Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA) Contact: http://www.sjmercury.com/ Pubdate: Tue, 19 May 1998 Author: Howard Mintz - Mercury News Staff Writer SUMMIT AIMS TO RESCUE POT'S LEGAL STATUS Prop. 215: A coalition seeks to clarify and bolster the 1996 measure. With Proposition 215 wilting from repeated legal assaults, an unlikely coalition led by state Sen. John Vasconcellos of San Jose has scheduled a long-awaited ``summit'' next Tuesday to consider ways to rescue California's medicinal marijuana initiative. In a conference call with the media on Monday, Vasconcellos and an array of public officials and Proposition 215 backers revealed they will hold a four-hour ``Medical Marijuana Distribution Summit'' in Sacramento in an attempt to sort through the chaos surrounding the voter-approved legislation. Vasconcellos, the Democratic chairman of the state Senate Committee on Public Safety, has been pushing for such an event since last year. He was joined Monday by a number of law enforcement officials, including Santa Clara County District Attorney George Kennedy and San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan. California voters in November 1996 approved Proposition 215, which permits the distribution of marijuana to seriously ill patients suffering from diseases such as AIDS and cancer. But since the measure went into effect it has been the target of legal challenges from state Attorney General Dan Lungren as well as the Clinton administration, which argues the ballot measure conflicts with federal drug laws. On Thursday a San Francisco federal judge nudged the state's pot clubs closer to extinction by siding with the U.S. Justice Department in its lawsuit seeking to close six Northern California operations. Also, many owners of clubs established to distribute marijuana to patients have wound up in other types of legal trouble. Among others, Peter Baez, co-founder of Santa Clara County's only pot dispensary, had to close his operation after being arrested for illegally distributing marijuana. On Monday, Baez surrendered at the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department after a grand jury last week indicted him on seven felonies, including two new counts of grand theft and maintaining a drug house. The Santa Clara County Medical Cannabis Center had operated under regulations approved by Kennedy's office, the San Jose Police Department and the San Jose city attorney. Kennedy, president of the California District Attorneys Association, said Monday the summit is needed to address the many problems confronting Proposition 215, which he noted has the support of ``many people in California.'' According to organizers of the summit, Lungren, who has gone to court to close the San Francisco marijuana club owned by Proposition 215 co-author Dennis Peron, will send representatives to testify at the meeting. However, the federal government will be conspicuously absent; Justice Department officials declined to take part in the summit. Vasconcellos described their refusal to participate as ``pretty lame.'' But Kennedy said the summit could help bridge the gap between state and local efforts to implement the law and the federal government's objections to it. Peron, meanwhile, said he was not invited to join the summit. ``I guess I'm the bad boy,'' said Peron, whose rural Northern California farm last week was raided by federal agents, with 250 marijuana plants seized. ``I don't want to go where I'm not invited. I'm not crashing this party.'' - --- Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)