Dennis Peron and Brownie Mary Act Signed: Compassion Returns

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California's Proposition 64 prohibited the legitimate gifting of Cannabis and products in Nov. 2016. State Governor Newsom just signed the Bill (SB34) that reverses that action:

Many in the know were shocked when they saw the support for California’s proposition 64 knowing it would shut down compassion programs and stop the gifting of cannabis – even by legal entities. This has created quite a bit of strife between many former compassion providers that are now limited in what they can do, which includes me, and those that chose to gain licenses under the new recreational law passed by voters in November 2016. It’s not as if compassion providers felt that their friends abandoned them for the big paycheck of full legalization in the state – but facts are facts – those of us that stayed in compassion have battled patient to patient gifting limitations that have made even the most giving of people unable to participate in what created the industry – a subculture of love. And that’s what this article is about – how the industry was created and how compassion played a vital role.

The intense and historic story of how grassroots activists changed the societal view of cannabis as medicine is largely unknown to the general public. Several key figures contributed to this movement that forever shifted the opinion of the populous about marijuana, a once demonized plant that was given no medical value by the U.S. Government in the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 and remains in that ‘Schedule 1’ category – even though our pharmacies have cannabis extracts as medicine now. Without key people in the early movement and their bold and selfless actions to fight injustice, we would never be at the pivotal time of cannabis legislation and legalization that we are now. We wouldn’t be witnessing multiple other new industries develop based on the legitimization of the cannabis plant without these seldom spoken of heroes – as there simply would not be one. The fact is it took a village to make it happen in California back in the mid-’90s with Proposition 215, but our brand new compassion act is based on the names of the two that are now once again forever part of legislative history as the new law is called “the Dennis Peron and Brownie Mary Act”.

And this is their story:

Mary Jane Rathbun

Cover photo and others credit to Maureen Hurley

Mary Jane Rathbun was a volunteer in Ward 86 at San Francisco General Hospital during the AIDS epidemic in 1981. Ward 86 exclusively treated HIV patients. Rathbun passed out THC-infused brownies to the patients and it helped them have immense relief from their symptoms. Rathbun is the real Mary Jane. Dr. Donald Abrams, an assistant director of the AIDS program at the Hospital, saw the drastic changes in the patients. In 1997 Dr. Abrams received funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to conduct a series of clinical trials on the effect of cannabinoids in HIV infections. By the time Dr. Abrams’s study was approved by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, 410,000 Americans had tragically died of AIDs. People were dying slow, painful deaths. The medicine available to treat their symptoms resulted in awful side effects like appetite loss, diarrhea, fatigue, bleeding, bone loss, nausea, and vomiting. Rathbun was able to provide these people with temporary relief with no debilitating side effects.

Dennis Peron

Dennis Peron’s life partner, Jonathan West, according to sources used cannabis instead of Marinol, a drug given to HIV and cancer patients to stimulate appetite, because the synthetic pharmaceutical version of THC (Marinol) caused him to get violently ill. Peron began to grow medical marijuana for himself and his partner. On a San Francisco night in January 1990, Peron’s home was raided. He was charged with possession of marijuana with intent to sell. As tales are told this wasn’t the first encounter for Peron with cannabis and authorities, he had previously been arrested for selling weed as a teenager – which could have caused serious issues as the laws for prior convictions weren’t too lenient back then. Six months after Peron’s arrest, West told the court that the cannabis was his own personal medicinal use and the charges were dropped. Shortly after this West passed away along with many other of Peron’s loved ones as the AID epidemic ran rampant and the pharmaceutical options were vastly limited 30 years ago.

With the loss of so many close to him, Peron was distraught and desirous of providing compassionate use of cannabis to all that were in need. So in 1991, Peron organized efforts and gained the passage of the famed yet little known about San Francisco’s Proposition P, a resolution calling on the state government to permit medical cannabis, which received 79% of the vote. That same year, he co-founded the San Francisco Buyers Club, the first public dispensary of legal cannabis, per the local resolution, since Prohibition. His story is endless, but the two of these legends had previous encounters before the gathering of compassionate minds that wrote the one-page ‘Compassionate Use Act of 1996. Back In 1993, Peron and Brownie Mary published a cookbook with recipes for cannabis edibles.

The Union of Peron and Brownie Mary (and the 215 Team)

All of this had a fire burning within Peron, he and Rathburn had history along with a dozen that were assembled to draft and gain the signatures to put the well known 1996 Proposition 215 on the ballot – but most had doubts about a law allowing people t smoke and use cannabis would pass. – but it did. This allowed for the medicinal use of cannabis for the first time since prohibition and started what we all know as the industry of today. Many would debate other actions in other states helped – and that wouldn’t be out of the ballpark. But, without a doubt, the fire under Peron and company has changed the world. Many are unaware that then-attorney general of California Dan Lungren ordered a raid of Peron’s Dispensary the night before the law passed which closed down the Buyers Club – but not for long as once 215 passed it reopened where Peron and company helped out crowds of his friends which eventually created a network of compassion.

Dennis Peron at his office at his large medical marijuana club on Market Street, in 1996.

Many are totally unaware that It’s due to the efforts of Rathbun, Peron, several other authors, hippies, and many in the LGBTQ+ communities that cannabis is where it is today. Many would love to debate this but it’s fact that’s concrete and without a doubt soon to be in history books. There are currently many other cannabis activists fighting the same fight in other states and countries – they face the same challenges of heartache – loss of loved ones that many of us are already aware cannabis can help if not heal. Droves continue to keep fighting for decriminalization, just regulation, proper legalization, and cannabis education. The federal legalization, or hopefully decriminalization, of cannabis in all 50 states is inevitable as it must leave its schedule one status and is not suitable in its plant form for any other schedule. The end of prohibition is near but where will it take us – nobody knows. But what we do know is thanks to grassroots efforts we have legalization in states and other countries – we now have a compassion act once again in California and the beginning of giving.

It seems it’s these grassroots movements that eventually make little things into big things – nobody ever expected a cannabis industry as we see today. None of us in California ever expected a regulation overload with full legalization nor did good people in a legal industry expect it to hurt patients. That intent simply wasn’t there – for the most part. But it was the last words of the legend Dennis Peron that spoke out to many on social media and beyond. Having the pleasure of knowing him briefly, working with him on what I call his last act of compassion – the Peron Resolution – in 2017 are memories that are ironclad. Dennis asked everyone to listen and many did not as by the time 2016 had come along it had been 2 decades since cannabis cards were being issued after the work of the famed prop. 215 team to gain the medicinal law’s passage. But we are thankful that a tireless effort was put forth by countless cannabis patients, cannabis lobbyists, and so many more to push for the signing of the bill and that’s after getting it to that point.

Welcome back compassion – California has missed you!