francisco
Superior Court Judge William Cahill issued a temporary
restraining order prohibiting the club from storing or selling
marijuana. Still, some support came from the city's
political leaders. Supervisor Tom Ammiano, who called the
raid a "petty, vindictive pseudo war on drugs," joined
Supervisors Sue Bierman and Susan Leal in issuing a
resolution asking the director of public health, Sandra
Hernandez, to allow distribution of medical marijuana.
Copyright Los Angeles Times
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: owner-hemp-talk@blueberry.hemp.net
Date: Wed, 7 Aug 1996 17:05:38 -0700 (PDT)
From: Dave Hall
To: Talk List All
Subject: USA Today - on CBC Raid (fwd)
Message-ID:
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net
Precedence: bulk
X-UIDL: ceb5ac042527f691e702666e04746377
Dave Hall, Washington Hemp Education Network
"W.H.E.N. educated people know."
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 7 Aug 1996 12:42:16 +0000
From: Fire
To: Media Awareness Project
Subject: USA Today - on CBC Raid
USA Today On-line
8/5/96
Cannabis club raided
SAN FRANCISCO - For the past few years, thousands of terminally ill
patients found temporary relief from their nausea and other pains at
the Cannabis Buyer's Club.
With a doctor's note, they could purchase marijuana in various forms.
The illegal drug helped enhance the appetites of people with AIDS,
countered the nausea from chemotherapy for cancer sufferers or helped
relieve pressure in the eyes of glaucoma patients.
But on Sunday, state drug agents raided the club. According to state
Justice Department spokesman Steve Telliano, the raid was the result
of a two-year investigation targeting club members who are not using
the drug for medicinal purposes.
Five other sites were also searched, but authorities refused to give
details on those raids.
Clint Werner, who is writing a book on the club, said the raid was the
state's response to Proposition 215, a statewide ballot initiative to
legalize medicinal marijuana.
"This is a dark day in San Francisco," Werner said.
Armed with a search warrant, state drug agents raided the club's
headquarters at about 7:45 a.m. Sunday and spent four hours piling
computers, marijuana and a cabinet full of customer information into
three trucks.
In addition, volunteers involved with Proposition 215 said some of
their records were seized. No arrests were reported.
The Cannabis Buyers' Club, which has about 11,000 members, has
operated for at least four years and its organizers made no secret of
the fact they sold the illegal drug.
About a year ago, the club moved its office from a relatively obscure
site in the lower Haight-Ashbury District to a storefront shop on
Market Street, the city's main thoroughfare.
Organizers maintain that marijuana is sold only to members who furnish
a photo identification and a doctor's letter certifying a condition
that could be alleviated by the drug.
Thomas J. Scott III, a member who has suffered from manic depression
for 25 years, said he smokes two to three joints each day to combat
the disease. His wife, who has chronic fatigue syndrome, also smokes
marijuana.
"Now I'm going to have to charge Medicare for all these (other)
medications," Scott said. "Patients are now going to have to plug the
streets for their marijuana supply."
The club escaped local police scrutiny in part because the city Board
of Supervisors in 1992 ordered police to make enforcing laws against
marijuana as medicine their lowest priority.
By The Associated Press
-------------------------------
I'm not exactly sure which of the following is the right
one...hell...send stuff to all of them. :)
usaweekend@aol.com
letters to the editor editor@usatoday.com
Letters to the editor usatoday@clark.net
------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: mregen@ix.netcom.com
Date: Wed, 7 Aug 1996 15:59:04 -0700
Message-Id: <199608072259.PAA22880@dfw-ix5.ix.netcom.com>
From: mregen@ix.netcom.com (Marnie Regen)
Subject: Oakland CBC concerned
OAKLAND, Calif., Aug. 7 (UPI) -- Although it has not garnered the
X-UIDL: c86fbdf3b3dfa41a2c9381ba0fec8d4c
national attention of its San Francisco cousin, the Oakland Cannabis
Buyers Club has also been tolerated by local police and officials.
However, last weekend's raid by state narcotics agents in San
Francisco has shaken the club's sense of security and dried up some of
its suppliers.
``Our suppliers are paranoid they will be busted too,'' Liana
Held, the club's co-founder, said Wednesday. ``It's (buying marijuana
from suppliers) like trying to find watermelons in December.''
The sale, possession and distribution of marijuana remains
against the law in California, but officials in the San Francisco Bay
Area have slacked off on enforcement if the illegal drugs are being
sold to those suffering from AIDS and other medical maladies.
The drug eases the nausea commonly associated with cancer
chemotheraphy, seems to stem the wasting syndrome associated with the
final stages of AIDS and also gives relief to glaucoma.
The tolerance has led to the creation of cannabis buyers clubs in
San Francisco, Oakland, Marin County and Santa Cruz. It has also led
to the placing of a proposition on November's ballot that would make
the medical use of the drug legal in California.
Held said the San Francisco raid has swelled the numbers coming
to their clinic by 20 percent, but the loss of suppliers has forced
her organization to turn away many indivduals who had prescriptions
from their doctors for the drugs.
State authorities cracked down on the San Francisco club last
weekend, seizing 40 pounds of marijuana, cash and other items in a
raid. Officials claim that a two-year undercover operation had revealed
that the San Francisco club was selling marijuana to underaged youths
and healthy individuals.
However, there have been no arrests as yet associated with the
raid, which has sparked an outcry that it was politically motivated to
coincide with the Republican Convention, which begins next week in San
Diego.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: mregen@ix.netcom.com
Date: Wed, 7 Aug 1996 08:19:00 -0700
Message-Id: <199608071519.IAA00562@dfw-ix3.ix.netcom.com>
From: mregen@ix.netcom.com (Marnie Regen)
Subject: PSA's for Prop 215?
X-UIDL: f030de9cda43879bd16274a5fb140efb
Alan S. wrote:
>I've been hearing from patients and caregivers, all of them are very
>distressed.
Dolores Park has been flooded with very sad patients and very happy pot
dealers since the raid.
>In November, I hope the voters remember the brutal and forceful
>police opposition to this doctor/nurse/patient backed proposition.
Does anyone know how much a 30-second PSA costs on TV? I see lots of
those Proposition PSA's put out by special-interest groups during the
evening news. Is this something CMR is capable of doing (with help
from other groups)? Something where stoormtrooping narcotics officers
raid a club full of sick and dying patients, to remind the voters who
this is about. With testimony from patients, doctors, the SF Medical
Society, etc. Does anyone have any idea of the cost involved? Maybe
Mr. Zimmerman could get the people who do his commercials?
Thanks,
Marnie Regen
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: mregen@ix.netcom.com
Date: Thu, 8 Aug 1996 08:24:34 -0700
Message-Id: <199608081524.IAA13888@dfw-ix11.ix.netcom.com>
From: mregen@ix.netcom.com (Marnie Regen)
Subject: More LTE's in support of CBC
X-UIDL: 9a3ef787f32b160a70f994d5bb11f805
San Francisco Chronicle
Thursday August 8, 1996
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
CANNABIS CLUB BUST VICTIMIZES SICK PEOPLE
Editor -- We are nurses who volunteer for Californians for
Compassionate Use adjacent to the Cannabis Buyers' Club in San
Francisco. On Sunday morning we were notified by intimidated, shaken
co-workers that our offices had been raided by the police.
As citizens of California working for a political cause we
believe in, we are outraged that our state officials, Dan Lungren and
Governor Wilson, vocal opponents of Prop. 215, are using their
position to intimidate our grassroots campaign and to victimize sick
people. All to win points at the Republican convention.
We are nurses trying to help other people. Why are we being
intimidated? Why are sick and dying people being harrassed and made
to suffer?
Please contact Attorney General Dan Lungren and Governor Wilson
and let them know that what they are doing is inhumane. We cannot
permit this type of harrassment to go unnoticed.
LYNNE BARNES, RN
JEFFREY REED, RN
San Francisco
DAY OF INFAMY
Editor -- The Cannabis Buyers' Club bust of August 4, a day that
will go down in infamy, was the perfect example of a lacking of human
compassion. All the information we get regarding medical marijuana
from the narc squad, the attorney general and the governor is
comprised of phony statistics, lies, exaggeration, hyperbole,
half-truths and coverups. Over 80 percent of Cannabis Club members
are HIV+ and/or have terminal illnesses.
To take an armed stance between 12,000 sick club members and their
medicine is a brutal act of blatant meanness.
CRAIG R. LOMBARDI
Director of Communications
Cannabis Buyers' Club
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: owner-hemp-talk@blueberry.hemp.net
Received: from blueberry.hemp.net (blueberry.hemp.net [199.238.225.65])
by desiree.teleport.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id KAA17678
for pdxnorml@pdxnorml.org; Thu, 8 Aug 1996 10:54:56 -0700 (PDT)
Received: (from majordom@localhost) by blueberry.hemp.net (8.7.1/8.7.1)
id KAA01675 for hemp-talk-outgoing; Thu, 8 Aug 1996 10:41:40 -0700
X-Authentication-Warning: blueberry.hemp.net: majordom
set sender to owner-hemp-talk using -f
Received: from mail.eskimo.com (mail.eskimo.com [204.122.16.4])
by blueberry.hemp.net (8.7.1/8.7.1) with ESMTP id KAA01659
for hemp-talk@hemp.net; Thu, 8 Aug 1996 10:41:36 -0700
Received: from eskimo.com (dhall@eskimo.com [204.122.16.13])
by mail.eskimo.com (8.7.3/8.6.12) with SMTP id JAA28361
for hemp-talk@hemp.net; Thu, 8 Aug 1996 09:18:05 -0700 (PDT)
Date: Thu, 8 Aug 1996 09:18:01 -0700 (PDT)
From: Dave Hall
To: Talk List All
Subject: Everyone's against the bust!!
Message-ID: Pine.SUN.3.95.960808091428.8413A-100000@eskimo.com
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net
Precedence: bulk
X-UIDL: a7c2c103fd1195749185d686151cea5b
Whew! The CBC bust is getting HOT and damn near everyone is weighing in
against it, including the SF police, the mayor, and the sherrif's
department! Who would've thought this response could happen a few years
ago? I think the tide is turning...
Dave Hall, Washington Hemp Education Network
"W.H.E.N. educated people know."
>From page 1 of the SF Chronicle:
State Pot Order Rejected
S.F. Sheriff Won't Enforce Ban on Club's Sales
Glen Martin, Chronicle Staff Writer
San Francisco Sheriff Michael Hennessey has rejected a request by the state
attorney general's office to enforce a temporary restraining order
forbidding the sale of marijuana at the Cannabis Buyers' Club, the public
pot emporium busted on Sunday.
Mayor Willie Brown also weighed in on the issue yesterday, issuing a
statement lambasting the raid.
``I am dismayed by the Gestapo tactics displayed by Attorney General Dan
Lungren on Sunday,'' Brown said, ``and (I) wish he would refrain from
political grandstanding at the expense of the health and welfare of the
people of San Francisco.''
An acerbic missive by Hennessey was provoked by a Tuesday letter from Deputy
Attorney General Lawrence A. Mercer asking the sheriff to enforce the court
order issued by Superior Court judge William Cahill on Monday to stop
further pot sales at the club's headquarters at 1444 Market St.
Before the raid, the club openly sold approximately 100 pounds of marijuana
a week. Club staffers say it went to people suffering the debilitating
effects of AIDS, cancer, glaucoma and other diseases. State law enforcement
agents said anybody could buy the weed and that children and toddlers were
regularly exposed to secondhand marijuana smoke at the club.
Hennessey wrote Mercer and Attorney General Dan Lungren that he will not
abide by the request to enforce the order, saying the matter is more
properly the responsibility of the San Francisco police.
Hennessey also said he ``does not wish to spend precious law enforcement
dollars busting people engaged in distributing marijuana for medicinal
purposes,'' adding that the state law may well be changed in November by
Proposition 215, the marijuana decriminalization initiative.
At times, Hennessey grew philosophical in his letter:
``If the attorney general wishes to assist local law enforcement, why not
assist in arresting the tens of thousands of state parolees who have
outstanding arrest warrants? Why not assign Department of Justice personnel
to help solve the thousands of unsolved murders and armed robberies in the
state?
``Heck, the attorney general would even (provide) a better form of public
protection if (he) would help local law enforcement arrest some of the ten
thousand drunk drivers that are on the the highways every minute of the day
in California.''
Hennessey closed by asking Lungren to ``not waste the time of local law
enforcement agencies,'' which have not requested state help in dealing with
local crime.
NO PRESSURE FOR HENNESSEY
Steve Telliano, press secretary for the attorney general, said his office
will not push Hennessey to enforce the order because it appears the Cannabis
Buyers' Club is abiding by the edict.
When asked if the Department of Justice has the authority to compel the
sheriff to enforce the order, Telliano said, ``Perhaps -- but we'll have to
look at that at a later time.''
Telliano took issue with Hennessey's contention that the club was
distributing only ``medicinal'' marijuana.
``There were sales to minors, and there was second-hand marijuana smoke
exposure to infants and children,'' said Telliano. ``Even if Proposition 215
passes, those activities would still be illegal.''
BROWN'S RESPONSE
Meanwhile, Brown -- who had been silent on the raid -- denied that he was
tardy in his response. He said he was upset from the beginning but that he
wanted to gather all available information on the issue before making a
statement.
Brown also said he ``would be very annoyed'' if San Francisco police had a
hand in the bust. Police narcotics officers have said that only one officer
participated in the operation, but reports are floating that police may have
been more deeply involved.
``I think this process started long before (Fred) Lau became chief (of
police),'' said Brown, referring to his appointment of the new chief in
January.
``Lau . . . honestly and accurately states that he did not know of anything
except the appropriate monitoring that should be done by any police
department. If he finds out (that there was substantive police involvement
in the raid), I'm sure he will deal with it,'' Brown said.
In Sacramento, 14 state legislators signed a letter to U.S. Attorney General
Janet Reno saying Lungren ``may have used the powers of his office for
purely political reasons.'' The legislators signed a letter by Santa Clara
Assemblyman John Vasconcellos that suggests Lungren staged the raid to
harass proponents of the medical marijuana measure. Lungren is a leader of
the opposition to the initiative.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: owner-hemp-talk@blueberry.hemp.net
Received: from blueberry.hemp.net (blueberry.hemp.net [199.238.225.65])
by desiree.teleport.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id LAA11102
for pdxnorml@pdxnorml.org; Thu, 8 Aug 1996 11:43:38 -0700 (PDT)
Received: (from majordom@localhost) by blueberry.hemp.net (8.7.1/8.7.1)
id LAA21136 for hemp-talk-outgoing; Tue, 6 Aug 1996 11:16:14 -0700
X-Authentication-Warning: blueberry.hemp.net: majordom
set sender to owner-hemp-talk using -f
Received: from mail.eskimo.com (mail.eskimo.com [204.122.16.4])
by blueberry.hemp.net (8.7.1/8.7.1) with ESMTP id LAA21131
for hemp-talk@hemp.net; Tue, 6 Aug 1996 11:16:04 -0700
Received: from eskimo.com (dhall@eskimo.com [204.122.16.13])
by mail.eskimo.com (8.7.3/8.6.12) with SMTP id LAA00852
for hemp-talk@hemp.net; Tue, 6 Aug 1996 11:16:05 -0700 (PDT)
Date: Tue, 6 Aug 1996 11:16:02 -0700 (PDT)
From: Dave Hall
To: Talk List All
Subject: SF Chron coverage of Pot Bust (fwd)
Message-ID:
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net
Precedence: bulk
X-UIDL: 9f8bb9869fdde36e928c11648d511851
Dave Hall, Washington Hemp Education Network
"W.H.E.N. educated people know."
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 6 Aug 1996 07:29:16 -0700
From: Tom O'Connell
To: Annette French
Subject: SF Chron coverage of Pot Bust
To List as Bcc:
The following appeared in the Chron this morning. There's another article
on Denis Peron which I'll post later:
PAGE ONE
Glen Martin, Harriet Chiang, Catherine Bowman, Chronicle Staff Writers
A raid by state narcotics agents on the nation's largest public marijuana
outlet resulted in a dogfight yesterday between the attorney general's
office and San Francisco public officials, who assailed the seizure as
``storm-trooper tactics.''
The skirmishing took place in the courts and city government chambers -- as
well as on the streets, where hundreds of protesters marched during the day
and at night. Each side tried to put its spin on the bust of the Cannabis
Buyers' Club, which reportedly sold 100 pounds of marijuana a week to 12,000
clients for medical purposes.
At least 100 pounds of cured marijuana, $50,000 and about 11,000 records of
pot-smoking clients were seized during the raid Sunday morning. The homes of
club staffers and affiliates also were raided. No arrests were made.
At a news conference yesterday, Joe Doane, chief of the California Bureau of
Narcotic Enforcement, displayed the evidence seized, including smoking
paraphernalia, packages of $1, $10 and $20 bills and 15 bags bulging with
pungent cannabis buds.
Agents also played a videotape showing people carrying toddlers and infants
around a room at the club that was allegedly beclouded with marijuana smoke.
``It (was) almost like a day care environment,'' said Doane.
He added that club staffers sometimes sold marijuana in quantities clearly
in excess of that required for personal use, and that pot was peddled to
people who had sore backs, yeast infections, insomnia and colitis.
Doane estimated that the club was selling about $35,000 worth of marijuana
each day, and he added, ``The driving force of this club is profit.''
Across town, the atmosphere was tense in the courtroom of San Francisco
Superior Court Judge William Cahill, which was packed with pot advocates.
After hearing spirited arguments from a representative of the club and
prosecutors, Cahill granted Deputy Attorney General John Gordinier's request
for a temporary restraining order prohibiting the club from purveying
marijuana from its headquarters at 1444 Market St.
Cahill also worked out a compromise between the attorney general's office
and attorney David J. Nick, who is representing several defendants in the
case. The agreement will keep all seized records sealed until they are
evaluated by an independent expert for their value of evidence.
Mayor Willie Brown had no comment yesterday on the raid, according to his
press secretary, Kandace Bender, who said he did not have enough details to
discuss it.
Several members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, led by Tom
Ammiano, expressed support for the ``legalization and appropriate medical
use'' of marijuana and called for a hearing into the raid.
``I feel really angry at the way (the attorney general's office) did it,''
Ammiano said. ``It's the worst kind of political opportunism. We could have
worked with them. Instead, they chose these storm- trooper tactics.''
San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan said he is ``very
disturbed'' at the attorney general's action, adding that he did not know
the raid was pending.
Hallinan said the prosecution of marijuana cases was his lowest priority,
that he supported the medical use of marijuana and that he had made it clear
to the San Francisco Police Department that he was not interested in trying
to build a case against the club.
But Hallinan also said he had met with club administrators in June to warn
them that they ``needed to clean up their act.''
``I told them that if they didn't keep better paperwork and watch who they
were selling to, we'd have to prosecute,'' said Hallinan.
Hallinan said he still had no intention of bringing charges against the
club, ``as long as the complaints don't go any farther than the affidavit
indicates -- as long as there isn't a cocaine ring involved or anything like
that.''
Meanwhile, several hundred protesters -- many of them inhaling robustly on
marijuana -- took to the streets yesterday and again last night, marching
several blocks from the Hall of Justice on Bryant Street to the building
containing Cahill's courtroom on Folsom Street during the daytime and along
Market Street at night. Along the way they chanted ``Arrest us all!'' and
``Free Mary Jane!''
The idea of pursuing a case against the club was first floated two years ago
by the Police Department's narcotics division.
According to Captain Greg Corrales, the narcotics division's commanding
officer, inspectors began investigating the club in 1994 after residents
complained.
``Ultimately, 20 officers bought pot there, and five actually joined the
club on the strength of bogus `doctor's notes' they wrote in longhand,''
said Corrales.
Inspectors took the case to then-District Attorney Arlo Smith, who declined
to prosecute. Police then turned the case over to the federal Drug
Enforcement Agency, which in turn sent it to the state attorney general when
the U.S. attorney wasn't interested.
``Through it all, we had only one (San Francisco police) officer working on
it, and he had special experience in this area,'' said Corrales. ``I knew
the general direction of his assignment, but not the details.''
The Cannabis Buyers' Club has been embroiled in controversy since it was
formed in 1994 to provide marijuana to patients with AIDS, cancer, glaucoma
and other illnesses.
Club founder Dennis Peron said he expects ``five or six'' club members
ultimately to be arrested.
``They're desperate,'' Peron said of the attorney general's office.
``They're afraid we'll win in November.''
Peron was referring to Proposition 215, the state ballot initiative he
recently drafted. If approved by voters, it could legalize marijuana for
medical purposes, decriminalize marijuana cultivation for personal use and
protect physicians who prescribe marijuana from prosecution.
With no wares to sell, the Cannabis Buyers' Club was quiet yesterday.
``It's sad,'' said club spokesman John Entwistle. ``There are probably a lot
of sick people scraping their pipes today because they weren't able to get
the medical marijuana they needed.''
EDITORIAL -- Busting the Cannabis Club
FOR THE PAST five years, the Cannabis Buyers' Club in San Francisco has
openly sold marijuana to people with serious illnesses and local law
enforcement officials have averted their gaze, humanely allowing it to
operate without harassment.
In fact, this enlightened community has all but decriminalized the use of
marijuana for medical purposes and does not want or need the heavy hand of
state Attorney General Dan Lungren to enforce his puritanical anti-drug
notions that defy common sense.
Nonetheless, Lungren on Sunday dispatched state drug enforcement agents for
a high-profile bust of the Market Street pot emporium. The attorney
general's critics accuse him of making political hay by demonstrating his
tough anti-drug stance at the expense of some 11,000 club members.
The issue is not about recreational drug use. The pot club was a place where
sick people, without an illegal drug connection, were able to purchase the
weed that they say provides relief from the agonies of cancer, AIDS and many
other diseases.
It is a pity that Lungren cannot mind his own business, and let San
Francisco handle the local use of marijuana as medicine.
------------------------
Raid on Pot Club Reignites Fight
Medical use -- again a burning issue
David Tuller, Chronicle Staff Writer
PAGE ONE
-- A raid on the nation's largest public marijuana outlet has resulted in a
dispute between the attorney general's office and S.F. officials
The debate over medical uses of marijuana has been simmering for years. To
advocates, the question is one of compassion for people with AIDS, cancer
and other life- threatening diseases. To opponents, the idea represents a
dangerous first step down the road toward full-scale legalization. Sunday's
raid of San Francisco's Cannabis Buyers' Club, which provides marijuana to
people with serious illnesses, brings the issue to the forefront once again.
In the past, Governor Pete Wilson has vetoed legislation that would have
allowed such use. In November, a ballot initiative will give Californians
the opportunity to render their own verdict on the issue. The federal
government classifies marijuana as a Schedule I drug -- the most stringent
classification. Schedule I drugs are those believed to have a high potential
for abuse and to lack acceptable medical uses. By contrast, cocaine, which
can be legally used for some medical purposes, is a Schedule II drug. The
debate attained a higher profile last year when the Journal of the American
Medical Association published ``a plea for reconsideration'' by two Harvard
professors who are well-known proponents of the medical use of marijuana. In
the article, psychiatrist Lester Grinspoon and lawyer James Bakalar noted
that the drug was widely recommended in the 19th century as ``an appetite
stimulant, muscle relaxant, analgesic, hypnotic and anti-convulsant.'' They
and other proponents argue that it can be among the most effective
treatments for the wasting syndrome common among people with AIDS, nausea
induced by treatments for AIDS and cancer, and ocular pressure associated
with glaucoma. People with epilepsy and multiple sclerosis also say
marijuana can relieve their symptoms. Opponents counter that THC, the most
active ingredient in marijuana, is already available as an oral medication
through a doctor's prescription. They also say that studies have not proven
that smoking marijuana is an effective treatment for pain, nausea or any
other symptoms associated with major illnesses. ``Most of the arguments are
anecdotal rather than scientific -- people saying, `I took it, and I felt
better,' '' said Herbert Kleber, medical director of the Center on Addiction
and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. ``I have certainly not seen any
compelling reason why you would need to smoke it as opposed to taking the
existing oral formulation or other medications that are available.''
Advocates of medical use say that it can be difficult for people suffering
from nausea to ingest and keep down the oral THC medication. Moreover, they
say smoking the drug makes it easier for people to adjust the dose to their
needs. And while they acknowledge that more studies would be helpful, they
blame the government for blocking avenues of research because of its staunch
opposition to legalization. ``It is true that we do not have studies
controlled according to the standards required by the FDA -- chiefly because
legal, bureaucratic and financial obstacles are constantly put in the way,''
wrote Grinspoon and Bakalar in their JAMA commentary.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: mregen@ix.netcom.com
Received: from dfw-ix4.ix.netcom.com (dfw-ix4.ix.netcom.com [206.214.98.4])
by desiree.teleport.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id SAA27604;
Thu, 8 Aug 1996 18:28:56 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from (mregen@sjx-ca31-19.ix.netcom.com [204.31.235.211])
by dfw-ix4.ix.netcom.com (8.6.13/8.6.12) with SMTP id SAA14607;
Thu, 8 Aug 1996 18:21:15 -0700
Date: Thu, 8 Aug 1996 18:21:15 -0700
Message-Id: <199608090121.SAA14607@dfw-ix4.ix.netcom.com>
From: mregen@ix.netcom.com (Marnie Regen)
Subject: CBC: the narcs speak out
X-UIDL: c3a47dc6bc0c218271d3424daebc372e
Friends-
An unidentified narcotics officer was interviewed on KGO (SF ABC
affiliate) tonight, after he contacted the station with "revelations"
about the "real reason" behind Sunday's raid. He said they busted the
club not to deny patients medicinal marijuana (yes he called it
medicine) but because of "price gouging" based on the word of a
confidential informant. He said the narcs are getting a "bad rap" for
the raid and are being made to look like the bad guys. They didn't
think it was fair that the club was charging $80 for an 1/8 and they
felt they needed to do something about it (so they figured closing it
down for good was the best option?). What he didn't mention was that
the club sold different strains at different prices, so who knows what
$80 1/8 is, and often gave away more than was sold. They interviewed
Dennis who basically said "let 'em prove it in court!"
The narcs are trying desperately to save face and it's not working.
They know this is not over by any means.
Sincerely,
Marnie Regen
---------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.sltrib.com/96/aug/08/twr/00100235.htm
Thursday, August 8, 1996
CLOSED BY COPS, POT CLUB VOWS TO REOPEN
SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER
SAN FRANCISCO -- A Superior Court judge has put the Cannabis Buyers' Club
out of the medical marijuana sales business, but the political fuss
triggered by a state raid on club operations is just warming up.
And although Judge William Cahill issued a temporary restraining order
Monday prohibiting the sale or storage of marijuana at the club, its
founder, Dennis Peron, was defiant.
``The Cannabis club is never going to go away. What this is about is
12,000 sick and dying people getting medicine,'' he said. ``I'll fight
them in court and I'll win.''
Dozens of agents from the California Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement raided
the club's headquarters and five other Bay Area locations Sunday. They
made no arrests but seized more than 150 pounds of marijuana valued at
about $750,000, some 400 growing plants and $60,000 in cash.
Since 1991, the club has been openly
selling marijuana to people with AIDS, chronic fatigue syndrome,
rheumatism and other diseases. Marijuana is said to relieve some of the
adverse side effects of those diseases.
Though some activists talked of continuing to sell marijuana at the Market
Street headquarters, Peron said, ``We'll let this play out in the
courts.''
1996, The Salt Lake Tribune
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: mregen@ix.netcom.com
Received: from dfw-ix11.ix.netcom.com (dfw-ix11.ix.netcom.com [206.214.98.11])
by desiree.teleport.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id IAA12197
for ; Fri, 9 Aug 1996 08:05:12 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from (mregen@sjx-ca40-25.ix.netcom.com [205.187.203.121])
by dfw-ix11.ix.netcom.com (8.6.13/8.6.12) with SMTP id HAA04327;
Fri, 9 Aug 1996 07:59:54 -0700
Date: Fri, 9 Aug 1996 07:59:54 -0700
Message-Id: <199608091459.HAA04327@dfw-ix11.ix.netcom.com>
From: mregen@ix.netcom.com (Marnie Regen)
Subject: CA doctors support Prop 215
X-UIDL: aec33794e3631df36ac7c7313a5ae1a7
Bcc'd to DRC list
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- The San Francisco Medical Society
endorsed a controversial ballot initiative Thursday to legalize
marijuana for medical uses.
The group, which represents about 2,200 doctors in San Francisco,
announced its support for Proposition 215 just four days after state
law enforcement closed down San Francisco's Cannabis Buyer's Club,
which provided marijuana to people with AIDS, cancer and other
diseases.
Additionally, the California Academy of Family Physicians,
representing about 7,500 doctors, joined the society in its endorsement
Wednesday.
The initiative would allow doctors to prescribe marijuana and
enable patients to pick it up at the drug store along with other legal
medicines.
However, Gov. Pete Wilson and California Attorney General Dan
Lungren oppose the initiative because they believe it would make it
easier for healthy people to obtain and abuse marijuana.
San Francisco Medical Society President Dr. Toni J. Brayer said
the society based its decision on the results of an opinion poll of
doctors who treat AIDS and cancer patients as well as drug addicts.
The doctors surveyed reportedly told the society that they
believed legalizing marijuana was a good idea because it was a useful
drug for some patients despite the moderate risk of addiction.
``This initiative is an important one...it will protect our
patients, '' Brayer said. ``What we want to do as physicians is to
relieve pain and suffering.''
Since marijuana is an illegal drug in the United States, doctors
have not been able to legally prescribe or scientifically test it, but
sick people who have used the drug testify that it restores their
appetite.
The society is also urging clinical testing of the drug, so that
scientific data may be generated on its effectiveness in treating sick
people.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: mregen@ix.netcom.com
Received: from dfw-ix2.ix.netcom.com (dfw-ix2.ix.netcom.com [206.214.98.2])
by desiree.teleport.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id LAA04710;
Fri, 9 Aug 1996 11:36:44 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from (mregen@sjx-ca74-10.ix.netcom.com [207.93.129.138])
by dfw-ix2.ix.netcom.com (8.6.13/8.6.12) with SMTP id LAA15769;
Fri, 9 Aug 1996 11:29:56 -0700
Date: Fri, 9 Aug 1996 11:29:56 -0700
Message-Id: <199608091829.LAA15769@dfw-ix2.ix.netcom.com>
From: mregen@ix.netcom.com (Marnie Regen)
Subject: Other CBC's get positive coverage
X-UIDL: 3aaffde7a1d504245352e2b5a6a00b6a
Bcc'd to DRC list
San Jose Mercury News
August 9, 1996
Medicinal pot clients left in lurch
Oakland, Santa Cruz clubs try to fill void
Three days after the state shut down San Francisco's Cannabis
Buyer's Club, many of its clients are flocking to similar marijuana
emporiums in Oakland and Santa Cruz that provide marijuana to sick
people.
Membership in the Oakland club has jumped nearly 50 percent since
Monday, when a judge granted a request by state Attorney General Dan
Lungren's office to shut down the larger San Francisco club.
The club in Santa Cruz had such "an influx from San Francisco" that
officials said it had to cut the amount of pot regular patients could
buy.
Many of the AIDS and cancer patients visiting the Oakland club are
East Bay residents who had been crossing the Bay Bridge because they
didn't know the Oakland emporium had opened last month.
"Before this happened, I didn't know there was an Oakland club,"
said Mark, 34, a Kaposi's sarcoma patient from Oakland who did not want
his last name used. "This is great. I mean you can't smoke here like
you could in San Francisco, but they have longer hours.
"I live so close here, I can walk from home."
Fremont AIDS patient John A. Dodge, 29, who bought a quarter-ounce
of the Hayward Hemp and Fat Man blends Thursday morning, said he was
"blown away" over the closing of the San Francisco club.
"I just hope nothing happens to this one," he said.
Lungren spokesman Steve Telliano said he could not comment on
whether someone "might or might not be investigated."
State narcotics agents raided the San Francisco club Sunday,
seizing client records and computers in a two-year investigation aimed
at showing the club was really a large-scale marijuana ring.
"We did it because they were selling to adults without medical
excuses and to children," Telliano said.
Critics of the Republican attorney general claim the move was
carefully timed to precede the upcoming GOP convention in San Diego.
Lungren opposes a statewide initiative on the November ballot, written
by San Francisco Cannabis Club leader Dennis Peron, that would legalize
marijuana for medicinal purposes.
San Francisco County Sherrif Mike Hennessey, meanwhile, is refusing
to enforce the court order, and Mayor Willie Brown is calling for a
medical state of emergency, that same power that allows the
distribution of sterile syringes.
The Santa Cruz and Oakland clubs have relatively small supplies of
the pungent weed that provides relief to patients suffering from severe
nausea and other discomforts of cancer, acquired immune dificiency
syndrome, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis and other serious illnesses.
"We'll completely be exhausted (of marijuana) with 100 to 150 new
members within the next week unless out supply side goes up," said Jeff
Jones, co-director of the Oakland club. The club's membership shot up
this week from about 200 to nearly 300 by Thursday.
The Oakland buyers' club operates out of a small downtown office
that opened on July 4.
Prospective members must provide a doctor's verification of a
medical problem that might be relieved by marijuana.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: mregen@ix.netcom.com
Received: from dfw-ix11.ix.netcom.com (dfw-ix11.ix.netcom.com [206.214.98.11])
by desiree.teleport.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id MAA23124;
Fri, 9 Aug 1996 12:11:36 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from (mregen@sjx-ca55-24.ix.netcom.com [206.214.106.120])
by dfw-ix11.ix.netcom.com (8.6.13/8.6.12) with SMTP id MAA18205;
Fri, 9 Aug 1996 12:05:36 -0700
Date: Fri, 9 Aug 1996 12:05:36 -0700
Message-Id: <199608091905.MAA18205@dfw-ix11.ix.netcom.com>
From: mregen@ix.netcom.com (Marnie Regen)
Subject: Why sick seek marijuana as medicine
X-UIDL: 66eef5e1b410e4c869065c37d9befef5
Bcc'd to DRC list
EDITORIAL
San Jose Mercury News
August 9, 1996
Why sick seek marijuana as medicine
by Loretta Green
lgreen@sjmercury.com
There are days when Karen Thompson's 15-year old son is so sick
from chemotherapy he is on his knees with his head on the open toilet.
Then he takes two puffs from a marijuana cigarette and relief is almost
immediate.
Two puffs and he can operate normally - go to school, hold down a
job, have friends.
But marijuana is illegal and state Proposition 215, which will give
voters a chance November 5 to approve its use and cultivation for
medicinal purposes, is in disfavor in some camps.
One can only wonder what these protesters would say if they saw
young Thompson and others who are trying to have a life without
continuous suffering. How would they feel about their child vomiting
40 and 50 times, as Thompson says her son has done on his worst days?
How silly it is to deny a puff of this drug as medicine.
During the past year and a half, the San Jose parents have risked
everything - their professions, their reputations, their freedom - to
purchase marijuana form the Cannabis Buyers' Club to give their son
relief from the ravages of his treatment for Crohn's disease.
Now state agents have raided the San Francisco club and taken the
marijuana.
Thompson is worried. Their son (she has requested that his name
not be used) suffers an especially vicious form of Crohn's.
Chemotherapy, which causes him severe nausea, is the treatment for
his form of the incurable intestinal disease. Along with the diarrhea,
cramping and severe pain that Crohn's patients suffer, young Thompson
has had pancreatitis and has sometimes been near death, his mother
said.
Her decision to permit his use of the drug caused soul-searching on
the part of the couple, married 20 years. Her husband, an employee at a
computer company, and Karen, a diagnostic imaging and radiology
supervisor at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, say they are not drug
users.
And she has never seen their son "stoned", she said.
Thompson is convinced that she is not doing something wrong - it is
the law that is wrong.
She describes the club's founder Dennis Peron as a man who has
risked everything, too.
"He is a warm, compassionate, soft-hearted human being. I don't
know what we would have done without him. I think our family would
have been destroyed."
They turned to marijuana as a last resort, because prescription
drugs for nausea did not work, she said. They tried many, including a
synthesized prescription derivative of marijuana that costs $180 for 50
pills.
Further, it is impossible to swallow and keep down a pill when
vomiting repeatedly and prescription nausea drugs wipe her son out, so
he is unable to function.
Even with marijuana, life is not simple for him. He has run from
the classroom and vomitted in the bushes, and been suspended for
sneaking a couple of puffs to control the nausea. Karen Thompson says
she understands that the school must have rules, but if the proposition
passed, he could go to the nurse's office for a medicinal puff.
She worries about the effects of marijuana on her son's body, yet
"legal" Prednisone depleted 47 percent of his bone mass.
What is left for the couple now is the street, she says. The club
was a clean, safe environment, with strict admission rules. It was
full of sick people trying to do the very best they could.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: aal01@teleport.com
Received: from kelly.teleport.com (aal01@kelly.teleport.com [192.108.254.10])
by desiree.teleport.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id MAA27697;
Fri, 9 Aug 1996 12:20:24 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from localhost (aal01@localhost) by kelly.teleport.com (8.7.5/8.7.3)
with SMTP id MAA19965; Fri, 9 Aug 1996 12:20:21 -0700 (PDT)
X-Authentication-Warning: kelly.teleport.com: aal01 owned process doing -bs
Date: Fri, 9 Aug 1996 12:20:21 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Anti-Prohibition Lg."
To: Floyd Ferris Landrath
cc: hemp@efn.org, nwlibertarians@teleport.com
Subject: SF CBC Buste Update (fwd)
Message-ID:
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
X-UIDL: c69d9d2fd8c47530d26a7d69ffb6d03c
Please excuse any duplication:
AMERICAN ANTI-PROHIBITION LEAGUE 3125 SE Belmont Street
Floyd Ferris Landrath - Director Portland, Oregon 97214
AAL01@teleport.com 503-235-4524
"Drug War, or Drug Peace?"
SAN FRANCISCO'S CANNABIS BUYERS CLUB - 8/9/96 UPDATE
by David Borden
What follows is the story behind the raid of the San Francisco
Cannabis Buyers' Club. What originally looked like very bad news
for the California medical marijuana movement, now appears to
have benefited the movement and backfired on the Narcs!
Large protests were held in San Francisco that received lots of
positive media coverage. Virtually all San Francisco city leaders
have CONDEMNED the raid. The press coverage overall has been VERY
SUPPORTIVE of the Cannabis Buyers' Club! It seems that either
nobody is buying the "marijuana ring" story reported by the Narcs,
or nobody really cares that the club sold some cannabis for
recreational use.
BACKGROUND
----------
At 7:30 AM, Sunday, August 4, 1996 approximately 100 officers from the
California Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement RAIDED the San Francisco
Cannabis Buyers' Club and the homes of 5 CBC employees. This raid was
initiated by California Attorney General Dan Lungren, who is the
co-chairman of the organization that opposes Proposition 215. (Prop.
215 is the California initiative that will appear on the November
ballot that will legalize the possession, use, and cultivation of
medical marijuana for people with a physician's recommendation.)
After the raid, the Narcs called 2 press conferences--one Sunday,
another Monday. They produced videotapes of activities at the
club showing...
* An Narc purchasing 1 to 2 pounds of cannabis from club founder
Dennis Peron.
* A 15-year-old who purchased and smoked cannabis at the club.
(The kid had no medical condition.)
* Several children (under 10 years old) in the club supposedly
being exposed to marijuana smoke. (These kids were waiting
for their parents to purchase medicine.)
The Narcs claim that the CBC was run soley for profit and was
using sick people as a front for a Bay Area "marijuana ring"--a
PREPOSTEROUS claim! The Narcs put a spin on this story that made
the San Francisco CBC look like bunch of "evil drug dealers."
That's the bad news. The good news is that few are buying it!
Here is what people are saying about the SF CBC raid.
* San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan and San Francisco
Mayor Willie Brown have CONDEMNED the raid and are OUTRAGED
that they were not notified of it in advance. They have also
clearly indicated that they had no problem with the CBC's operation
and had no intention of closing it down. Both the SF Mayor and
district attorney SUPPORT what the CBC was doing.
* 20 state legislators held a news conference on the steps of the
state capitol CONDEMNING the raid. They signed a letter that has
been sent to U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno calling for an
investigation into the raid.
* Newspaper reports of the raid have been VERY SYMPATHETIC to the
Cannabis Buyers' Club and the plight of its members.
* Newspaper editorials and letters to the editor have all CONDEMNED
the raid and PRAISED the Cannabis Buyers' Club!
* Almost all local radio talk show hosts and callers have CONDEMNED
the raid and PRAISED the Cannabis Buyers' Club!
* San Francisco Sheriff Mike Hennesey has REJECTED a request from
the state attorney general's office to enforce a temporary
restraining order forbidding the sale of marijuana at the CBC!!! :)
Sheriff Hennesey wrote the following to Attorney General Dan
Lungren:
"I do not wish to spend precious law enforcement dollars busting
people engaging in distributing marijuana for medicinal purposes."
"If the attorney general wishes to assist local law enforcement,
why not assist in arresting tens of thousands of state parolees
who have outstanding arrest warrants? Why not assign Department
of Justice personnel to help solve the thousands of unsolved
murders in the state?" "Heck, the attorney general would even
provide a better form of public protection if he would help local
law enforcement arrest some of the ten thousand drunk drivers
that are on the highways every minute of the day in California."
I also heard Sheriff Hennesey on KGO radio state (not an exact
quote): "If Attorney General Dan Lungren wants to help San
Francisco, he should supply guards for the city's crosswalks
because 28 pedestrians were killed last year in San Francisco,
but marijuana has never killed anyone!"
* To top it off, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors has passed
a resolution proclaiming a "MEDICAL STATE OF EMERGENCY" in San
Francisco because of the CBC shut down!!! This resolution STRONGLY
CONDEMNS the closing of the CBC and STRONGLY SUPPORTS the reopening
of the CBC!!! On August 15, the SF Board of Supervisors will try
to convince the San Francisco Dept. of Public Health and the city
attorney to approve this "MEDICAL STATE OF EMERGENCY", thus allowing
the CBC to reopen in DEFIANCE of state wishes!
As things now look, the CBC raid has BACKFIRED and the community
of San Francisco is on the verge of launching a large wad of
spit in Dan Lungren's face!!! :) With such strong local support
for the CBC and willingness to defy state law, I believe there is
a very good chance that CBC will be back in business.
The text of the "MEDICAL STATE OF EMERGENCY" resolution is available
from the SF CBC Web cite at:
http://www.marijuana.org/press/8-6-96.html
The SF CBC's Home Page is at:
http://www.marijuana.org
Tornado++
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: owner-hemp-talk@blueberry.hemp.net
Received: from blueberry.hemp.net (blueberry.hemp.net [199.238.225.65])
by desiree.teleport.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id OAA23261
for ; Fri, 9 Aug 1996 14:08:49 -0700 (PDT)
Received: (from majordom@localhost) by blueberry.hemp.net (8.7.1/8.7.1)
id NAA10169 for hemp-talk-outgoing; Fri, 9 Aug 1996 13:56:26 -0700
X-Authentication-Warning: blueberry.hemp.net: majordom set sender
to owner-hemp-talk using -f
Received: from mail.eskimo.com (mail.eskimo.com [204.122.16.4])
by blueberry.hemp.net (8.7.1/8.7.1) with ESMTP id NAA10165
for ; Fri, 9 Aug 1996 13:56:22 -0700
Received: from eskimo.com (dhall@eskimo.com [204.122.16.13])
by mail.eskimo.com (8.7.3/8.6.12) with SMTP id NAA08935
for ; Fri, 9 Aug 1996 13:56:17 -0700 (PDT)
Date: Fri, 9 Aug 1996 13:55:36 -0700 (PDT)
From: Dave Hall
To: Talk List All
Subject: Update of SF CBC (fwd)
Message-ID:
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net
Precedence: bulk
X-UIDL: f55550a4bdbe953c721d64f7fdc4ddaa
Dave Hall, Washington Hemp Education Network
"W.H.E.N. educated people know."
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 8 Aug 1996 23:08:27 -0700
From: Tom O'Connell
To: adbryan@onramp.net
Subject: Update of SF CBC
List bt Bcc:
Things are taking some political shape in SF in the wake of the CBC bust. I
listened to a one hour call-in show this AM, aired by the local public
radio station. On the friendly side were Dennis Peron, founder of CBC and
recent ex president who is now in charge of prop 215, SF DA Terry Hallinan
and Steve Heilig, public affairs officer for the SF Medical Society. The
unfriendlies were Steve Telliano, spokesperson for the state AG's office,
Brad Gates, Orange Co. Sheriff and chairman of anti 215 comm, and an LA
"addiction MD" named Michael Myers. The moderator was Michael Krasny, very
good at his job.
Trying to be objective, I would still have to say that the pro 215 side did
extremely well. Peron defended the alleged lapses in club procedure quite
well. There was agreement by all that marijuana provides symptomatic relief
to patients. The spokesperson for the Medical Society was very articulate
and quite effective, especially since he volunteered that the Society's
endorsement was not given lightly. He had personally verified that a
majority of oncologists and physicians treating AIDs were strong advocates,
and there were no reasonable substitutes for MJ. His comments were potent
because he confessed personal misgivings about the use of recreational MJ.
Hallinan blustered a lot, but was the least effective, saying only that the
SF DA's office didn't appreciate the state coming in to conduct a Sunday
raid without notice.
Telliano is glib, but was handicapped by the ridiculous story he is stuck
with. He denied that Lungren had any political axe to grind. Apparrently,
narcs from the SFPD who wanted to bust the club went to Arlo Smith, former
DA (Hallinan's predecessor). They were told to forget it. They went to the
DEA which carried out a long investigation, but the US Atty for SF also
refused to take the case . The state wasn't called in until May '96. Of
most interest at present is question of who will bring charges, if any.
Telliano is still claiming some persons will be charged after evidence is
"sifted," but it sounds pretty empty.
Brad Gates seems clueless to me. He, of course wouldn't object to medical
MJ if it received a clean bill from FDA, but otherwise, it's "against the
law." Their biggest argument is contention that medical mj is an end run to
recreational pot. They have no reasonable counter to the question of how to
deal with reality that Mj relieves symptoms of real patients. The MD, Myers
was a cypher. The thrust of his argument was that the iniative is too
loosely worded and didn't specify what kind of doctors.
The call ins were overwhelmingly pro CBC and prop 215. No supporters for
state position. I think the raid, so far, has proved a disaster for the
opposition, and has provided the initiative with a good start. The
direction is clear. THE MOST EFFECTIVE ARGUMENTS ARE ABOUT REAL PATIENTS
WHO RECEIVE REAL BENEFIT FROM MJ. Don't stray into other issues. Always
return to the patient. Imitate prohibitionists when they ask "But what
about the children?"
Tom O'Connell
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: owner-hemp-talk@blueberry.hemp.net
Received: from blueberry.hemp.net (blueberry.hemp.net [199.238.225.65])
by desiree.teleport.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id OAA26717
for ; Fri, 9 Aug 1996 14:16:35 -0700 (PDT)
Received: (from majordom@localhost) by blueberry.hemp.net (8.7.1/8.7.1)
id OAA10212 for hemp-talk-outgoing; Fri, 9 Aug 1996 14:04:20 -0700
X-Authentication-Warning: blueberry.hemp.net: majordom
set sender to owner-hemp-talk using -f
Received: from mail.eskimo.com (mail.eskimo.com [204.122.16.4])
by blueberry.hemp.net (8.7.1/8.7.1) with ESMTP id OAA10208
for ; Fri, 9 Aug 1996 14:04:16 -0700
Received: from eskimo.com (dhall@eskimo.com [204.122.16.13])
by mail.eskimo.com (8.7.3/8.6.12) with SMTP id OAA10635
for ; Fri, 9 Aug 1996 14:04:16 -0700 (PDT)
Date: Fri, 9 Aug 1996 14:04:10 -0700 (PDT)
From: Dave Hall
To: Talk List All
Subject: Re: coverage of CBC bust (fwd)
Message-ID:
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net
Precedence: bulk
X-UIDL: 2aca5bf73212371e592e584b74f23afc
Here's another account of the latest in SF from a local.
Dave Hall, Washington Hemp Education Network
"W.H.E.N. educated people know."
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: tornado@best.com
Subject: Buyers' Club Bust--OUTRAGE Builds!
Date: Thu, 08 Aug 1996 23:12:21 -0700
What follows is the story behind the raid of the San Francisco
Cannabis Buyers' Club. What originally looked like very bad news
for the California medical marijuana movement, now appears to
have benefited the movement and backfired on the Narcs!
Large protests were held in San Francisco that received lots of
positive media coverage. Virtually all San Francisco city leaders
have CONDEMNED the raid. The press coverage overall has been VERY
SUPPORTIVE of the Cannabis Buyers' Club! It seems that either
nobody is buying the "marijuana ring" story reported by the Narcs,
or nobody really cares that the club sold some cannabis for
recreational use.
BACKGROUND
----------
At 7:30 AM, Sunday, August 4, 1996 approximately 100 officers from the
California Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement RAIDED the San Francisco
Cannabis Buyers' Club and the homes of 5 CBC employees. This raid was
initiated by California Attorney General Dan Lungren, who is the
co-chairman of the organization that opposes Proposition 215. (Prop.
215 is the California initiative that will appear on the November
ballot that will legalize the possession, use, and cultivation of
medical marijuana for people with a physician's recommendation.)
After the raid, the Narcs called 2 press conferences--one Sunday,
another Monday. They produced videotapes of activities at the
club showing...
* An Narc purchasing 1 to 2 pounds of cannabis from club founder
Dennis Peron.
* A 15-year-old who purchased and smoked cannabis at the club.
(The kid had no medical condition.)
* Several children (under 10 years old) in the club supposedly
being exposed to marijuana smoke. (These kids were waiting
for their parents to purchase medicine.)
The Narcs claim that the CBC was run soley for profit and was
using sick people as a front for a Bay Area "marijuana ring"--a
PREPOSTEROUS claim! The Narcs put a spin on this story that made
the San Francisco CBC look like bunch of "evil drug dealers."
That's the bad news. The good news is that few are buying it!
Here is what people are saying about the SF CBC raid.
* San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan and San Francisco
Mayor Willie Brown have CONDEMNED the raid and are OUTRAGED
that they were not notified of it in advance. They have also
clearly indicated that they had no problem with the CBC's operation
and had no intention of closing it down. Both the SF Mayor and
district attorney SUPPORT what the CBC was doing.
* 20 state legislators held a news conference on the steps of the
state capitol CONDEMNING the raid. They signed a letter that has
been sent to U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno calling for an
investigation into the raid.
* Newspaper reports of the raid have been VERY SYMPATHETIC to the
Cannabis Buyers' Club and the plight of its members.
* Newspaper editorials and letters to the editor have all CONDEMNED
the raid and PRAISED the Cannabis Buyers' Club!
* Almost all local radio talk show hosts and callers have CONDEMNED
the raid and PRAISED the Cannabis Buyers' Club!
* San Francisco Sheriff Mike Hennesey has REJECTED a request from
the state attorney general's office to enforce a temporary
restraining order forbidding the sale of marijuana at the CBC!!! :)
Sheriff Hennesey wrote the following to Attorney General Dan
Lungren:
"I do not wish to spend precious law enforcement dollars busting
people engaging in distributing marijuana for medicinal purposes."
"If the attorney general wishes to assist local law enforcement,
why not assist in arresting tens of thousands of state parolees
who have outstanding arrest warrants? Why not assign Department
of Justice personnel to help solve the thousands of unsolved
murders in the state?" "Heck, the attorney general would even
provide a better form of public protection if he would help local
law enforcement arrest some of the ten thousand drunk drivers
that are on the highways every minute of the day in California."
I also heard Sheriff Hennesey on KGO radio state (not an exact
quote): "If Attorney General Dan Lungren wants to help San
Francisco, he should supply guards for the city's crosswalks
because 28 pedestrians were killed last year in San Francisco,
but marijuana has never killed anyone!"
* To top it off, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors has passed
a resolution proclaiming a "MEDICAL STATE OF EMERGENCY" in San
Francisco because of the CBC shut down!!! This resolution STRONGLY
CONDEMNS the closing of the CBC and STRONGLY SUPPORTS the reopening
of the CBC!!! On August 15, the SF Board of Supervisors will try
to convince the San Francisco Dept. of Public Health and the city
attorney to approve this "MEDICAL STATE OF EMERGENCY", thus allowing
the CBC to reopen in DEFIANCE of state wishes!
As things now look, the CBC raid has BACKFIRED and the community
of San Francisco is on the verge of launching a large wad of
spit in Dan Lungren's face!!! :) With such strong local support
for the CBC and willingness to defy state law, I believe there is
a very good chance that CBC will be back in business.
The text of the "MEDICAL STATE OF EMERGENCY" resolution is available
from the SF CBC Web cite at:
http://www.marijuana.org/press/8-6-96.html
The SF CBC's Home Page is at:
http://www.marijuana.org
Tornado++
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: owner-hemp-talk@blueberry.hemp.net
Received: from blueberry.hemp.net (blueberry.hemp.net [199.238.225.65])
by desiree.teleport.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id OAA28384
for ; Fri, 9 Aug 1996 14:19:51 -0700 (PDT)
Received: (from majordom@localhost) by blueberry.hemp.net (8.7.1/8.7.1)
id OAA10240 for hemp-talk-outgoing; Fri, 9 Aug 1996 14:07:06 -0700
X-Authentication-Warning: blueberry.hemp.net: majordom
set sender to owner-hemp-talk using -f
Received: from mail.eskimo.com (mail.eskimo.com [204.122.16.4])
by blueberry.hemp.net (8.7.1/8.7.1) with ESMTP id OAA10236
for ; Fri, 9 Aug 1996 14:07:03 -0700
Received: from eskimo.com (dhall@eskimo.com [204.122.16.13])
by mail.eskimo.com (8.7.3/8.6.12) with SMTP id OAA11186
for ; Fri, 9 Aug 1996 14:07:02 -0700 (PDT)
Date: Fri, 9 Aug 1996 14:06:45 -0700 (PDT)
From: Dave Hall
To: Talk List All
Subject: Why sick seek marijuana as medicine (fwd)
Message-ID:
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net
Precedence: bulk
X-UIDL: 57bd8289f7c312af2f6ccb24bb25dba2
Dave Hall, Washington Hemp Education Network
"W.H.E.N. educated people know."
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 9 Aug 1996 12:05:36 -0700
From: Marnie Regen
Subject: Why sick seek marijuana as medicine
Bcc'd to DRC list
EDITORIAL
San Jose Mercury News
August 9, 1996
Why sick seek marijuana as medicine
by Loretta Green
lgreen@sjmercury.com
There are days when Karen Thompson's 15-year old son is so sick
from chemotherapy he is on his knees with his head on the open toilet.
Then he takes two puffs from a marijuana cigarette and relief is almost
immediate.
Two puffs and he can operate normally - go to school, hold down a
job, have friends.
But marijuana is illegal and state Proposition 215, which will give
voters a chance November 5 to approve its use and cultivation for
medicinal purposes, is in disfavor in some camps.
One can only wonder what these protesters would say if they saw
young Thompson and others who are trying to have a life without
continuous suffering. How would they feel about their child vomiting
40 and 50 times, as Thompson says her son has done on his worst days?
How silly it is to deny a puff of this drug as medicine.
During the past year and a half, the San Jose parents have risked
everything - their professions, their reputations, their freedom - to
purchase marijuana form the Cannabis Buyers' Club to give their son
relief from the ravages of his treatment for Crohn's disease.
Now state agents have raided the San Francisco club and taken the
marijuana.
Thompson is worried. Their son (she has requested that his name
not be used) suffers an especially vicious form of Crohn's.
Chemotherapy, which causes him severe nausea, is the treatment for
his form of the incurable intestinal disease. Along with the diarrhea,
cramping and severe pain that Crohn's patients suffer, young Thompson
has had pancreatitis and has sometimes been near death, his mother
said.
Her decision to permit his use of the drug caused soul-searching on
the part of the couple, married 20 years. Her husband, an employee at a
computer company, and Karen, a diagnostic imaging and radiology
supervisor at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, say they are not drug
users.
And she has never seen their son "stoned", she said.
Thompson is convinced that she is not doing something wrong - it is
the law that is wrong.
She describes the club's founder Dennis Peron as a man who has
risked everything, too.
"He is a warm, compassionate, soft-hearted human being. I don't
know what we would have done without him. I think our family would
have been destroyed."
They turned to marijuana as a last resort, because prescription
drugs for nausea did not work, she said. They tried many, including a
synthesized prescription derivative of marijuana that costs $180 for 50
pills.
Further, it is impossible to swallow and keep down a pill when
vomiting repeatedly and prescription nausea drugs wipe her son out, so
he is unable to function.
Even with marijuana, life is not simple for him. He has run from
the classroom and vomitted in the bushes, and been suspended for
sneaking a couple of puffs to control the nausea. Karen Thompson says
she understands that the school must have rules, but if the proposition
passed, he could go to the nurse's office for a medicinal puff.
She worries about the effects of marijuana on her son's body, yet
"legal" Prednisone depleted 47 percent of his bone mass.
What is left for the couple now is the street, she says. The club
was a clean, safe environment, with strict admission rules. It was
full of sick people trying to do the very best they could.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: owner-hemp-talk@blueberry.hemp.net
Received: from blueberry.hemp.net (blueberry.hemp.net [199.238.225.65])
by desiree.teleport.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id OAA10671
for ; Fri, 9 Aug 1996 14:44:36 -0700 (PDT)
Received: (from majordom@localhost) by blueberry.hemp.net (8.7.1/8.7.1)
id NAA10068 for hemp-talk-outgoing; Fri, 9 Aug 1996 13:29:16 -0700
X-Authentication-Warning: blueberry.hemp.net: majordom
set sender to owner-hemp-talk using -f
Received: from animal.blarg.net (animal.blarg.net [206.114.144.1])
by blueberry.hemp.net (8.7.1/8.7.1) with ESMTP id NAA10064
for ; Fri, 9 Aug 1996 13:29:13 -0700
Received: from localhost (turmoil@localhost) by animal.blarg.net (8.7.1/8.7.1)
with SMTP id NAA03586; Fri, 9 Aug 1996 13:28:23 -0700
Date: Fri, 9 Aug 1996 13:28:23 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Turmoil's Seattle Music Web"
Reply-To: "Turmoil's Seattle Music Web"
To: Dave Hall
cc: Talk List All
Subject: Re: Everyone's against the bust!!
In-Reply-To:
Message-ID:
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net
Precedence: bulk
X-UIDL: 447cdd5af6ac3794934bfbd9fd239c79
Yeah they are! Front Page of Today's Examiner web page
http://www.examiner.com has a photo of an AIDS patient in a wheel chair
buying pot on the street. This is a powerful image that makes our case
clear and poigently. The Compassionate Use Act couldn't have bought
better advertising. Also there was this letter in the examiner on the 6th
from a member of the club. I don't recal seeing this here before, I hope
I'm not duplicating, but I think it's pretty powerful...
-------------
What the pot raid means to a cancer patient
JO DALY
SAN FRANCISCO ACTIVIST
A TERRORIST "is one who favors or uses terror-inspiring methods of
governing, of coercing government or community." So says the Concise
Oxford Dictionary.
And what better defines the purpose of state storm troopers taking a
battering ram to the front door of a private club, which also happens to
serve as the local headquarters of Proposition 215, a statewide initiative
on the November ballot?
Brandishing automatic weaponry, threatening the lives of peaceful, unarmed
citizens, these heavily armed state narcotics troops stormed into the club
offices and confiscated membership records and campaign materials while
trashing the place for five hours.
I call that kind of behavior terrifying.
I should know. I'm a member of the club.
The files now held by our governor and state attorney general include my
most personal medical records.
I have inoperable, untreatable, terminal cancer. That's how I qualify to
be a member of this club.
Other members have cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy,
spinal injuries, arthritis and glaucoma.
Sounds real attractive, huh?
What brings us together in this peaceful, loving and supportive
environment is a herbal medicine that has been utilized by human beings
for thousands of years.
A 5,000-year history of its use has been documented by anthropological
scholars, and what do you know, not a single, solitary human being has
died using this herb.
If you haven't guessed by now, it's marijuana, and federal laws prohibit
its therapeutic availability.
So strong is public opposition to medical prohibition that more than
700,000 California voters signed petitions in order to get Prop. 215 on
ballot. The law would exempt from prosecution doctors who prescribe
marijuana and patients or caregivers who cultivate or possess marijuana
for medical purposes.
Why did more than 700,000 registered voters have to muster the courage to
put their names on a public document that to many may seem a retreat from
the ever-popular War on Drugs?
Because from personal experience they know that marijuana has proved to be
good medicine.
And because that same governor, behind that battering ram, smashing down
the doors on a quiet Sunday morning, has vetoed the same legislation each
time our state representatives have passed it and put it on his desk.
We Californians take measurable pride in being on the cutting edge of
societal change, but that is certainly not the case this time, with 35
other states having approved similar legislation. And they did so by
overwhelming margins.
Remember Measure P in 1991? By 79.5 percent, San Francisco voters approved
the medical use of marijuana. Trust me, a ballot resolution claiming that
our national flag was red, white and blue would not muster that level of
support. In those 35 state legislatures, the approval rate was 87 percent.
Even worse than the battering rams are the untruths spewed by Joe Doane,
chief of the California Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement, who represented
state Attorney General Dan Lungren at a press conference Sunday afternoon.
Frankly, those statements are what have led me to "come out" about this
issue even more publicly than I have before. I believe that people deserve
the truth.
I heard Doane say that THC, "the active ingredient" in marijuana, is
available by prescription for any patient who needs it.
Wrong.
Marinol is a gel capsule of synthetic THC - a plastic rendition of just
one part of this herb. No one even knows if THC, itself, has much to do
with marijuana's medical properties.
All I know is that if Marinol did indeed work, I would not be involved in
this debate. I have a lot of other things to do before I die. Encouraging
others to break laws is way down on my agenda.
You may remember that I served San Francisco as a police commissioner for
six years. In no way have I ever supported the use of harmful drugs. And I
believe that nothing is so potentially harmful to our police officers than
making drug arrests.
But, instead of patients having a specific and safe location where clean,
life-saving herbs are sold, our governor would prefer that we go back to
Dolores Park and hope for the best.
Is there any way that the resulting price increase in the street marijuana
market helps our local law enforcement officers?
Ask Wilson and Lungren.
How has the Cannabis Buyers Club existed for several years without legal
problems before?
It's because no problems have emerged from its operation. No problems at
all.
Until the terrorists struck.
San Francisco's mayors, district attorneys, chiefs of police and sheriff
have been supportive of the club, provided no problems arose.
Doane further justifies his mean-spirited tactics by claiming that some
club members didn't look like they were very sick.
>From personal experience, I can tell you that actually looking good can be
very dangerous for a patient's health. Especially when pulling the car
into a designated handicap space.
Do some people who are not terminally ill manage to purchase marijuana at
the club? I'm sure that has happened.
I am also sure that with the cooperation of our city law enforcement
agencies, steps have been taken to remedy that situation.
While Wilson and Lungren have chosen battering rams and battering lies to
attack the sick and the blind in our city, we deserve to feel immense
pride in the strength of our love and understanding as our strongest
defensive weapons.
St. Francis would be proud.
Examiner contributor Jo Daly, a longtime activist in the gay and lesbian
community, is a former member of the city Police Commission, Board of
Permit Appeals and Human Rights Commission.
turmoil's seattle music web
http://www.blarg.net/~turmoil
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: owner-hemp-talk@blueberry.hemp.net
Received: from blueberry.hemp.net (blueberry.hemp.net [199.238.225.65])
by desiree.teleport.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id LAA08646
for ; Sat, 10 Aug 1996 11:54:28 -0700 (PDT)
Received: (from majordom@localhost) by blueberry.hemp.net (8.7.1/8.7.1)
id LAA10857 for hemp-talk-outgoing; Sat, 10 Aug 1996 11:42:21 -0700
X-Authentication-Warning: blueberry.hemp.net: majordom
set sender to owner-hemp-talk using -f
Received: from animal.blarg.net (animal.blarg.net [206.114.144.1])
by blueberry.hemp.net (8.7.1/8.7.1) with ESMTP id LAA10853
for ; Sat, 10 Aug 1996 11:42:17 -0700
Received: from localhost (turmoil@localhost) by animal.blarg.net (8.7.1/8.7.1)
with SMTP id LAA16342 for ;
Sat, 10 Aug 1996 11:42:17 -0700
Date: Sat, 10 Aug 1996 11:42:17 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Turmoil's Seattle Music Web"
Reply-To: "Turmoil's Seattle Music Web"
To: Talk List All
Subject: One more from the SF Examiner
Message-ID:
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net
Precedence: bulk
X-UIDL: 6d04aedc148801839821aa3059469f7b
Pot patients take to streets
Booted Cannabis Buyers' Club member says
dangerous deals add to his suffering
Julian Guthrie
OF THE EXAMINER STAFF
ROLLING HIS wheelchair down Market Street, a string of
plastic marijuana leaves around his neck, Kevin Deffenbaugh
set out to buy some pot.
"If I don't smoke joints, I can't eat," said Deffenbaugh, a
former dancer who has AIDS.
Deffenbaugh, who is in his 30s, used to buy marijuana at the
Cannabis Buyers' Club, which openly sold the weed to people
who needed it for medicinal purposes. But a state-initiated
raid last weekend closed the club's marijuana store, at least
temporarily, and some of its 11,000 members have started
seeking out street dealers.
"I'm so worried about buying pot on the street that I'm
probably hurting my health," Deffenbaugh said Thursday as
he left the club's Market Street headquarters and headed for
Civic Center plaza.
Under the circumstances, his necklace didn't go unnoticed.
"With CBC closed, you gotta be careful wearing that, man,"
said a young kid with a shaved head. "Everyone's desperate."
At the Civic Center, Deffenbaugh wheeled up to a familiar
dealer, another CBC member known as Naynay, and asked
for a gram of the cheapest Mexican weed.
Several people, most in their late teens, pulled folded zip-lock
baggies out of their pockets and displayed the pot packets like
trading cards.
"One gram is $10," Naynay said. "A half-ounce is $30."
At the cannabis club, members bought the same amounts for
half the price, she said, and the weed was "primo."
Deffenbaugh, who carries pepper spray for protection, said
he hates having to hit the streets.
"A lot of people are going to Dolores Park to buy pot, but it's
too dangerous for me because I'm in a wheelchair," he said.
"You get ripped off, mugged, and at best, you walk away
with a baggie of tea leaves."
Dennis Peron, who founded the club five years ago to
provide marijuana for people suffering with AIDS, cancer and
other life-threatening diseases, was at the club Thursday.
He calmly listened as a kinetic young man screamed at him
for letting this happen and causing the price of pot to go up.
He also thanked those who came to show their support.
Praise, vilification
Since the club was raided Sunday morning by agents from the
California Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, Peron has been
assailed as a drug dealer and hailed as a good Samaritan.
A San Francisco Superior Court judge issued a temporary
restraining order prohibiting the sale or storage of marijuana
at the club. Mayor Brown said he would back a proposal to
declare a state of emergency in The City that would allow the
club to continue selling pot for medicinal purposes. Sheriff
Michael Hennessey says he won't enforce the judge's order
shutting the club.
Sunday's raid on the CBC office, which also serves as the
campaign headquarters for Proposition 215, a statewide
initiative to legalize the sale of marijuana for medicinal
reasons, turned up 150 pounds of marijuana and more than
$60,000 in cash, authorities said.
In simultaneous raids on five Bay Area homes, all with
alleged ties to the buyers' club, 444 pot plants, pot-growing
equipment and financial records were seized.
At Peron's home on Fulton Street, enforcement agents seized
one pound of pot, miscellaneous bits of pot and records
connected with the club.
Undercover buyer
Joe Doane, Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement chief, has
challenged the club's description as a medicinal-use clinic.
"It was as loosely run as anything you can imagine," Doane
said.
He said an undercover officer, wearing a hidden camera,
gained membership by using a bogus note from a doctor,
whose name authorities had made up.
"The officer bought one pound of marijuana for $900 from
Mr. Peron himself," Doane said. "He then went back several
days later and bought two more pounds for $1,800. That
makes 2,700 joints."
Peron said he was duped by the officer.
"This guy told me he was starting a buyers' club up on the
Russian River," Peron shrugged. "I said, "Man, that's a
beautiful thing you're doing for those sick people.' "
Many of the doctors' notes seized as evidence were "pretty
incredible," Doane said. One was written for a woman who
said she suffered from insomnia and lower back pain.
Another read, "My patient suffers from acute vaginal yeast
infection." It was signed, Dr. Ernest Hovarian.
"Take away the H and what do you have?" asked Doane.
Secret room full of pot
Drug enforcement agents found most of the marijuana
stashed away in a secret room in the back of the club.
"You had to go through several trap doors and then there was
this tiny room that was hidden behind a revolving bookshelf,"
Doane said.
Inside the room, where only two people could comfortably
stand, Doane said agents found hermetically sealed cabinets
lined with 1-gallon zip-lock bags. Each bag held about 1
pound of marijuana of varying quality.
Peron's attorney, J. David Nick, said the CBC made an
estimated $250,000 a year, with all of the money going back
into the club.
"Mr. Peron, a Vietnam veteran, is all about peace and
compassion and leads a very humble life," said Nick.
The only thing the raid accomplished was to force sick and
dying people out on the street in search of their medicine,
Nick said.
Doane agreed that with the cannabis club closed, those who
need or crave marijuana will just go elsewhere to find it.
While state Attorney General Dan Lungren's office looks over
the seized evidence and puts its case together, the 150 pounds
of pot, 444 plants and dozens of boxes of marijuana-laced
brownies and cookies will remain locked in a narcotics bureau
storage room in The City.
"Maybe at sunset," Doane said, "people will turn in the
direction of the building and pay homage to it.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: owner-hemp-talk@blueberry.hemp.net
X-Authentication-Warning: blueberry.hemp.net: majordom
set sender to owner-hemp-talk using -f
Received: from mail.eskimo.com (mail.eskimo.com [204.122.16.4])
by blueberry.hemp.net (8.7.1/8.7.1) with ESMTP id JAA27518
for ; Mon, 12 Aug 1996 09:51:24 -0700
Received: from eskimo.com (dhall@eskimo.com [204.122.16.13])
by mail.eskimo.com (8.7.3/8.6.12) with SMTP id JAA29711
for ; Mon, 12 Aug 1996 09:51:27 -0700 (PDT)
Date: Mon, 12 Aug 1996 09:51:26 -0700 (PDT)
From: Dave Hall
To: Talk List All
Subject: More feedback on CBC (fwd)
Message-ID:
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net
Precedence: bulk
X-UIDL: 7831cfd9c70c37f087e7f18511c5b329
Dave Hall, Washington Hemp Education Network
"W.H.E.N. educated people know."
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 10 Aug 1996 08:34:37 -0700
From: Tom O'Connell
To: mercury7@loop.com
Subject: More feedback on CBC
To list (Bcc)
The following letters were printed in the Thurs (Aug. 8th) SF Examiner:
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
As a recovering addict, I know the damage marijuana can do. It's a potentially
addictive drug, although less so than nicotine or alcohol. It has medicinal
uses,and it can be abused.
For some people with AIDS, cancer and other life-threatening diseases,
marijuana can be a godsend. The prescription form is often of little help. Plain
old marijuana is the effective way for many people with wasting syndrome to
suppress nausea and build appetite.
Attorney General Dan Lungren is being talked up as a vice-presidential choice.
Busting the Cannabis Buyers' Club in a flashy media spectacle a week before the
Republican convention is an obvious political move. Calling the club a "party
house" is a cynical lie.
Crack and crystal methedrine - deadly, highly addictive poisons - are so
availableI can hardly walk through South of Market or the Mission without
someonetrying to sell me some. Needles are too easily found on the
sidewalks.
Rather than busting these merchants of death, the Bureau of Narcotics
Enforcement is wasting obscene amounts of time, energy and taxpayers' money
to create an illusion of competence. All they're doing is interfering with AIDS
treatment.
We do have some very serious dope problems. The cannabis buyers' network is
not one of them. Crystal, crack and Lungren are the dopes that are killing us.
Jack Fertig
San Francisco
===================================
If Dan Lungren's timing of the raid on the Cannabis Buyers' Club was calculated
to bring him to the attention of the Republican National Convention as a
potential vice-presidential nominee, it is understandable.
One is, however, entitled to question his judgment and his assessment of the
political climate in California and the nation.
It is increasingly clear to a majority of thinking Americans that the war
on drugs is less about the medical or social welfare of people and more
about money and power. One of the best indicators of the truth of that
statement is the posture of officials like Lungren who use the law to
suppress needle exchange or shut down the Cannabis Buyers' Club.
He would rather spread AIDs than "send the wrong message" and would prefer
to increase the suffering of the most miserable among us rather than allow any
possible leakage of recreational marijuana to the healthy.
Drug war rhetoric grows increasingly stale as the enormity of its excesses
intrude into the national consciousness. Lungren and Gov. Wilson are
seriously out of touch with present-day political reality if they expect us
to believe that the raid was undertaken for our benefit.
Thomas J. O'Connell
San Mateo
===========================
Dan Lungren's "Reefer Madness" posturing as a crime buster while taking
medicine away from thousands of sick and dying people shows how low this
pathetic opportunist will go.
The medicinal qualities of marijuana are testified to by thousands of doctors,
nurses and patients, so there is no doubt of cannabis' utility.
Lungren's cowardly attack on the gravely ill underscores the need to put health
care back in the hands of medical doctors where it belongs.
Milo Matthews
SanFrancisco
=====================================
The Cannabis Buyers' Club bust was the perfect example of a lack of human
compassion.
Over 80 percent of club members are HIV-positive and / or have terminal
illnesses. To take an armed stance between 12,000 sick club members and their
medicine is a brutal act of blatant meanness, the kind Adolf Hitler might
concoct.
Persecuting AIDS patients, gays and lesbians, and marijuana smokers - all those
categories in one fell swoop - how efficient of Pete Wilson and henchman Dan
Lungren.
Craig R. Lombardi
Director of communications
Cannabis Buyers' Club
San Francisco
--------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: owner-hemp-talk@blueberry.hemp.net
Received: from blueberry.hemp.net (blueberry.hemp.net [199.238.225.65])
by desiree.teleport.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id KAA05830
for ; Mon, 12 Aug 1996 10:17:39 -0700 (PDT)
Received: (from majordom@localhost) by blueberry.hemp.net (8.7.1/8.7.1)
id KAA27569 for hemp-talk-outgoing; Mon, 12 Aug 1996 10:05:34 -0700
X-Authentication-Warning: blueberry.hemp.net: majordom
set sender to owner-hemp-talk using -f
Received: from mail.eskimo.com (mail.eskimo.com [204.122.16.4])
by blueberry.hemp.net (8.7.1/8.7.1) with ESMTP id KAA27565
for ; Mon, 12 Aug 1996 10:05:31 -0700
Received: from eskimo.com (dhall@eskimo.com [204.122.16.13])
by mail.eskimo.com (8.7.3/8.6.12) with SMTP id KAA03267
for ; Mon, 12 Aug 1996 10:05:34 -0700 (PDT)
Date: Mon, 12 Aug 1996 10:05:25 -0700 (PDT)
From: Dave Hall
To: Talk List All
Subject: LAT: Letters on Marijuana Raid (fwd)
Message-ID:
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net
Precedence: bulk
X-UIDL: 59079ea19c8fa267cd2545b7238426c4
Dave Hall, Washington Hemp Education Network
"W.H.E.N. educated people know."
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 11 Aug 1996 08:13:59 -0700 (PDT)
From: Jim Rosenfield
Subject: LAT: Letters on Marijuana Raid
These two letters appeared in todays LA Times below a publicity photo of a
smiling Lungren:
Letters on Marijuana Raid
*Re "Agents Raid Medical Marijuana Club," Aug. 5: Once again our
top lawman, Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren, has set his priorities by shutting down
the San Francisco Cannabis Buyers Club for offering relief to medical patients.
To do this after four years of hands-off policy toward the medical marijuana
movement makes one ask the big question: Why?
I believe he is running scared because the people will have the opportunity
to vote for compassionate use of medical marijuana, Proposition 215, on the
November ballot in California.
San Francisco citizens voted with an 80% majority to allow medical use
when recommended by a doctor. I hope this ruins any chance Lungren might
have had to be governor. California doesn't need a leader with this kind of
priority: to prolong suffering by interfering with the doctor-patient
relationship.
R.M. DAVIS
Los Angeles
*Lungren evidently believes that California is free of the crime and social
problems caused by drug abuse. Otherwise he surely could not justify the
time not to mention the cost of investigating and then raiding the Cannabis
Buyers Club.
Lungren surely sleeps well knowing he may have put a few who allegedly
abused the club's system out of business. Even if it means that those who
relied upon the club to help alleviate symptoms, which defy traditional
medical treatment, will now be made to endure their suffering.
Maybe next Lungren could go after the operators of nursing homes who allow
gambling on their premises in the form of Bingo.
DIRK BLOCKER
Santa Barbara
--------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: owner-hemp-talk@blueberry.hemp.net
Received: from blueberry.hemp.net (blueberry.hemp.net [199.238.225.65])
by desiree.teleport.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id QAA11443
for ; Wed, 14 Aug 1996 16:17:39 -0700 (PDT)
Received: (from majordom@localhost) by blueberry.hemp.net (8.7.1/8.7.1)
id PAA29322 for hemp-talk-outgoing; Wed, 14 Aug 1996 15:59:01 -0700
X-Authentication-Warning: blueberry.hemp.net: majordom set sender
to owner-hemp-talk using -f
Received: from mail.eskimo.com (mail.eskimo.com [204.122.16.4])
by blueberry.hemp.net (8.7.1/8.7.1) with ESMTP id PAA29318
for ; Wed, 14 Aug 1996 15:58:55 -0700
Received: from eskimo.com (dhall@eskimo.com [204.122.16.13])
by mail.eskimo.com (8.7.5/8.6.12) with SMTP id PAA12640
for hemp-talk@hemp.net; Wed, 14 Aug 1996 15:55:53 -0700 (PDT)
Date: Wed, 14 Aug 1996 15:55:49 -0700 (PDT)
From: Dave Hall dhall@eskimo.com
To: Talk List All hemp-talk@hemp.net
Subject: LTEs SF Chron re buyers club bust (fwd)
Message-ID: Pine.SUN.3.95.960814155542.16978B-100000@eskimo.com
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net
Precedence: bulk
X-UIDL: ca63b12d3e658034e604177d57549877
Dave Hall, Washington Hemp Education Network
"W.H.E.N. educated people know."
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 14 Aug 1996 10:38:15 -0700
From: Tom O'Connell
To: mercury7@loop.com
Subject: LTEs SF Chron re buyers club bust
The following were the first two letters in the Chronicle this morning:
(chronletters@sf.gate.com)
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
`HOW ABOUT HEROIN AND CRACK DEALERS?'
Editor -- On any day in California, I can stand and watch heroin and crack
deals being made on street corners, in parks and in other public areas. As
many residents have done, I could call these situations to the attention of
law enforcement. Nothing would happen, and the deals would continue in
broad daylight.
What is law enforcement's response to drug dealing? Bending to political
pressure, police stage a heavily armed raid on the Cannabis Buyers' Club,
an organization that sells marijuana to the terminally ill. This is like
shooting fish in a barrel.
Of course, investigating real crime is so much more difficult, and real
criminals are frequently armed and dangerous. So our resources are spent
pursuing the Buyers' Club, Brownie Mary and people with life-threatening
diseases. Meanwhile, the distribution of heroin and cocaine continues
unabated.
Such ``law enforcement'' is not worthy of citizen support.
ROBERT KUHN
Oakland
--------------------------------------------------------------
LUNGREN RESPONDS
Editor -- After reading your editorial of August 6 (``Busting the Cannabis
Club''), it is apparent The Chronicle is opposed to a constitutional
democracy.
As the state's top law enforcement officer, my constitutional charge is to
uphold and enforce all of the state's laws equally and uniformly -- not
just those with which I agree. Hopefully, even the short-sighted editors of
The Chronicle can see that once law enforcement officials begin to make the
determination which laws will or will not be enforced, that is truly the
first step on the road to tyranny -- and something we would expect from the
former Soviet Union or a banana republic.
The Chronicle must also now support the non-medicinal sale of marijuana and
the sale of marijuana to children. Those activities were all
well-documented, on videotape, as regular occurrences at the Cannabis
Buyers' Club. Apparently these activities do not trouble The Chronicle's
editors at all, nor does the club's allowing infants and young children to
be exposed to second-hand marijuana
smoke, as numerous undercover videotapes from the club have shown.
The Chronicle's editors note they believe there may be some political
overtones to my office's involvement in closing down this illegal club, but
again they choose to overlook one key point:
Even if the sale of medicinal marijuana were legal in this state (which it
isn't), the activities at the Cannabis Buyers' Club, with its sales to
minors and people who were not sick, would continue to be illegal.
DANIEL E. LUNGREN
--------------------------------------------------------------
Lungren's letter prompted the following response from me:
To the Editor:
There is undoubtedly some theoretical merit in Dan Lungren's argument that
laws should be enforced even handedly. However, everyone knows they are
not. The more a law is regarded by public opinion as essential to the
general welfare, the more even handedly it tends to be enforced. No one
would argue that convictions are, or should be pursued against prostitutes
with the same zeal as they are against murderers or arsonists.
An additional point about medical marijuana is that the two largest
populations of patients benefitting from its use are those undergoing
chemotherapy and those with symptomatic AIDs. Neither of these populations
existed in significant numbers until about ten years ago. Both are now
growing yearly. AIDs is a new disease and chemotherapy was ineffective in
either curing or prolonging the lives of large many cancer victims until
relatively recently.
It seems fundamentally unfair to enforce a law drafted decades before these
conditions even existed when that enforcement increases the suffering of
the growing numbers of our fellow citizens who are afflicted by them.
Thomas J.O'Connell, MD
195 Warren Road,
San Mateo CA 94401
(415) 348-6841
e-mail:tjeffoc@sirius.com
http://www.druglibrary.org
--------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: owner-hemp-talk@blueberry.hemp.net
Received: from blueberry.hemp.net (blueberry.hemp.net [199.238.225.65])
Received: (from majordom@localhost)
Fri, 16 Aug 1996 10:32:48 -0700
Received: from mail.eskimo.com (mail.eskimo.com [204.122.16.4])
Received: from eskimo.com (dhall@eskimo.com [204.122.16.13])
by mail.eskimo.com (8.7.5/8.6.12) with SMTP id KAA29230
for ; Fri, 16 Aug 1996 10:32:41 -0700 (PDT)
Date: Fri, 16 Aug 1996 10:32:13 -0700 (PDT)
From: Dave Hall
To: Talk List All
Subject: our friend lungren receives star treatment from repubs (fwd)
Message-ID:
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net
Precedence: bulk
Dave Hall, Washington Hemp Education Network
"W.H.E.N. educated people know."
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 15 Aug 1996 11:20:19 -0700
From: Annette French
To: mercury7@loop.com
Subject: our friend lungren receives star treatment from repubs
STAR TREATMENT: LUNGRENS INVITED TO DOLE'S SUITE
Attorney General Dan Lungren and his wife, Bobbi, watched Tuesday night's
convention ceremonies from unusually comfortable surroundings -- Bob
Dole's plush suite at the Hyatt Hotel.
The unexpected but highly coveted invitation intensified speculation that
Lungren, who plans to run for governor in 1998, is considered a rising
star in the eyes of Dole and the GOP -- unlike California's current
governor, Pete Wilson, who was denied even a speaking role this week.
The Lungren invitation also underscored the importance of California to the
Dole-Kemp ticket. Tuesday morning, even former Vice President Dan Quayle
was talking California: he acknowledged for the first time that he and
former President George Bush made a mistake by deciding not to campaign in
the state in 1992.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: owner-hemp-talk@blueberry.hemp.net
Fri, 16 Aug 1996 10:45:10 -0700
Fri, 16 Aug 1996 10:45:10 -0700 (PDT)
Date: Fri, 16 Aug 1996 10:45:09 -0700 (PDT)
From: Dave Hall dhall@eskimo.com
To: Talk List All hemp-talk@hemp.net
Subject: Yet another update (fwd)
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net
Precedence: bulk
X-UIDL: ee30f4d3adef9a05287993c3e75c168b
Dave Hall, Washington Hemp Education Network
"W.H.E.N. educated people know."
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 15 Aug 1996 21:52:20 -0700
From: Tom O'Connell
Reply-To: mattalk@islandnet.com
To: mattalk@islandnet.com
Subject: Yet another update
Resent-Date: Thu, 15 Aug 1996 21:52:45 -0700 (PDT)
Resent-From: mattalk@islandnet.com
This one is a real bummer. The morning paper had the same story with fewer
details, but I didn't have the heart to post it. The bottom line is that
the people with the most legitimate need for medicinal MJ will have the
most difficult access and many are probably doing without. The illegality
issue clearly illustrates the limits of a "harm reduction " approach. As
soon as one creep like Lungren gets his oar in the water, he drives the
well meaning players out of the game.
My sense is they really would love an excuse to go after needle exchange as
well. Score: Narcs 1, Good Guys 0.
Tom O'Connell
--------------------------------------------------------------
"Emergency' cannabis sale plan fades
Mayor says proposal could endanger city's anti-AIDS needle exchange program
Diana Walsh
OF THE EXAMINER STAFF
Elizabeth Fernandez of The Examiner staff contributed to this report.
Mayor Brown has backed away from a proposal to declare a citywide state of
emergency allowing marijuana to be used for medicinal purposes, saying such
action could put The City's needle exchange program in legal jeopardy.
And in an apparent move to distance himself from the Cannabis Buyers' Club,
which was raided and shut down by state narcotics agents earlier this month,
Brown said city officials are trying to work out an agreement with the state
attorney general's office to let another organization distribute the illegal
drug to the sick.
"If they say that it can't be done with the Cannabis Club (and) it has to be
done with some other organization that's free of any taint, then we'll do
that," Brown said Wednesday at his bi-weekly press conference.
The Cannabis Buyers' Club was set up to provide marijuana to people
suffering from AIDS, cancer, glaucoma and other life-threatening illnesses
for which the drug has been found to relieve some symptoms and the side
effects of treatment.
But state authorities say a lengthy investigation found the club frequently
sold the drug to minors and those with no medical need for it.
The mayor, who last week said he stood behind the idea of declaring
emergency protection for medicinal pot use, said he changed his mind after
talking to members of the police commission and health department officials.
Brown said city officials fear "that if we bundle the medical emergency
around cannabis and there is a (successful legal challenge) on that, it will
spill over and adversely impact the effective needle exchange program."
The mayor said police commissioner Pat Norman and public health director
Sandra Hernandez are working to find an alternative organization to the
Cannabis Buyers' Club..
The city attorney's office could not be reached for comment but is expected
to give its opinion on the medicinal use issue at a Board of Supervisors
hearing Thursday.
Declaring a medical emergency "may be something that we can't do," said
Supervisor Tom Ammiano, who initially asked city health officials to
consider declaring the emergency. "If the mayor has a problem, the city
attorney has a problem and the director of health has a problem, those are
all (opinions) we would consider."
Three years of clean needles
Distributing needles to drug users is against state law. But for the past
three years, The City has used the cloak of a health emergency to allow
health workers and AIDS activists to hand out sterile needles to intravenous
drug users to cut their high risk of contracting AIDS.
Hernandez said the needle exchange program "is a legitimate and well-founded
basis for declaring a public health emergency."
Marijuana, she said, "alleviates symptoms, but it's a quality of life
issue," and declaring a state of emergency to ensure its use for medicinal
purposes would be very difficult to justify legally.
Steve Telliano, a spokesman for the Attorney General Dan Lungren, said the
office had had no contact with city officials over the issue.
"I think it's important to note the mayor understands that we had to do this
and that the law was on our side in this matter," he said.
Norman said she would like to see an organization that has employees with
expertise in both medical and counseling services take over providing the
marijuana to the sick.
A fresh organization sought
"My interest is to get it to an organization that has no history with legal
or illegal use of marijuana," she said. "It should not be a political issue,
it should be provided as treatment."
She would not identify the two organizations she has in mind as possible
replacements.
Cannabis Buyers' Club founder Dennis Peron, responding to the mayor's
comments, said Brown "is buying all Dan Lungren's lies."
But Peron said he would support Brown if the mayor decides to distribute pot
through a different organization. He said his primary interest is not to
reopen the club but to make sure that marijuana gets in the hands of the
sick.
"Maybe I didn't run it as tight as I could have," he said, conceding that
the club may have inadvertently admitted people without valid medical
documentation. "We are such kind and compassionate people. That was probably
our downfall."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: owner-hemp-talk@blueberry.hemp.net
Fri, 16 Aug 1996 11:12:09 -0700 (PDT)
Fri, 16 Aug 1996 10:56:48 -0700
Received: from mail.eskimo.com (mail.eskimo.com [204.122.16.4])
by blueberry.hemp.net (8.7.1/8.7.1) with ESMTP id KAA30734
for hemp-talk@hemp.net>; Fri, 16 Aug 1996 10:56:43 -0700
Received: from eskimo.com (dhall@eskimo.com [204.122.16.13])
by mail.eskimo.com (8.7.5/8.6.12) with SMTP id KAA06317 for hemp-talk@hemp.net;
Fri, 16 Aug 1996 10:56:44 -0700 (PDT)
Date: Fri, 16 Aug 1996 10:56:41 -0700 (PDT)
From: Dave Hall dhall@eskimo.com
To: Talk List All hemp-talk@hemp.net
Subject: This drug czar's as bad as any...
Message-ID: Pine.SUN.3.95.960816105246.14435J-100000@eskimo.com
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net
Precedence: bulk
X-UIDL: a9c7affe7a8f1d248de1eaf2ce5e6fb2
Dave Hall, Washington Hemp Education Network
"W.H.E.N. educated people know."
Friday, August 16, 1996 Page A8 (c) 1996 San Francisco Chronicle
U.S. Drug Czar Visits Haight, Denounces Medical Use of Pot
Sabin Russell, Chronicle Staff Writer
President Clinton's general in the war on drugs stood on the streets of the
Haight yesterday, declaring more money is needed for drug treatment but
denouncing medical use of marijuana.
Retired four-star Army general Barry McCaffrey, who in March became
Clinton's drug czar, was also critical of needle exchange programs used to
prevent the spread of AIDS among injection drug users.
But McCaffrey, who serves as Clinton's chief spokesman on drug policy, did
not appear to think much of the California Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement's
August 4 raid of the Cannabis Buyers' Club, the San Francisco emporium where
AIDS and cancer patients bought marijuana.
He described it to a Haight-Ashbury clinic staff member as ``a ham-fisted''
raid. But he quickly backed off in a subsequent interview, saying he would
not comment publicly on the efforts of local law enforcement.
The 52-year-old general stopped in San Francisco for a whirlwind tour of the
Haight Ashbury Free Clinics, founded in 1967 -- one year, he noted, before
he was wounded for the third time in Vietnam.
McCaffrey heaped praise on the clinic staff members, calling their programs
a model for the rest of the nation. ``These are beautiful human beings,
going out in the community saving lives, one life at a time,'' he said.
``We have to increase the resources in the treatment of chemical
addiction,'' McCaffrey said.
He also had kind words for San Francisco itself, and for its traditions of
tolerance and compassion.
Yet McCaffrey criticized Proposition 215, the statewide initiative that
would legalize the medical use of marijuana, popularly believed to ease
symptoms of cancer and AIDS and to boosting appetites of those who rapidly
loose weight in the throes of illness.
In a sidewalk interview, as young men and women wearing beads and '70s-style
bell-bottoms drifted past a circle of security guards in black business
suits, McCaffrey said Proposition 215 is a bad idea. ``There is not a shred
of scientific evidence that shows that smoked marijuana is useful or
needed,'' he said. ``This is not science. This is not medicine. This is a
cruel hoax that sounds more like something out of a Cheech and Chong show.''
It was the first time a Clinton administration official has commented on the
California ballot initiative, and it came only hours before Bob Dole was to
give his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. It could
signal a higher-profile role for the former general, a Vietnam War hero, in
a political campaign where Republicans are likely to paint Clinton again as
the draft dodger who ``didn't inhale.''
McCaffrey said legalizing pot for medicinal purposes is particularly
unnecessary in light of the fact that doctors can prescribe for the same
symptoms Marinol, a synthetic version of THC, the primary psychoactive
ingredient of marijuana.
The Clinton aide was not much more supportive of needle exchanges, another
clandestine activity that emerged in response to AIDS. Although the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended federal approval of such
programs in light of studies that demonstrate they do not lead to increased
drug use and may limit the spread of the AIDS virus among drug users and
their sexual partners, McCaffrey said he is unconvinced. ``The jury is still
out on needle exchange,'' he said.
During a discussion with Haight Ashbury Free Clinics staff members,
epidemiologist John Newmeyer told McCaffrey of CDC studies indicating that
injection drug users, their sexual partners and their children are projected
to account for 75 percent of all new HIV infections. ``The scene in the AIDS
wards 10 years from now will be completely different than 10 years ago,'' he
said.
Needle exchange programs, said Newmeyer, can serve as ``an interim measure
to stave off the virus.''
McCaffrey indicated he preferred more aggressive efforts to provide drug
treatment instead of needle exchanges. Free Clinics founder Dr. David Smith
told him that the clinics have an average of 450 potential clients on
waiting lists and that 80 percent of those give up before their names are
called.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, August 16, 1996 Page A21
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
No Marijuana `Emergency' For S.F.'s Sick
Supervisors committee kills resolution to OK medical use
Clarence Johnson, Chronicle Staff Writer
Despite tearful pleas from dozens of critically ill residents proclaiming
their need for marijuana, San Francisco city officials yesterday refused to
declare a state of emergency as a way of legalizing the drug for medical
uses.
On the advice of the city's district attorney and director of health, a
Board of Supervisors committee killed a resolution that would have created a
citywide emergency and probably revived the Cannabis Buyers' Club, which was
shut down by state agents August 4.
The rejection by the Government Efficiency and Labor Committee came a day
after Mayor Willie Brown backed away from his promise to support the
resolution. Brown apparently fears that bucking the state could jeopardize
the city's needle exchange program, currently operating under an emergency
declaration.
``If it were up to me, I would have a state of emergency, but given the
(advice), it doesn't look like a state of emergency is going to fly,'' said
Supervisor Tom Ammiano. ``I don't have the votes.''
To declare an emergency, District Attorney Terence Hallinan said, there must
be a serious public hazard posing an immediate threat to life, such as an
epidemic. The Cannabis Club, he said, does not meet those qualifications.
For two years, the club provided free or low-cost pot to people suffering
discomfort from AIDS, cancers and other diseases.
``To say that this is not life threatening is disservice to people who are
sick,'' protested Dr. Walter Krampf, who treats AIDS patients at the Castro
Health Center. He said the medical community has known for years that in
some cases marijuana is the only drug that works.
Instead, the committee said it will ask the full board to ``reassert'' its
stand against prosecuting those who use marijuana for medical reasons.
The committee also:
-- Denounced state Attorney General Dan Lungren for ordering the raid on the
marijuana club.
-- Demanded an accounting from Police Chief Fred Lau on how many police
officers were involved in the raid, their roles and the cost.
-- Announced that the city attorney is investigating whether the First
Amendment was violated when state agents seized political records from the
club, the state headquarters for Proposition 215, which would decriminalize
marijuana if passed in November.
But none of it meant much to Dixie Romagno, who has multiple sclerosis and
tearfully begged city officials to help her get the drug she needs.
``I don't get some marijuana by the end of the week, I will die,'' said
Romagno, a nurse who has become thin and feeble as a result of her disease.
Like many others who testified yesterday, she said that without marijuana
her pain is unbearable, her appetite fades and she becomes suicidal.
Last year Romagno weighed 115 pounds and was confined to a wheelchair. Now,
after getting help at the now-defunct marijuana club, she is 140 pounds and
walks on her own. She pays more than $4,000 annually for the drug marinol,
which is supposed to do what marijuana does, but it does not work for her.
``I raided my bank so I could buy some marijuana, but now I can't pay my
rent,'' said Romagno who wonders what she'll do now that her money is gone.
``How can anyone say this not an emergency,'' she sobbed while eating a
marijuana-laced brownie that someone had just given her. ``I can't go back
to the way I was a year ago. The pain is too great. I'll kill myself
first.''
chronletters@sfgate.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: mattalk-request@islandnet.com
Resent-Date: Fri, 16 Aug 1996 09:13:17 -0700 (PDT)
Received: by comm.amtsgi.bc.ca (Smail3.1.29.1 #5)
id m0urRPI-000VxEC; Fri, 16 Aug 96 09:05 PDT
Old-Return-Path: tjeffoc@sirius.com
X-Sender: tjeffoc@pop.sirius.com
To: mattalk@islandnet.com
From: tjeffoc@sirius.com (Tom O'Connell) Subject: SENT: SF Chronicle
Reply-To: mattalk@islandnet.com
To the Editor
It's remarkable that a retired U.S. Army general has, after four months
in his new job as drug czar, acquired the expertise to make definitive
medical pronouncements.
General McCaffrey's statement: "There is not a shred of scientific
evidence that shows that smoked marijuana is useful orneeded," he
said. "This is not science. This is not medicine. This is a cruel hoax
that sounds more like something out of a Cheech and Chong show,"if
accurately quoted, is an amazing bit of arrogance coming from someone
without medical credentials.
His additional statements,"The jury is still out on needle exchange," and
that he preferred more aggressive efforts to provide drug treatment instead
of needle exchanges are equally reprehensible.
The first is an out and out lie, since the studies in question were extensively
peer reviewed and found convincing. As to the second, McCaffrey's
"preferences" have nothing to do with scientific reality, which is that
coercive treatment of addicts is relatively unsuccessful in modifying their
behavior.
McCaffrey has awarded himself just enough medical expertise to play his
assigned role as official mouthpiece for the drug war. One wonders; is he
troubled at all by the misery of patients dying without the solace of
symptomatic relief or by new and entirely preventable cases of AIDS?
No, probably not.
Thomas J.O'Connell, MD
195 Warren Road,
San Mateo CA 94401
(415) 348-6841
e-mail:tjeffoc@sirius.com
http://www.druglibrary.org
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: mattalk-request@islandnet.com
Received: from comm.amtsgi.bc.ca (comm.islandnet.com [198.53.172.252])
by desiree.teleport.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id IAA19245;
Sat, 17 Aug 1996 08:47:35 -0700 (PDT)
Resent-Date: Sat, 17 Aug 1996 08:47:35 -0700 (PDT)
Received: by comm.amtsgi.bc.ca (Smail3.1.29.1 #5)
id m0urnXE-000VsaC; Sat, 17 Aug 96 08:43 PDT
Old-Return-Path:
X-Sender: tjeffoc@pop.sirius.com
Message-Id:
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Date: Sat, 17 Aug 1996 08:43:40 -0700
To: mattalk@islandnet.com
From: tjeffoc@sirius.com (Tom O'Connell)
Subject: Drug war bulletins from the SF Chronicle
Resent-Message-ID: <"HdGr7.0.AJ2.dYU5o"@comm>
Resent-From: mattalk@islandnet.com
Reply-To: mattalk@islandnet.com
X-Mailing-List: archive/latest/32
X-Loop: mattalk@islandnet.com
Precedence: list
Resent-Sender: mattalk-request@islandnet.com
X-UIDL: 079969992cb091bbfb4fb68f508b4f2a
The Chron has turned into a goldmine of drug war news, most of it
depressing. They didn't print my letter, but used my idea that the drug
czar was making unseemly medical pronouncements. In fact, I like their
"ventured far beyond his credentials" phrase. chronletters@sfgate.com
Saturday, August 17, 1996 Page A22 (c) 1996 San Francisco Chronicle
EDITORIAL -- The Drug Czar's Views
IT IS ENCOURAGING to know that drug czar Barry McCaffrey believes that
treatment programs are an important and effective -- but underfunded -- part
of America's effort to kick drugs.
The nation's top drug warrior said he supports treatment programs during a
visit Thursday to San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic which has been
in the vanguard of treating drug casualties since 1967.
McCaffrey was right to praise the clinic's staff and to hail its drug
programs as a model for the nation. And he was correct to call for more
money for such programs. But McCaffrey ventured far beyond his credentials
when he expressed his views against needle-exchange programs and denied the
medicinal value of marijuana.
Contrary to his opinion, the federal Centers for Disease Control has
concluded that needle exchanges diminish HIV transmission without increasing
drug use; and many patients, with an array of ailments, insist that pot
helps them, even if it's illegal.
With the ``war on drugs'' in disarray, it is a wonder the general has time
to ponder such peripheral -- but politically volatile -- issues as needle
exchanges and medical pot.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: mattalk-request@islandnet.com
Received: from comm.amtsgi.bc.ca (comm.islandnet.com [198.53.172.252])
by desiree.teleport.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id TAA08471;
Sun, 18 Aug 1996 19:26:34 -0700 (PDT)
Resent-Date: Sun, 18 Aug 1996 19:26:34 -0700 (PDT)
Received: by comm.amtsgi.bc.ca (Smail3.1.29.1 #5)
id m0usJw0-000VsIC; Sun, 18 Aug 96 19:19 PDT
Old-Return-Path:
X-Sender: tjeffoc@pop.sirius.com
Message-Id:
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Date: Sun, 18 Aug 1996 19:19:22 -0700
To: mattalk@islandnet.com
From: tjeffoc@sirius.com (Tom O'Connell)
Subject: More on CBC raid
Resent-Message-ID: <"6cbDZ1.0.mi5.eyy5o"@comm>
Resent-From: mattalk@islandnet.com
Reply-To: mattalk@islandnet.com
X-Mailing-List: archive/latest/159
X-Loop: mattalk@islandnet.com
Precedence: list
Resent-Sender: mattalk-request@islandnet.com
X-UIDL: a2ba97059f7d2174557ad3a9c4e96514
Sunday, Aug. 18, 1996 Page 1A
(c) 1996 San Francisco Examiner
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Long rivalry links pot raid figures
Veteran S.F. cop, career dealer have locked horns before
Elizabeth Fernandez and Jim Herron Zamora
OF THE EXAMINER STAFF
In a twisting saga that evokes San Francisco's singularly quirky core, the
raid earlier this month of a Market Street marijuana club is a classic
parable of men on different sides of legal ideology.
The pot bust of the 12,000-member Cannabis Buyers' Club and its ongoing
fallout pits California's ambitious, conservative top lawman, Dan Lungren,
against Mayor Brown and The City's other ultraliberal leaders, outriders in
a growing crusade to ease the plight of the gravely ill.
It also pits narcotics agents with a dogged respect for the letter of the
law against a phalanx of medical and social activists who believe that
enforcing the law shouldn't necessarily exclude compassion.
But away from the theater of high politics, the raid was a simple showdown
between two men with a grudge dating to San Francisco's halcyon psychedelic
days:
On one side, San Francisco police Lt. Gregory Corrales, a much decorated,
much castigated cop who once stormed a suspect's apartment packing a pair of
pistols while clad in a Superman costume; on the other side, Dennis Peron, a
genial street scoundrel who a quarter-century ago wandered from the
battlefields of Saigon into San Francisco with a pound of pot and has been
dealing ever since.
Paradoxically, Peron, who rose to become director of the state's first and
biggest medical marijuana club, envisions himself to be Superman as well, of
a different flavor. Hanging by his bed is a Halloween photo of himself,
donned as the Man of Steel.
"I'm actually Superfag," laughs Peron, who is gay.
Rivals have much in common
Both Peron and his police pursuer share much in common. Vietnam vets of
nearly the same age, they've been linked by handcuffs - Corrales was
responsible for several arrests of Peron - by holdover '60s idealism, by the
same zealous certainty in the rightness of their principles.
Both have known hard times professionally but have shown a stubborn
resiliency.
Corrales, 48, a police veteran of 27 years, was suspended in 1982 for firing
his gun after leaving a bar outside the Hall of Justice. He also once made a
U-turn on the Golden Gate Bridge and crashed his patrol car.
He spent several years cooling his heels in the police equivalent of Siberia
after accumulating 110 citizen complaints in the 1970s and 80s. The man who
dubbed himself the "archenemy of evil" was also the target of 10 separate
lawsuits alleging abuse - The City paid $100,000 to settle four of them.
In 1993, Corrales, whose investigative skills are widely praised, was
promoted to lead the narcotics unit, where he initiated a two-year probe
into Peron's pot club. But within a week of the controversial raid, Corrales
was transfered to run the Ingleside station, a much lower-profile post.
For his part, Peron, 50, has watched millions of dollars in annual marijuana
sales flow through his fingers, but today he'd be hard-pressed, he says, to
pull together enough weed for a decent storefront sale.
Peron still carries in his leg the fragments of a dum-dum bullet from a 1977
arrest. Corrales didn't put it there, but the admitted drug dealer blames
his erstwhile nemesis for much of his misfortune.
"It is very personal'
Corrales is "essentially a law unto himself," says Peron. "I believe he was
conspiring against me to put me in prison. I'm a faggot, I'm a pothead; he
hates me because of my past. It is very personal."
Counters Corrales: "I'm not some fanatic who has been stalking Dennis Peron
for all these years. To me Dennis Peron is just like any other dope dealer,
except less honest."
Hero to some, common pot punk to others, Peron has become an unlikely
lightning rod in a mounting debate over the medical use of marijuana, a
debate inextricably enmeshed with the loopy, quixotic history of San
Francisco itself.
"The raid was almost like an invasion of sovereign territory," says Dr.
David Smith, founder of the acclaimed Haight Ashbury Free Medical Clinic. He
opposes the legalization of pot but believes in its medical benefits.
"They invaded and hurt something that was working in order to try to
discredit the whole issue of medical marijuana," he says.
So far, no one has been arrested, but a San Francisco Superior Court judge
has issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting all further sales.
The Cannabis Buyers' Club
AIDS patients, cancer patients - they'd arrive at the Cannabis Buyers' Club
carrying endorsements from health care professionals that marijuana would
ease their symptoms.
Posted on a club wall was an a la carte menu board of 15 varieties of pot,
from Mexican ($8 an ounce) to Humboldt Green ($80 an ounce).
At the operation's center was Peron, the Bronx-born hustler with at least a
dozen arrests, starting in 1974 when Corrales first busted him, but only
three convictions. He had been a San Francisco marijuana fixture since the
early 1970s when he ran a one-stop "Big Top Supermarket," a drug emporium
featuring bins of pot, mushrooms and LSD.
Amid the unique politics of San Francisco, where a marijuana bust is
considered a low-class collar, Peron's enterprise was flagrantly
conspicuous, but it operated relatively unscathed for years until he was
arrested in 1977 and jailed for 4-1/4 months.
"Dennis Peron was just a straight-out drug dealer," says Inspector Napoleon
Hendrix, who was involved in that investigation along with Corrales. "He was
only different from other drug dealers because of the way he handles the
media."
Peron lobbied for years for legalized marijuana, later joining the campaign
for therapeutic marijuana, a crusade that grew in intensity when his lover,
Jonathan West, was stricken by AIDS and died in 1990.
To Peron's critics, his medical crusade was nothing more than a bald-faced
con.
Support for medicinal use
But San Francisco officials, stricken by the ravages of AIDS on the city,
gradually became supporters. Voters too, bucking the rest of the state, in
1991 overwhelmingly approved Measure P to allow the medical use of
marijuana.
Despite federal and state laws making it illegal to own, use or sell
marijuana, the Cannabis Club opened in 1994. Terence Hallinan, then a
supervisor and now district attorney, introduced the resolution endorsing
the medicinal use of marijuana. He had first encountered Peron while running
unsuccessfully in 1975 for the seat ultimately won by Harvey Milk.
"I believe Dennis is sincere about his desire to make marijuana available to
(sick) people," Hallinan says.
The club's client list quickly swelled, eventually accounting for about
$200,000 a week in sales, Peron estimates. While authorities are curious
about where the money went, Peron, who shares a rented three-bedroom home
with five others, swears he never made a profit and plowed every penny back
into club operation.
"It (pot) was so expensive because we're in the middle of prohibition," says
Peron, who claims not to have a bank account or any hidden assets. "We
always tried to keep an even balance."
As an example of the club's largess, he cites Thursday freebie days, when as
much as 10 pounds of grass were given away.
Peron paid his employees $300 a week. Many of the staff members, which
peaked at about 90, were drawn from the sick clientele and took their pay in
pot. Peron, who admits he hasn't filed an income tax return since his war
days, says he collected the same salary and never made more than $20,000 a
year from the club.
Slipshod practices alleged
As the club grew, reports escalated over slipshod practices - minors being
admitted and others who lacked proper medical clearance.
After he became district attorney in January, Hallinan says he told Peron to
straighten up.
"They were making an effort to clean up their act," Hallinan says.
At the same time, the club's medical coordinator, a psychiatrist who helped
draft the its guidelines and standards, grew increasingly concerned about
its operation.
"The club (was) not kept up as best as it could in terms of the integrity of
the admissions process," says Dr. Tod Mikuriya, an East Bay psychiatrist in
private practice who also acts as medical coordinator of medical marijuana
clubs in Oakland and Santa Cruz.
Charts were not properly coded with diagnoses, he says. And referrals in
some cases came not from practicing physicians but from marriage counselors,
chiropractors or herbalists.
"In May, Dennis arbitrarily made a rule that anyone over age 60 did not need
a medical diagnosis (for admittance)," Mikuriya says. "That threw us into a
tizzy. We rebelled and extracted this information from seniors anyway."
Mikuriya began an informal audit of the club. He says that of 351 cases he
looked at, 13 percent lacked proper medical documentation.
Investigation gathers steam
While trouble was brewing internally, law enforcement was gathering steam in
its own investigation.
It was a probe that Lt. Corrales knew instinctively would not bode well for
him. The Cannabis Buyers' Club was a shameful scam, he believes. To ignore a
major drug dealer "because he has powerful political friends" would be the
moral equivalent of accepting a bribe.
"I was cognizant that it would probably result in me getting transferred,"
says Corrales. "In San Francisco, I realize that being right and doing the
right thing is not always easy. . . . What I did is unpopular with some
people. But what I did is absolutely right."
If police had found marijuana being sold only to terminally ill people or
those who were seriously sick, "we would have left it right there," Corrales
says. "But we found a drug dealer who hides behind the misery of other
people to sell to kids and anyone with enough money."
But Pedro Fernandez, a former police officer who worked for Corrales for two
years - he left the force in '89 because of injury - believes the animosity
between cop and hustler is deeply personal.
"Greg is one of the most intelligent men I've ever met in my life," says
Fernandez, a proponent of therapeutic pot. "I'm sure he knows the benefits
of medical marijuana, but his dislike of Dennis Peron takes precedence."
When the investigation began, Arlo Smith, then the district attorney,
declined to prosecute. In May, the federal government also chose not to
prosecute.
But the state Bureau of Narcotics decided to go forward.
"The club was running a sophisticated illegal drug distribution network ...
no different from any street dealer except that it is in a nice office on
Market Street," says Steve Telliano, an aide to Lungren.
On Aug. 4, under Lungren's direction, state agents raided the club.
They seized client records, more than $60,000 in cash, and 150 pounds of
marijuana - enough, by some estimates, to make 76,800 joints.
Peron puts the value of the confiscated pot at $180,000.
"I ran that club with my heart, not my brain," he says with characteristic
melodrama. "I think all these narcos are a bunch of machos who are saying,
"Don't do this in my face.' "
Uniquely San Francisco response
Probably no other city in the country would have responded to the raid in
quite the same way.
The mayor, police chief, sheriff and district attorney variously denounced
or disowned it, depicting Lungren as a cold-blooded political opportunist.
Initially, they vowed to reopen the business, but by last week Mayor Brown
and some supervisors had distanced themselves from Peron's operation,
contending that medical marijuana should be distributed through a less
tainted organization.
Like Hallinan, Brown has a long history with both Peron and Corrales. As an
assemblyman, Brown supported Peron's challenge to marijuana laws. As a
private attorney, he sparred several times with Corrales in drug cases.
This weekend, Supervisor Tom Ammiano and Hallinan are drafting a letter
asking Lungren not to prosecute Peron or anyone connected with the club.
Peron says he forgives Corrales for hunting him down. He tried to bury the
hatchet with Corrales in a Jan. 29 letter of apology:
"There is irony in the fact that our lives have run parallel for so long,"
Peron wrote. "From the bunkers of Vietnam to the streets of S.F., we both
felt strongly about what we were doing. . . . Can you and I put the past
behind us to work together for a better future that is less violent and more
loving? History is watching us."
Corrales never wrote back.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: mattalk-request@islandnet.com
Received: from comm.amtsgi.bc.ca (comm.islandnet.com
[198.53.172.252]) by desiree.teleport.com (8.7.5/8.7.3)
with SMTP id NAA06278; Mon, 19 Aug 1996 13:31:08 -0700 (PDT)
Resent-Date: Mon, 19 Aug 1996 13:31:08 -0700 (PDT)
Received: by comm.amtsgi.bc.ca (Smail3.1.29.1 #5)
id m0usavF-000VszC; Mon, 19 Aug 96 13:27 PDT
Old-Return-Path:
Date: Mon, 19 Aug 1996 13:25:58 -0700
Message-Id: <199608192025.NAA23189@patty.loop.net>
X-Sender: mercury7@pop.loop.com
X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Pro Version 2.1.2
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
To: Mattalk@islandnet.com
From: Annette French
Subject: SG church pot giveaway
Resent-Message-ID: <"5SikZ.0.9_6.zuC6o"@comm>
Resent-From: mattalk@islandnet.com
Reply-To: mattalk@islandnet.com
X-Mailing-List: archive/latest/218
X-Loop: mattalk@islandnet.com
Precedence: list
Resent-Sender: mattalk-request@islandnet.com
X-UIDL: 6b4cf09246b9e160c076e2cda4839d23
Picture: The San Francisco Chronicle
News Business Commentary Sports Daily Datebook The Gate
Monday, August 19, 1996 * Page A13 (c)1996 San Francisco Chronicle
Picture: The Home Page for Business
S.F. Church Hosts Pot Giveaway
Marijuana handed to sick to counter club closure
Catherine Bowman, Chronicle Staff Writer
Two weeks after state narcotics agents raided the Cannabis Buyers' Club, a
San Francisco pastor stood in his sanctuary yesterday afternoon -- not to
preach to the sick but to give them tiny bags of marijuana.
About 20 people showed up to take advantage of the Metropolitan Community
Church of San Francisco's giveaway, which lasted less than an hour. Those
with a photo identification and a doctor's note or other documentation
verifying their medical condition were given a card and ushered into the
sanctuary, where each received one-eighth of an ounce of the herb.
Organizers of the marijuana distribution said they knew of no other church
that has conducted such an operation. The predominantly gay and lesbian
church was willing to take the risk of possible legal action, they said, to
ease the suffering of people with AIDS, cancer and other illnesses who use
marijuana to ease their pain.
No police were in sight at the church. Steve Telliano, press secretary for
state Attorney General Dan Lungren, said he had not heard about the church's
decision to distribute marijuana and declined to comment.
The Rev. Jim Mitulski gave the matter careful consideration before deciding
to proceed. He said that when he spoke to members of his congregation --
some of whom are HIV-positive -- they applauded.
``I believe the moral stance is to break the law to make this marijuana
available,'' he said. ``Our church's spiritual vitality has always come from
a willingness to act where people have been reluctant to act. This is not a
bystander church.''
News of the church's distribution spread by word of mouth. The media was
notified yesterday morning, and at times the number of reporters and
television cameras outnumbered those waiting in line. In the end, five
people waiting for marijuana were turned away because they did not have the
proper documents.
Luis Urena, who is HIV-positive, said he smokes marijuana to stimulate his
appetite and stem nausea. Urena said he got his marijuana free by
volunteering at the Cannabis Buyers' Club and has no money to pay the $80 a
week it would cost to buy marijuana on the streets.
``It's vital to have it,'' said Urena as he waited in a pew. ``(Critics) do
not understand it because they're not in our boat.''
The Cannabis Buyers' Club is said to have sold marijuana to thousands of
people for medical purposes. Since its forced closure, clients say they have
been scrambling to find other sources -- relying on friends or, in some
cases, using home-delivery services.
Allen White, a community activist who helped organize the event, said he had
notified Mayor Willie Brown, Assistant Police Chief Earl Sanders and
District Attorney Terence Hallinan Saturday night about the church's plan to
distribute a limited amount of marijuana.
City officials have been highly critical of the Cannabis Buyers Club raid.
State narcotics agents have alleged that anyone could buy the drug at the
club and that pot was smoked in front of children, exposing them to second-
hand fumes.
Mitulski said he had not decided yet whether to repeat the distribution, but
he added that there were no plans to do it on a long- term basis and that he
hopes other churches will get involved. White said the money to buy the
marijuana came from the community, not the church.
Chronicle SearchFeedbackChronicle Home PageThe Gate Home Page
(c) The Chronicle Publishing Company
Annette French
Media Awareness Project (MAP)
mercury7@loop.com
http://www.drcnet.org/map/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: map@drcnet.org
Received: from forcade.calyx.net (ns2.calyx.net [208.132.136.4])
by desiree1.teleport.com (8.8.0/8.7.3) with ESMTP id KAA14882
for ; Sat, 12 Oct 1996 10:18:17 -0700 (PDT)
Received: (from email@localhost) by forcade.calyx.net (8.7.5/8.7.3)
id NAA27663 for ;
Sat, 12 Oct 1996 13:18:03 -0400 (EDT)
Date: Sat, 12 Oct 1996 13:18:03 -0400 (EDT)
Received: from localhost.calyx.net(127.0.0.1)
by forcade.calyx.net via smap (V1.3)
id sma027614; Sat Oct 12 13:17:40 1996
Message-Id: <325FEABE.71C9@ims-hou.com>
Errors-To: 73164.760@compuserve.com
Reply-To: map@drcnet.org
Originator: map@drcnet.org
Sender: map@drcnet.org
Precedence: junk
From: Ralph Hodges
To: pdxnorml@pdxnorml.org
Subject: Dennis Peron
X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0 -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas
X-Comment: MAP is the Media Awareness Project. See http://www.drcnet.org/map/
MIME-Version: 1.0
X-Mailer: Mozilla 2.01 (Win16; U)
X-UIDL: 6af5d17dd997ad31830a443bb8e163bc
9:25 PM (ET) 10/11
Cannabis Club Founder Arrested
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The founder of a club that provided
marijuana to people with AIDS, cancer and other terminal diseases
was arrested Friday, accused of selling pot to drug peddlers.
Dennis Peron, also an organizer of a ballot measure to
legalize marijuana for medical uses, was arrested two months
after state agents shut down his Cannabis Buyers Club and seized
more than 100 pounds of marijuana.
San Francisco's prosecutor and other local officials who had
tolerated the club for years criticized the raid, which was
ordered by California's attorney general, Dan Lungren.
Cartoonist Garry Trudeau also ridiculed the raid in his
Doonesbury comic strip, and Lungren responded by accusing Trudeau
of encouraging a "wink-and-nod" attitude toward drugs.
City District Attorney Terence Hallinan said Friday's arrest
was an "abuse of the prosecutorial power" by Lungren to influence
the November vote on the medical marijuana ballot measure --
Proposition 215.
But Lungren said a two-year investigation was initiated by
city police, and he noted that state drug agents found the club
was providing marijuana to children, drug peddlers and people who
weren't really ill.
"The timing has nothing to do with 215," said Lungren, who
also ordered the raid of the Los Angeles Cannabis Buyers Club
last month.
The indictment, which charged Peron with conspiracy, and
possession and sale of marijuana, was obtained across the bay, in
Alameda County.
"They didn't have the guts to charge us in San Francisco,"
Peron told the San Francisco Examiner from Santa Rita Jail.
"They just barged in this morning."
Hallinan said he would try to have the case prosecuted in
San Francisco rather than in Alameda County.
The club openly sold the illegal drug since 1991, operating
from a storefront on a busy street and claiming 11,000 members.
Members insisted they had rigid restrictions and required proof
of a patient's medical condition to sell marijuana.
But the indictment says undercover agents were able to
obtain marijuana with faked doctors' notes recommending the drug
as treatment. Some agents presented club owners with notes from
fictitious doctors who suggested marijuana for ailments like
acute back pain, colitis and insomnia.
Lungren said five others alleged to be involved in the
operation of the Cannabis Buyer's Club were also being sought.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 12 Oct 1996 10:36:11 -0700
From: meryl@sprynet.com
To: drctalk@drcnet.org
Subject: Dennis Peron
Message-ID: <199610121736.AA23262@relay.interserv.com>
Dear DRCTalkers,
The AP wire report from which I extracted the following serves to point
out the twisted logic being used by Lungren et. al.:
"But the indictment says undercover agents were able to
obtain marijuana with faked doctors' notes recommending the drug
as treatment. Some agents presented club owners with notes from
fictitious doctors who suggested marijuana for ailments like
acute back pain, colitis and insomnia."
Had Governer Wilson not vetoed the previous two medicinal MJ bills the
tactics used by the "undercover agents" would have been illegal not just
unethical. By the way, isn't it illegal to forge doctor's notes for the purpose
of obtaining medication (legal or illegal)?
VTY, Jerry Sutliff
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: map@drcnet.org
for ;
Sat, 12 Oct 1996 12:35:59 -0700 (PDT)
Received: (from email@localhost)
Sat, 12 Oct 1996 15:35:47 -0400 (EDT)
Date: Sat, 12 Oct 1996 15:35:47 -0400 (EDT)
Errors-To: 73164.760@compuserve.com
Reply-To: map@drcnet.org
Originator: map@drcnet.org
Sender: map@drcnet.org
Precedence: junk
From: Marnie Regen
To: pdxnorml@pdxnorml.org
Subject: REPOST: Pot club founder's arrest decried
MIME-Version: 1.0
San Jose Mercury News
letters@sjmercury.com
Oct 12, 1996
Pot club founder's arrest decried
Six indicted say incident is political act
BY JEORDAN LEGON
Mercury News San Francisco Bureau
SAN FRANCISCO -- The founder of a club that claimed to sell marijuana to
people with painful illnesses was arrested Friday by state drug agents after
an Alameda County grand jury indicted him and others on charges of sale and
transportation of the drug.
The indictment against Dennis Robert Peron and five members of San
Francisco's now-famous Cannabis Buyers' Club -- recent subject of a week's
treatment in the Doonesbury cartoon strip -- detailed several instances in
which undercover agents allegedly obtained small amounts of marijuana from
club operators with notes from fictitious doctors.
The six and their supporters said the charges were an attempt by Attorney
General Dan Lungren to turn voters against Proposition 215, the
first-in-the-nation initiative that would legalize the medical use of
marijuana in California. According to a mid-September poll by the Los Angeles
Times, the ballot measure had a 53 percent to 31 percent margin of support
among likely voters.
Lungren, who held a news conference to announce the indictments Friday,
denied that the effort was politically motivated.
''The timing had nothing to do with 215,'' he said in a news conference in
Los Angeles. ''This is a two-year investigation.''
The investigation of the group was conducted by the San Francisco Police
Department and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Lungren said, but
then was turned over to the Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement with the
California Department of Justice.
San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan, a supporter of the Cannabis
Buyers' Club and the medical marijuana initiative, called a news conference
Friday to ''express my upset at (Lungren's) further attempt to override local
authority of local prosecutors.''
Hallinan said that by prosecuting the case in Alameda County, Lungren was
trying to bypass San Francisco's more liberal voters and political leaders.
He said he would try to have the case moved to San Francisco.
The indictments were the latest in a string of actions pitting Lungren
against Proposition 215 supporters and the Cannabis Buyers' Club, which San
Francisco officials had permitted, without interference, to distribute
marijuana.
At the club's peak, organizers claimed to have 12,000 members.
State drug agents raided the club's San Francisco headquarters in August,
seizing more than 40 pounds of marijuana. The offices have been closed since.
Cartoon satirist Garry Trudeau criticized the raid in his ''Doonesbury''
comic strip and called the club ''a sanctuary for dying AIDS and cancer
patients.''
Lungren said the comic strip was taking a ''wink-and-nod'' attitude toward
drugs. He said the club also sold marijuana to drug peddlers and called a
news conference Oct. 1, showing photographs taken by undercover agents of
children smoking marijuana at club headquarters.
Club founder Peron was the only one arrested of the six people named in the
indictment. The other club members named -- Peter George Veilleux, Antonio
Aguirre Martinez, John Wayne Hudson, Adam Mitchell Perry and Elizabeth Gail
Moore -- were expected to turn themselves in to Oakland authorities Tuesday.
Moore, who has AIDS and ran the club until it was raided, said their
indictment ''lacked compassion for the sick and the dying.''
''Dan Lungren is healthy,'' she said. ''He doesn't know what it's like to be
suffering with a painful disease. He knows the proposition is losing, and
he's pulling out all the dirty tricks in order to win. He should have a
little more love in his heart.''
Peron was released on his own recognizance until he is arraigned Tuesday.
He was heavily involved with Californians for Medical Rights, the official
sponsor of Proposition 215, until the club was raided. Concerned that Lungren
would use the raid to discredit the proposition, leaders of the initiative
asked him to step aside.
''We knew he would try something like this,'' said Lynne Barnes, a registered
nurse and Proposition 215 spokeswoman. ''This is his desperate attempt to
turn people away from our initiative.''
A San Francisco Superior Court judge will hold a hearing Oct. 30 to consider
ordering the Cannabis Buyers' Club to close permanently.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 12 Oct 1996 10:13:16 -0700
From: tjeffoc@sirius.com (Tom O'Connell)
To: drctalk@drcnet.org
Subject: SF Chron Story of Peron Arrest
Message-ID:
This is an OCR of this morning's front page story. (Second lead behind
story about rats shutting down Stanford access tyo internet):
Pot Measure Author Arrested
Charges from Raid on S.F. buyers' club
Bly Glen Martin
and Maitland Zane
Chronicle Staff - Writers
Dennis Peron, principal author of the controversial medical marijuana state
ballot measure, was arrested yesterday on state charges related to sales of
the plant through San Francisco's Cannabis buyers club.
Peron was indicted Tuesday by the Alameda County grand jury on charges of
possession of marijuana for sale, the sale or transportation of marijuana
and conspiracy. After being taken into custody and transported to Alameda
County Jail, Peron was released on his own recognizance.
Five other people associated with the Cannabis Buyers' Club- Peter
Veilleux, Antonio Martinez, John Hudson, Elizabeth Moore and Adam
Perry-were indicted on similar charges, and their arrests are being sought.
Peron aroused the ire of state Attorney General Dan Lungren, who ordered
yesterday's arrests, for his role in writing and promoting Proposition 215.
The November ballot initiative would decriminalize the use of marijuana for
people who have recommendations from their doctors.
At a news conference in Los Angeles yesterday, Lungren said a two-year
investigation initiated by San Francisco police and completed by state drug
agents found that the San Francisco Cannabis Buyers' Club was providing
marijuana to people who weren't ill, including children and drug peddlers.
"The timing has nothing to do with 215," Lungren said.
San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan disagreed.
"I think he's doing it (with an eye) to his campaign against Proposition
215 and his ambitions for higher office," Hallinan said at a press
conference yesterday at the Hall of Justice.
Hallinan characterized Lungren as "petty," saying the attorney general was
stung by the local reaction to the raid on the club. The incident was
recently lampooned in a series of Doonesbury cartoon strips, which further
angered Lungren.
"(Lungren) has as belligerent and vindictive an attitude toward marijuana
as he does toward cartoonists," Hallinan said.
Shortly after his release from jail, Peron agreed that his arrest was
politically motivated.
"But I know everything will work out," Peron said. "This is going to
backfire on Lungren. Filing these charges two weeks before the election is
a feeble attempt to trick the electorate to vete against Proposition 215.
Peron denied that he sold marijuana to anyone who wasn't sick or didn't
have letters of diagnosis from a physician.
"The four teenagers we sold to were ill with leukemia, AIDS or cancer, and all
had parental permission," he said.
Peron's arrest had been anticipated since the Cannabis Buyers' Club was
raided by state agents on August 4. The raid netted narcotics officers $60
000 in cash and 150 pounds of marijuana.
The arrest was unusual, however, inasmuch as it was not handled through the
usual channels.
By obtaining a warrant for Peron through the Alameda County grand Jury, the
attorney general skirted the jurisdiction of Hallinan and San Francisco
Police Chief Fred Lau, neither of whom were inclined to pursue charges
against Peron. The Cannabis Buyers' Club had operated with the tacit
approval of law enforcement authorities in San Francisco since it opened in
1992.
Peron, 50, was arrested about 10 a.m. at his Castro district apartment by
three agents from the state Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement armed with the
grand jury indictment.
"We were just sitting around, reading the papers and drinking coffee when
the doorbell rang, said Basil Gabriel, a friend of Peron's who helped
organize the medical marijuana buyers' club in Santa Cruz.
"The BNE officers asked if Dennis was home, and when I said he was, they
walked in and identified themselves. Dennis asked, 'Am I under arrest?'
When they said yes, he said, 'OK, let's go."'
The bust came as no surprise to Peron, who had been "waiting for the other
shoe to drop" since August, friends said.
"Dennis told me last night there had been rumors all week, and he expected
something might come down today," Gabriel said. "He was quite calm about it
all."
Peron was not present at his bail hearing at Alameda Superior Court
yesterday. His attorney, J. David Nick, asked Judge Ronald Sabraw to
release Peron on his own recognizance.
Deputy Attorney General Mark Howell argued that the charges were too
serious for such a move and asked the Judge to impose a $25,000 bail.
In releasing Peron, the judge observed that Peron does not pose a flight
risk because he owns a house in San Francisco, is a lifelong Bay Area
resident and is not accused of committing a violent crime.
Peron has been arrested more than a dozen times on drug-related charges.
A recent Field Poll shows that Proposition 215 is favored by likely voters
in California by a 2to-1 ratio.
Chronicile staffwriter Thaai Waalk contributed to thlo report.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: owner-hemp-talk@blueberry.hemp.net
Date: Thu, 31 Oct 1996 10:59:04 -0800 (PST)
From: Dave Hall
To: Talk List All
Subject: Cannabis Club Five: "Morally Not Guilty!" Lungren, "Gag Zonker!" (fwd)
Message-ID:
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net
Precedence: bulk
Dave Hall, Washington Hemp Education Network
"W.H.E.N. educated people know."
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 30 Oct 1996 17:24:13 -0500 (EST)
From: Steve Kubby
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: Cannabis Club Five: "Morally Not Guilty!" Lungren, "Gag Zonker!"
5 Cannabis Club Defendants Plead `Morally Not Guilty'
Rick DelVecchio, Chronicle East Bay Bureau
Five defendants in the nationally publicized San Francisco marijuana
buyers' club bust pleaded
``morally not guilty'' yesterday at their arraignment in Alameda County
Superior Court -- and the
judge warned one of their lawyers against bringing politics into his courtroom.
``The fact is, we did sell marijuana in San Francisco to sick and dying
people for 3 1/2 years,''
Cannabis Buyers' Club founder Dennis Peron said outside the courtroom. ``We
were morally
compelled to do this.''
State narcotics agents arrested Peron at the club on August 4, and the
Alameda County Grand Jury
later indicted him on charges of possession of marijuana for sale, the sale
or transportation of
marijuana, and conspiracy.
Five other people connected with the club -- Peter Veilleux, Antonio
Martinez, John Wayne
Hudson, Elizabeth Moore and Adam Perry -- were indicted on similar charges.
In court yesterday, all but Martinez echoed Peron's plea of ``morally not
guilty''; Martinez, whose
lawyer described him as incidental to the case, simply pleaded not guilty.
The arraignment took place one week before California voters are to decide
on Proposition 215,
which would decriminalize the possession and cultivation of pot for medical
treatment
recommended by a physician.
The defendants have actively campaigned for Proposition 215; state Attorney
General Dan
Lungren, who ordered the bust, is a vocal opponent.
In a motion to move the trial from Oakland to San Francisco, lawyers for
the defendants charged
that the August raid and subsequent indictments were a ``blatant political
maneuver calculated to
attack Proposition 215 before the November election by striking at a core
group of the initiative's
supporters.''
Peron, who has publicly advocated decriminalizing marijuana since the
1970s, has said he formed
the buyers' club in 1994 to distribute marijuana for medicinal purposes to
people with
AIDS-related diseases, cancer, multiple sclerosis and other painful ailments.
Judge Larry Goodman scheduled a December 17 hearing on the motion.
The attorney general's office, which has maintained that the bust was the
result of a two-year
investigation and had nothing to do with the election, asked the court to
limit public comment by
people involved in the case. State lawyers maintained that ``extensive and
sensationalistic'' news
coverage could prejudice prospective jurors.
Addressing Goodman, Peron's lawyer, J. David Nick, said he is worried about
the constitutionality
of such a publicity clampdown so soon before an election in which the
defendants are playing a
significant role.
``This is not San Francisco; this is Alameda County,'' Goodman cut in
scoldingly, saying he will
take a hard line against politicization of the case. ``. . . This case is
not going to become my life.''
He scheduled a hearing on the publicity crackdown for November 7, two days
after the election.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Return-Path: map@drcnet.org
Received: from forcade.calyx.net (ns2.calyx.net [208.132.136.4])
by desiree.teleport.com (8.8.3/8.7.3) with ESMTP id IAA24577
for ; Sun, 1 Dec 1996 08:37:23 -0800 (PST)
Received: (from email@localhost) by forcade.calyx.net (8.7.5/8.7.3)
id LAA03801 for ; Sun, 1 Dec 1996 11:37:29 -0500 (EST)
Date: Sun, 1 Dec 1996 11:37:29 -0500 (EST)
Received: from localhost.calyx.net(127.0.0.1) by forcade.calyx.net via smap (V1.3)
id sma003671; Sun Dec 1 11:37:03 1996
Message-Id: <2.2.16.19961201075845.63e76690@cinenet.net>
Errors-To: 73164.760@compuserve.com
Reply-To: map@drcnet.org
Originator: map@drcnet.org
Sender: map@drcnet.org
Precedence: junk
From: Jim Rosenfield
To: pdxnorml@pdxnorml.org
Subject: ART/LAT: "Force" behind 215
Los Angeles Times, December 1, 1996
Force Behind Proposition 215 Says His Push
Began as 'Legacy of Love'
Marijuana: Dennis Peron is cast as hero, villain in successful
California effort to legalize pot for medicinal use.
By MARK EVANS, Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO--Inside the once-bustling campaign
headquarters for California's medical marijuana initiative hangs
a portrait of an angel with delicate wings, a sly smile and a
cannabis leaf tattooed on its chest.
For those involved with Proposition 215, it takes only a
glance to guess the portrait's subject. It's Dennis Peron, San
Francisco's silver-haired pot guru, an angel to some, a devil to
others, but unquestionably a critical force--perhaps THE
force--behind California's historic Nov. 5 vote to legalize
marijuana for medical use.
Although indicted in a felony drug case, the 50-year-old
Peron was jubilant on election day as the ballot measure
headed for victory.
Admirers lined up several deep inside the campaign's
Market Street office to shake his hand, offer him hugs. The
lights of television cameras illuminated his face, and when
Peron, between interviews, needed a moment of quiet in the
packed room, the din abruptly fell to a hush.
"If there has to be a hero in all of this, it's him," said A. Das
of Boulder, Colo. "Dennis Peron has put his life on the line for
this."
Das strode forward to shake Peron's hand, then began
handing out hemp cookies. Peron sat casually on his desk,
smoking the stub of a joint, telling one person after another,
"Thank you, brother. Thank you, brother."
*
It's almost impossible to imagine Peron in a dark suit and
tie, peddling computers. But the choice was one he wrestled
with in the early 1970s, fresh from Vietnam. The idea soon
wore off. So, too, did his childhood desire to become a
psychiatrist.
The horrors of the war, Peron says, convinced him he
needed to live in poverty and work for peace. He chose San
Francisco and decided to make ends meet by dealing pot.
"I decided I'd be a hippie faggot," he says, offering, with a
laugh, the words he says would later be used against him by
police during drug busts.
Peron acknowledges his deep roots in marijuana culture
and admits he's been dealing for more than 25 years. In an
autobiography published this year, Peron said bluntly:
"Marijuana made me the person I am."
Evidence of that is scattered in his past. In the early 1970s,
he helped run the Big Top supermarket, a one-stop drug
emporium that led to jail time. Then came the Island
Restaurant, "a two-way feed, with the pot supermarket
upstairs supplying customers for the food downstairs."
Meanwhile, Peron was building his "family" and living in
communes. He became politically active in the pro-marijuana
movement and in gay rights and other civil rights causes.
Peron recalls those days as "the best of my life." But then
came San Francisco's AIDS epidemic, Ronald Reagan's
presidency and the subsequent "war on drugs."
Friends told him he'd never be able to deal marijuana with
Reagan in office. Peron considered their advice and kept right
on dealing.
It was during the early 1980s, Peron says, that he began to
see how marijuana eased the suffering of AIDS patients and
gave them dignity in death. The observation became more
personal when his lover, Jonathan West, succumbed to AIDS
in 1990.
"At that point, I didn't know what I was living for. I was the
loneliest guy in America," Peron recalls. "In my pain, I decided
to leave Jonathan a legacy of love. I made it my moral pursuit
to let everyone know about Jonathan's life, his death, and his
use of marijuana and how it gave him dignity in his final days."
A year later, Peron "almost single-handedly" collected
enough signatures to put Proposition P on the San Francisco
ballot. The measure, advocating the use of pot as medicine
within city limits, passed by a 4-to-1 margin, and Peron set his
sights on a larger audience.
*
"Oh, man, you can't believe how deep this has gone, how
deep these guys are going to go to defeat [Proposition] 215,"
Peron said days before the Nov. 5 election.
His Cannabis Buyers' Club, which ostensibly provided
marijuana to people with AIDS, cancer and other diseases,
was raided by state agents in August. Sixty pounds of pot and
$750,000 were seized. The club was shut down.
Later, Peron was indicted in neighboring Alameda County
on drug charges, accused of running the club as a front to deal
marijuana. Undercover agents caught him on videotape,
allegedly handing over $900 worth of pot, seemingly more than
would be needed to help with a medical problem.
Peron pleaded "morally not guilty," charging state Atty.
Gen. Dan Lungren staged the raid as a political tactic against
the medical marijuana initiative.
More personally, as the Proposition 215 campaign wore
on, Peron found himself distanced from key allies. The fear
shared by some at Yes on 215 was that the darker side of
Peron's image--a defiant pothead facing indictment--might
damage the initiative's chances.
But Peron never stepped aside.
He granted countless interviews, appeared on local
television news almost nightly in support of the initiative. He
worked the phones. And he kept referring to Lungren as a
dirty trickster, the second coming of Nixon. He called
detractors within the campaign bullheaded, driven by jealousy.
"If I had resigned, what would it have been? [They'd say],
'Mr. Peron ran away.' See, I don't run away. You're talking to
the wrong guy."
*
Soon after the election, Peron is hard at work. As director
of a group called Californians for Compassionate Use, he's
drafting "contracts" he hopes will let sick people legally secure
marijuana through a doctor.
He's making plans to reopen the Cannabis Buyers' Club
under a new name: the Cannabis Cultivators' Co-op, a legal
nod to restrictions of the new state law.
"Everything I was doing all along was the right thing to do,"
he says.
A glance back at the powerful opponents who tried to
derail Proposition 215 makes victory all the sweeter, he says.
"Look at them, they had [U.S. Sen.] Dianne Feinstein,
[Clinton drug czar] Gen. [Barry] McCaffrey, every sheriff in
the state, Dan Lungren, all on their side. They had the
endorsement of three presidents, and then they tried to make
me their poster boy.
"If they succeeded in making it a referendum on me, then I
won," he says. "And it feels like vindication."
"But this was never about me," he adds, quickly. "All of
this, all along, was about love and compassion."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
[End]
Comments, questions and suggestions. 
Reporters and researchers are welcome at the world's largest online library of drug-policy information, sponsored by the Drug Reform Coordination Network at http://www.druglibrary.org/.
to the 1996 News page.
This URL: http://www.pdxnorml.org/080496_SF_CBC_raid.html
