U.S. LAUNCHES DRIVE TO CLOSE MARIJUANA CLUBS

Court: Civil lawsuits seek injunctions against six Northern California
centers. Operators promise fight.

SAN FRANCISCO--For the first time since California voters approved the use
of medical marijuana, the federal government Friday mounted a legal battle
to shut down six Northern California clubs that sell the weed.

The government wants to "send a clear message regarding the illegality of
marijuana cultivation and distribution," said Michael Yamaguchi, the U.S.
attorney for Northern California.

His office filed civil lawsuits Friday accusing the clubs and 10 of their
operators of distribution of marijuana, and seeking permanent injunctions
to close centers in San Francisco, Oakland, Santa Cruz, Ukiah and Marin.

The move comes as medical marijuana advocates in other states are pushing
to follow California's lead, seeking similar ballot initiatives to allow
patients to grow and use marijuana with a doctor's recommendation.

The federal government's action was praised by California Atty. Gen. Dan
Lungren and denounced by club operators.

"They are trying to thwart the will of the people of California, trying to
put out a brush fire before it sweeps into a forest fire," said Dennis
Peron, founder of the San Francisco Cannabis Cultivators Club, the state's
largest club selling marijuana. Peron and other medical marijuana advocates
said that the federal government wants both to undermine the voters who
last year passed the medical marijuana initiative, known as Proposition
215, and to discourage fledgling ballot initiatives in Colorado, Alaska and
Washington, D.C.

In Washington, U.S. Department of Justice spokesman Bert Brandenburg said
that if Friday's action hurts those efforts, "then more's the better."

Yamaguchi said the government's action is a "measured response" to what he
characterized as the California clubs' repeated violations of federal drug
laws.

The federal government lists marijuana as a controlled substance that is
illegal to grow, possess or distribute.

"California's medical marijuana statute . . . has no effect on the
applicability of federal drug laws," Yamaguchi said. Federal law, he said,
"has supremacy over state law."

Constitutional scholars agreed with Yamaguchi's assessment. The only
question, after voters approved Proposition 215, was whether the federal
government would choose to get involved, said USC law professor Erwin
Chemerinsky.

"Did the California initiative provide clubs with any protection from
federal law? No," said Chemerinsky, who teaches constitutional law. "It was
inevitable, if the federal government wanted to get involved," that the
clubs could be forced to close.

The federal action is the second recent setback for the clubs. Last month,
a state appellate court ruled that Proposition 215 did not make cannabis
clubs legal.

"All we are seeing here is an attempt to put out of business a commercial
operation engaging in violations of federal law," said professor Clark
Kelso of the McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento. "The state appellate
court ruling that held that commercial sales are not protected by 215 took
the political difficulties off of prosecuting them for the federal
government."

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents made undercover buys of
marijuana at the six clubs the government is seeking to shut down,
Yamaguchi said.

He said the agents found operators to be lax in identification of clients
and in scrutiny of recommendations from doctors. But he said how the clubs
are run is not the issue.

"The issue is not the medical use of marijuana, it is the persistent
violation of federal law," Yamaguchi said. "Under our system of federalism,
laws passed by Congress cannot be overridden or supplanted by state law."

He did not rule out the possibility of filing criminal charges against
clubs or their operators, or civil lawsuits against the nearly dozen other
clubs serving thousands of people around the state. "Our expectation is
that we will prevail [in court] and that many clubs around the state will
recognize the supremacy of federal law" and voluntarily close, Yamaguchi
said.

Federal marshals served notices of the lawsuit to two clubs in San
Francisco and to clubs in Ukiah, Marin, Oakland and Santa Cruz.

Lungren welcomes the federal government's involvement, said Lungren
spokesman Rob Stutzman. "Their actions today certainly help clarify how
they believe federal law impacts upon these clubs."

Lungren has maintained since passage of Proposition 215 that cannabis clubs
are illegal under state law. He has been battling the San Francisco
Cannabis Cultivators club and its founder, Peron, in state courts since
1996 in an effort to shut down the club.

San Francisco officials were less enthusiastic about the federal action.

"If the goal of the U.S. attorney or the attorney general is to somehow
dissuade the people of San Francisco from supporting the medicinal use of
marijuana, then I think they are going to find themselves in a tough fight
regardless of what civil litigation they bring," said P.J. Johnston,
spokesman for Mayor Willie Brown.

Peron and other club operators, who say they carefully screen customers,
were defiant Friday.

"We will fight this," said Peron, who will appear in court in 20 days to
defend against the federal effort to shut his club. Asked what he intends
to do until then, Peron said: "Sell a lot of pot."

In San Jose, Peter Baez, executive director of the Santa Clara County
Cannabis Center, said he would resort to selling marijuana out of parking
lots if necessary.

The center was not a target of Friday's federal action. But he feared that
his club still might be sued.

"We've got our doors locked," Baez said.

He criticized federal officials as callous. "They have no compassion for
the sick people of this country," Baez said. "I'm almost ashamed to be
American."

In West Hollywood, operators of the Cannabis Resource Center also reacted
with alarm.

"We're a little bit rattled," said club operator Scott Imler. The
government did not file suit against the club Friday, but Imler said he was
braced for the possibility.

And in Oakland, cannabis club operator Jeff Jones, who was served with
notice of the civil suit, pointed out that his club has had strong support
from local government officials.

"We're very meticulous in the people we screen. . . . we verify
everything," he said.

Copyright Los Angeles Times