San Francisco Cannabis Buyers Club

San Francisco Cannabis Buyers Club

Formation	1992

The San Francisco Cannabis Buyers Club was the first public marijuana dispensary in the United States. It first opened in 1992, in the wake of the success of Proposition P, which passed in 1991. In February 1994, the Club was operating at 194 Church Street in San Francisco, California, founded by Proposition 215 coauthors "Brownie Mary" Rathbun, Dennis Peron, Dale Gieringer, with Beth Moore, John Entwhistle, Jason Patrick Menard, Gerry Leatherman, and Tod H. Mikuriya.

194 Church had previously been established in 1990 as a lower profile medicinal marijuana retail location by a small collective of people organized by Thomas O'Malley mostly to help those suffering from AIDS. Thomas O'Malley died from the disease in 1992. When the group vacated 194 Church in 1994 Dennis Peron et al., moved into the by then established location.

The club, prior to being legalized under California law, was at Ford and Sanchez Street in San Francisco, 1993. Still subject to legal hassles after that date, it eventually changed its name to "Cannabis Cultivators Club" and even "Cannabis Heating Club".