San Francisco Judge Orders Co-Op to Stop Selling Pot

A Superior Court judge late Thursday ordered the Cannabis Cultivator’s Co-op to stop selling, storing or giving away medical marijuana, but the defiant founder of the organization said he intends to stay in business.

The brief decision by San Francisco Superior Court Judge David Garcia set up another showdown between Dennis Peron, the club’s founder, and state Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren. The two men are both Republican candidates for governor and die-hard opponents on the issue of medical marijuana.

Lungren’s office said the decision means that the club should be shut down immediately and that the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department has been contacted to carry out that action.

“A preliminary injunction was issued,” said Matt Ross, a spokesman for Lungren. “It calls for the club’s closure. It’s effective today.”

But a spokeswoman for Sheriff Michael Hennessy said the department has received no notification or order. As of Thursday evening, the co-op was still in operation.

In fact, law enforcement officials and political leaders have long supported Peron’s club and are not expected to move against it.

“We’re all together on wanting to make this thing [medical marijuana] work in San Francisco,” said Dist. Atty. Terence Hallinan. “Eighty percent of the people here voted for it. . . . I’ve gone in and checked [the co-op] out. I’m satisfied with the way they’re operating. . . . I’m not doing anything. This is a civil dispute between Lungren and Peron. I’ll let them work it out.”

Garcia’s decision comes one day after the state Supreme Court cleared the way for state officials to close down medical marijuana clubs. On Wednesday, the high court decided not to review a lower court ruling declaring that Proposition 215 provided no protection for the clubs.

The proposition, written by Peron and passed in 1996, only protected a person’s right to use marijuana to ease the pain and nausea of such ailments as cancer, AIDS and glaucoma, according to the December lower court ruling. But it did not provide any right to sell the drug.

Peron, however, insists that he is not selling marijuana and that he is operating legally under the guidelines set by that December appeals court decision.

“When the Dec. 12 decision came down, we changed our MO to go according to that decision,” Peron said. “We stopped selling marijuana. The court said it was illegal. But they said we could be reimbursed for the cannabis that we cultivate as bona fide caregivers for our patients.”

J. David Nick, Peron’s attorney, said: “There is nothing in Garcia’s order to say that the doors of 1444 Market St. are to be closed and the sheriff shall carry this order out.”

He added that although the order does restrict the manner in which Peron may distribute marijuana, it continues to allow him “to provide those individuals who have a health need for marijuana to continue to receive that service from him.”

That is not how Lungren sees it.

“My office has argued all along that Proposition 215 allows for only three things: a doctor to recommend marijuana, a patient to use marijuana with a doctor’s recommendation, and a primary caregiver--a friend, a loved one, a neighbor, a nurse who consistently checks on the patient’s needs--to provide marijuana should the patient be unable to provide for himself or herself,” Lungren said in a statement.

Nick said that he will return to court Monday to ask for clarification of Garcia’s order.

If the sheriff’s office makes no move to shut down the club, Ross said, the attorney general’s office “will handle it.” However, he refused to elaborate on what action Lungren would take or when he would take it.

Peron has been in and out of the courts for more than a year fighting for his medical marijuana operation, which serves 9,000 patients.

If Lungren sends officers to shut him down, he says, “I’m gonna take a page out of the civil rights era. I’m gonna go perfectly limp. Let them carry me away. They’ll take our medicine, break down our doors. When they leave, we’ll put back the doors and redecorate.”