OAKLAND AUTHORITY ON MEDICAL POT FACES FEDERAL TRIAL

Oakland authority on medical pot faces federal trial
He had been deputized to distribute

To his supporters, Ed Rosenthal is the sage of marijuana, the man to
go to for advice on growing your own and staying out of trouble, and
the city- approved supplier of medicinal pot for the desperately ill.

To federal prosecutors, medical marijuana is a sham, and Rosenthal is
just another drug criminal. And when the 58-year-old Oakland resident
goes on trial in San Francisco federal court today, the feds will be
making the rules.

Rosenthal -- the "Ask Ed" columnist for High Times and Cannabis
Culture magazines, author of more than a dozen books and expert
witness at numerous criminal trials -- is charged with crimes that
include growing more than 100 marijuana plants and conspiring to grow
more than 1,000. The conspiracy charge carries a mandatory sentence
of 10 years in federal prison.

The plants, confiscated by federal drug agents at an Oakland
warehouse last February, were intended for patients at the Harm
Reduction Center, a medical marijuana club. Agents also raided the
club that day, which happened -- not coincidentally, Rosenthal's
supporters say -- to be the day U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
chief Asa Hutchinson was in San Francisco to give a speech.

Rosenthal had been deputized by the city of Oakland as an officer in
the city's program to distribute medical marijuana under California's
Proposition 215. The 1996 initiative allows patients, with a doctor's
recommendation, to grow and use marijuana without facing prosecution
under state drug laws.

But Rosenthal's jury may not hear anything about his deputized
status, his medicinal motives or even about Prop. 215. U.S. District
Judge Charles Breyer has ruled medical marijuana irrelevant to the
case, just as other judges have ruled in recent federal pot cases in
California.

Marijuana remains illegal under federal drug laws, which consider it
to be a drug with no legitimate use and recognize no exceptions for
claims of medical need. That was reaffirmed in 2001 when the U.S.
Supreme Court allowed the federal government to shut down the Oakland
Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative, rejecting arguments that the club was
entitled to distribute marijuana to patients with a medical necessity
and no legal alternative.

The DEA has raided medical marijuana growers in several other
California cities, including Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz, but denies
singling them out and says it is targeting major traffickers. Lawyers
for Rosenthal, the highest- profile defendant to face trial so far,
contend he is being targeted both for his views and for his stature
as a spokesman, but they failed to persuade Breyer to dismiss the
charges on the grounds of selective prosecution.

Despite the judge's rulings, the defense is hoping to find a way to
let jurors know that the case involves medical marijuana. During jury
selection last week, large numbers of prospective jurors were
disqualified because of their answers to questions about Prop. 215.

Outside the courthouse, Rosenthal's supporters handed out leaflets
that did not mention the case but noted that jurors have the "right
to acquit."


Pubdate: Tuesday, January 21, 2003
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Copyright: 2000 San Francisco Chronicle
Contact: chronletters@sfgate.com
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/
URL:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003
/01/21/BA49860.DTL