Pot advocate (Ed Rosenthal) admonishes federal judge

[Kadie]

Pot advocate admonishes federal judge
Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer

Friday, July 6, 2007


(07-06) 17:23 PDT -- Marijuana advocate Ed Rosenthal lectured a federal judge Friday before being sentenced to a day in jail -- which he has already served --

for growing pot plants for medicinal use.

"I am proud of what I did. I know I have done nothing wrong,'' Rosenthal told U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer. Referring to the two juries that convicted him of violating federal drug laws without hearing evidence that the marijuana was intended for medical use, Rosenthal said, "You have now hurt 24 jurors. ...You left them feeling guilty about their unwitting role in these faux trials.''

Breyer said Rosenthal could take his grievances to the federal appeals court that overturned his first conviction. The judge also issued a written decision rejecting Rosenthal's claims that he was denied a fair trial because evidence about medical marijuana was excluded and more than half the prospective jurors were dismissed because of their views on the issue. Rosenthal told reporters he would appeal the conviction.

Rosenthal, 62, of Oakland is an authority on marijuana cultivation, a former columnist for High Times magazine and a longtime advocate of marijuana legalization. Arrested in 2002 after federal agents seized more than 3,700 plants at his Oakland warehouse, Rosenthal was convicted the following year of growing marijuana, maintaining a building for illegal cultivation and conspiracy.

snip...
In both trials, Breyer barred evidence that the marijuana was intended for medical use under Proposition 215, the 1996 California initiative allowing patients to use the drug with their doctor's approval. He agreed with the prosecution that the evidence was irrelevant under federal law, which prohibits the possession, cultivation and distribution of marijuana and does not recognize any legitimate use for the drug.

more...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/06/BAG87QSFUF4.DTL

[John Q. Citizen]

1. Ed Rosenthal is a good man. The judge is a bum.

[Jed Dilligan]

2. Good for Ed.

He would have gotten off easier in the long run if he'd "taken a dive" (like Rush et al.) and said he had a "drug problem"... Modern-day equivalent of "the devil made me do it," right? The Drug Warrior propaganda machine would be fed for the moment and Ed would be puffing away after a few months pissing and sobbing at stupid meetings.

Good for Ed, good for Tommy Chong. We need to force the truth about marijuana on these black-robed shysters that claim to represent "the People."

[ninkasi]

3. The completely unrealistic

laws about pot are positively archaic. Pot has so many beneficial effects, for it to be against the law is absurd. Thanks to big pharmaceutical companies, and probably liquor industry big-shots, a naturally occurring medication which eases pain and nausea, is illegal. It's ridiculous.

Making pot illegal also contributes greatly to our overloaded prison populations. Make it legal, tax it, and benefit the rewards of fewer prisoners. Just that would pay off a great deal, which is probably why it won't be done. Private, for profit prisons would suffer, and we don't dare do anything that will hurt corporate America's bottom line, do we?

[Soulshine]

4. FREE ED NOW!

there are for profit prisons? didn't know that.....wow


Anyways, Marijuana is misclassified by the FDA as a schedule 1 drug, which means it has no medicinal use at all. And since even our own government and the pharm companies they love are actively testing marijuana for those uses they should just reclassify it and leave all the pot heads alone.

But the sad truth is that 215 isn't worth the paper it's printed on as long as Federal Law supersedes State Law, and Federal Law says marijuana is illegal. That's why medicinal gardens get raided every year in California, thousands of plants destroyed, and thousands of patients without their allotted medication. Imagine if the federal government said that you couldn't refill your Prozac or Oxcotin cause they hadn't busted anyone in a while and it was hurting their self esteem.

I believe that Federal law concerning marijuana is wrong, but unfortunately the federal Judge was Right in his ruling. It's not up to a federal judge to change the federal law or rule against that law, only to interpret and carry it out. We have to look to the Legislature for that, but, you see how well they're doing so far against 5 years of propaganda for a war, I don't know if they can handle something that's been half a century in the making.... Still until they do, when federal agencies bring medical marijuana growers to federal court, growing marijuana is a crime no matter what California says. If he were a state judge, he could have thrown it out.

[Kadie]

5. Welcome to DU Soulshine!

:hi:

[ljm2002]

6. Yes, sadly, there are "for-profit prisons"

We now have not only the military-industrial complex but also a prison-industrial complex. Lobbyists for these groups have a vested interest in (for example) keeping our draconian drug laws in place -- because the more people they can put in prison, the more profits they can make.

And other private companies can contract to have work done by prisoners at $.10 - $.30 per hour, making our objections to China's "slave labor" practices laughable.

Speaking of China, just remember this: although they have more than 4 times our population, they have fewer people in jail than we do. No I'm not talking just percentage, although that is also true: they have fewer people in prison, in absolute numbers, than we do.

Oh, and our drug laws are applied in the most draconian fashion for people of color, imagine that.

And now we have a whole market segment devoted to keeping that status quo firmly in place.

This country has lost its soul. Its purpose is to enrich corporate coffers and screw the rest of us. It divides its own population against each other, and profits from it. And our so-called leaders are complicit.