Biography
Dennis Peron is an cannabis and LGBT activist who moved to San Francisco after serving in Vietnam. He may be best known for his co-authoring of Proposition 215 – California’s Compassionate Use Act of 1996. At one point, Peron even ran in the Republican primaries.
Prior to all this, Peron ran the “Big Top marijuana supermarket” from home in the 1970′s. He played an integral role in the passage of a 1978 initiative to allow the personal use of cannabis in San Francisco. However, the initiative was never adopted by law enforcement.
Nonetheless, Dennis organized Proposition P in 1991. The measure, which passed with 79% of the vote, made medical marijuana laws the lowest priority of enforcement in San Francisco. In turn, he founded the city’s first medical cannabis club, the Church Compassion Center, in 1993.
Peron then expanded his medical cannabis model and opened the Cannabis Buyers Club in San Francisco two years later. It has been said that Peron’s club is where the medical cannabis movement was born – they were fielding Proposition 215 to San Francisco patients before it passed in 1996.
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