New Marijuana Club Allowed to Operate

SAN FRANCISCO —  A judge has refused to order the immediate shutdown of a medical marijuana club that opened a day after the Cannabis Cultivators Club, on the same site, was closed by court order.

Superior Court Judge William Cahill instead told the new Cannabis Healing Center this week to curb drug sales within 150 feet of its premises. He set a June 4 hearing to determine if drug laws are being broken inside the club.

The Cannabis Cultivators Club supplied marijuana to about 9,000 patients and was run by Dennis Peron, author of Proposition 215, the ballot initiative that allowed patients to use marijuana for side effects of cancer therapy, AIDS and other illnesses with a doctor’s recommendation.

A state appeals court ruled last year that the club, which served patients coming off the street, was not a “primary caregiver” authorized by Proposition 215. State Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren went to court for a shutdown order, but Peron contended that he was serving only patients for whom the club provided continuing care.

Superior Court Judge David Garcia sidestepped the dispute and instead ordered the club closed based on Peron’s admission that it sold marijuana not only to patients but also to caregivers of bedridden patients.

The club closed April 20. The next day, the Cannabis Healing Center opened in the same storefront, under the direction of Hazel Rodgers, 79, who uses marijuana for glaucoma.