S.J. pot center may close

City says marijuana can't be brought in

BY RAOUL V. MOWATT
Mercury News Staff Writer

Organizers of the Santa Clara County Medical Cannabis Center said Tuesday
that San Jose's unique medicinal marijuana zoning law may force them out of
business, and they threatened to protest including going on a hunger strike
and selling the drug in parking lots if the regulation isn't relaxed.

Officials with the San Josebased medicinal marijuana center said at a news
conference they hoped for a compromise over a requirement that they grow
the weed in their offices at 265 Meridian Ave.

Because transporting pot is illegal under state law, San Jose police have
mandated that the center raise its own crop instead of continuing to buy it
from a San Francisco grower.

But after entering into a twoyear lease and spending thousands of dollars
setting up their offices, the medicinal marijuana advocates say their current
location is illsuited for cannabis cultivation. Moreover, their landlord has
refused to sign off on a specialuse permit that city officials require for sales of
the drug.

``We feel the citizens are being shortchanged by the bureaucracy that's being
imposed on us,'' said Peter Baez, executive director.

``By not allowing us to serve our clients, it may be a little harsh in saying this,
but it seems like genocide to me,'' added Jesse Garcia, director of the center.

City officials said they hope to negotiate a solution.

``The city has demonstrated a willingness over and over again to working
with the cannabis club,'' said Kevin Pursglove, a spokesman for Mayor Susan
Hammer. ``We will continue to do so.''

Tuesday's development was the latest in the turbulent implementation of
Proposition 215, which allows Californians to use marijuana as medicine but
leaves individual cities and counties to work out the details.

After the law passed in November, about a dozen cities have started centers
that sell the drug.

In March, Baez and others notified city officials they were going to start a
facility in San Jose to assist sick people who might have difficulty traveling to
centers in San Francisco or Santa Cruz. The center now has about 150
members, he said.

City officials established what's believed to be the nation's first zoning law to
set conditions for such centers, attempting to balance the need to comfort the
terminally ill and to protect neighborhoods. The law prevents medicinal
marijuana dispensaries from operating near churches, schools and homes, for
example.

As part of the law, police issued additional requirements in May after input
from the center's organizers.

But equipping the office to double as a marijuana nursery large enough to
supply the 1,000 clients that operators envision could cost $25,000, they say.

Baez, Garcia and Dennis Augustine, the center's medical director, also said
they would risk losing a whole batch of pot to contamination, theft or other
causes. That might deprive clients for months of the medicine they take to
fight nausea or relieve the symptoms of various ailments.

The law's the law

Police spokesman John Carrillo said the city was bound to enforce the state law
on marijuana transportation because Prop. 215 did not invalidate it. He said
many of the problems stemmed from the initiative's vagueness.

``I can see their frustration in dealing with the regulations, but it's the same
frustration that we're having to deal with,'' Carrillo said.

In addition, Richard Abbey, the center's landlord, said he was unwilling to
sanction the growth of marijuana on his premises. He has refused to sign off
on a special use permit the city requires, saying the club's operators misled
him into thinking that they were going to operate a consulting company that
would not involve marijuana distribution.

``I hate to use the word lie, but they were not forthcoming about what they
were going to do with the premises,'' he said.

Baez said his attorneys had advised him to describe the business as a alternate
healthcare dispensary to protect potential landlords from criminal
indictment. Within three weeks, he said, he told Abbey the true nature of the
business and he accepted it.

With much of City Hall returning from vacation next week, the organizers
said they hoped for an answer soon. If they are told they still must cultivate
the drug themselves, they said they will start a hunger strike and stop taking
medication for their respective ailments; Baez has colon cancer and Garcia is
HIVpositive.

Possible answers

The center's operators suggested such possible solutions as having the city
declare a state of emergency to circumvent state law and growing marijuana at
a location known only to police and club operators.

Even if they tried to move, they said they doubted that any landlord in the
county would welcome them. Because marijuana sales and possession remain
federal crimes, prospective landlords might face damage to their property
during a raid or an attempt to seize the property under forfeiture laws.

The organizers said they want to cooperate with authorities, pointing to their
reporting of three alleged prescription forgery attempts.

``We're going to have to do what our hearts say,'' Baez said. ``That means our
patients come first and bureaucracy comes second.''

Published Wednesday, July 30, 1997, in the San Jose Mercury News