cannabisnews.com: Where Pot Activism Grows!





Where Pot Activism Grows!
Posted by FoM on April 13, 1999 at 11:22:35 PT
Source: The Press Democrat
LOWER LAKE -- In the kitchen of a ranch-style house on the sloping terrain that is southern Lake County, Dennis Peron tells about his great last crusade.This one, he says, is about democracy, about people getting what they want -- marijuana to ease their ailments.
With disheveled white hair, wire-rim glasses and a face that wrinkles at the slightest expression, the trim 52-year-old Bronx native looks more like a tortured college professor than a crusader for medical marijuana.For decades, Peron has been a fixture of San Francisco as a gay activist and marijuana proponent, but now he has retreated to rural Lake County to grow the controversial plant and provide it to patients. Except for two raids last year, authorities have left Peron and his friends to their own devices in this remote location south of Lower Lake.The author of California's medical marijuana initiative, which voters approved in 1996, relishes the thought the battle may be nearly over. One positive sign, he said, is a medical study released last week that declared that marijuana effectively counteracts pain, nausea and weight loss."I have one word for it: vindication," Peron said. "Even the study said certain patients have to use marijuana. The handwriting is on the wall: Medical necessity is greater than federal law."Peron is also encouraged by last fall's election of a new state attorney general. Bill Lockyer, a Democrat who said he voted for Proposition 215, which legalized marijuana use for medical reasons, has appointed a task force to explore the initiative and how to clarify it.In the meantime, Lockyer's official position is to let local agencies decide how to administer the law, a spokesman said. That hands-off approach is a major departure from Lockyer's predecessor, Dan Lungren, who joined with federal authorities to aggressively challenge Peron and the pot clubs that sprouted in the aftermath of the proposition's approval.After a Superior Court judge shut down his San Francisco Cannabis Buyers Club last year, Peron and his associates shifted their attention to cultivating marijuana on the 20-acre farm lent to him by a friend stricken with cancer. Instead of providing the dried final product to patients, as the Cannabis Buyers Club did, Peron and the cooperative that runs the farm grow plants from seedlings and then give the plants to patients to harvest themselves.Proposition 215 "has limits," said John Entwistle, who supervises the farm's planting and growing. "We wanted to show what it can do. You have real power in growing marijuana."That is a view shared in part by Dean Pick, the Lake County sheriff's detective in charge of marijuana enforcement. He said he believes the proposition allows sick people to cultivate their own marijuana, but growing for others -- even giving away pot plants to patients who say they need it -- violates the law, he said.Regardless of the terms of Proposition 215, federal law supersedes state law, according to Evelyn James, a spokeswoman for the federal Drug Enforcement Agency's San Francisco office. She questioned why Peron doesn't focus his efforts on pursuing alternatives, like a federally approved pill containing synthetic THC, an active ingredient in marijuana."I wonder if his motivation is compassion or if it is publicity," James said.DEA agents, with Lake County sheriff's deputies, raided the farm in May and August 1998, confiscating all marijuana on the premises.But Peron and Entwistle praised Lake County Sheriff Rodney Mitchell and the agents who carried out the raids, calling them professional and gentlemanly. No one was handcuffed or led away."All the patients here had AIDS. One was in a wheelchair. It was a pretty pathetic group," Peron said. "Within an hour of the cops leaving, we were replanting."Undeterred, Entwistle and Peron plan to hold another public celebration this May when they move farm operations from two greenhouses they use in the winter to outside garden beds. And the pair also plans to open a store in San Francisco's Castro District in July to sell marijuana plants to urban-dwelling patients.As it is, the farm supplies 200 people. People like Terri Sunshine of Clearlake inspire Peron and Entwistle to continue increasing production, they said.Sunshine stopped by this week to pick up a plant. The farm charges customers $25 for 2-foot-high plants that produce roughly 2 ounces of harvestable pot, something that goes for $1,000 on the street.The farm charges for the labor, water and electricity used to grow the plant, but the marijuana itself is free, Entwistle said. Entwistle instructed Sunshine to put the plant under light 12 hours a day and water it daily for two weeks before harvesting the buds.Sunshine, 42, said she suffers from intense pain related to hemorrhoids that required surgery and left her bedridden for three years. She has had three surgeries and may need another this year. Without marijuana, she cannot sleep or do basic housework, she said.Buying marijuana on the street is often expensive and dangerous, she said. Sunshine was robbed a few days ago when she approached someone to buy a joint."With the (cannabis) clubs shut down, you can't go anywhere to get it," Sunshine said. "I love their goal to make it cost-free, or as near cost-free as possible, because a lot of us are on SSI (government assistance) and can't afford it.''Peron maintains a sort of halfway house at the farm. People suffering from AIDS or other ailments can stay in one of the home's five bedrooms for up to two weeks. They gather on couches or stools, usually around a table with a Mason jar full of marijuana, and smoke and converse. Outside is a deck and small pond.Country life, Peron readily admitted, is a major change for him. His new home sits at the end of a dirt and gravel driveway, miles from a paved road and surrounded by rolling landscape spotted by rocks and trees."This is (Proposition) 215," Peron said while looking over the property. "Here it is: a cooperative garden, a bunch of people growing together, with the only motivation to get medicine.© 1998 The Press Democrat
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on April 14, 1999 at 20:18:52 PT
I believe it!
Hello Dr. Ganj!Sorry it took me so long to answer you! I've been sidetracked a bit! I respect Dennis Person and his mission! He has a good heart and a fighting spirit! Just like Brownie Mary! God Bless that woman for what she did for Aids patients! We need more people like these two and this would be a much better world!Peace, FoM!
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Comment #1 posted by Dr. Ganj on April 13, 1999 at 21:59:48 PT
          Sellin' plants in San Francisco
What a great idea! Helping people grow their own medicine. Now that's a wonderful thing. They say having pets around make sick people feel better. I say having marijuana plants around will make people feel better!It's springtime in The City, start your halides.:-)Dr. Ganj
http://www.hightimes.com
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