CANNABIS CLUB SOUGHT FOR SACRAMENTO.

Byline: Tom Philip Scripps-McClatchy Western Service

The founder of the original medicinal marijuana buyers' club in San Francisco said he intends to help open a similar facility somewhere in the Sacramento area by the end of the month.

``I want a club just like a club here, where people can hang out and not be so lonely,'' Dennis Peron, founder of the Cannabis Buyers' Club of San Francisco, said Friday.

Peron was a leading force behind the Proposition 215 medicinal marijuana initiative that voters passed in November.

Whether local law enforcement officials will tolerate the opening of such a marijuana smoking and distribution center remains unclear.

``I want to hesitate to say that if they do such and such, we'll do such and such,'' said Pat Marlette, spokesman for the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office. ``If they violate the law, they should expect to be prosecuted.''

Peron's announcement comes as he and state officials continue fighting in court to clarify whether marijuana clubs are now legal under the new state law.

State narcotics officials raided Peron's club in San Francisco in August. It has remained closed, although other buyers' clubs have remained open in the city. Peron plans to reopen his facility as the Cannabis Cultivators' Club on Wednesday.

Proposition 215 allows doctors under state law to recommend marijuana and allows patients to possess, grow and smoke it. The initiative lists AIDS, cancer and glaucoma as medically appropriate reasons for medicinal marijuana, but does not specify where it can be smoked, how much a patient can possess and when or if use is inappropriate.

Neither does the initiative include an important verb, ``sell,'' pointed out Steve Telliano, a spokesman for Attorney General Dan Lungren. Telliano thinks that leaves a question whether the sale of marijuana for medical purposes is legal. ``There is some confusion there,'' Telliano said Friday.

The legal fight over the raid of the Cannabis Buyers' Club continues in San Francisco Superior Court. Whatever the outcome, Telliano expects his office to send the issue to a state appellate court to clarify the legal status of medicinal marijuana sales.

Spearheading the effort to establish a buyers' club in Sacramento is 25-year-old Ryan Landers, who has been buying marijuana on the streets to help combat side effects of AIDS medications.

``There are patients who need a safe environment to get marijuana as a medicine that they need,'' said Landers. He is looking for an appropriate facility to operate the club.

``We want to do it right and have it very controlled,'' he said.

Alone, Landers said, he doesn't have the financial resources to launch such a club. That's where Peron comes in.

``I'm going to help him get pot,'' said Peron. He said he also would give Landers a list of about 20 Cultivators' Club members from Sacramento.

Peron said he began his buyers' club in San Francisco in 1992 with only a quarter of an ounce of marijuana. To start a club, he is convinced that commitment is as important as the marijuana.

``Ryan is the key,'' he said about opening facilities in Sacramento.

Landers, a Sacramento resident for three years, was diagnosed with the HIV virus in March 1995. He coordinated a local campaign for Proposition 215.