cannabisnews.com: Convicted Pot Grower Jabs at Feds 





Convicted Pot Grower Jabs at Feds 
Posted by CN Staff on April 07, 2003 at 07:39:22 PT
By Guy Kovner, The Press Democrat
Source: Press Democrat
Laws against marijuana are "on their way out," pot author, advocate and convicted cultivator Ed Rosenthal told a sympathetic crowd of about 80 people at a fund-raiser Sunday night in Sebastopol.Sonoma County Judge Elliot Daum spoke in support of Rosenthal at the event, along with two doctors who advocate the medicinal use of marijuana. Taking public stands on political issues is unusual among local jurists.
"I found, quite frankly, the prosecution of Ed Rosenthal to be obscene," said Daum, the first public defender ever elected judge in Sonoma County."I wish Ed luck in the future with this," he added later.Daum took personal credit for returning marijuana to local users who were found to be using the drug in keeping with an agreement between pot advocates and the county District Attorney's Office.Rosenthal, wearing a black shirt with green marijuana leaves, railed against President Bush's religious beliefs, the war in Iraq, and the slumping economy -- sometimes pounding the lectern -- before addressing the case that has made him an international celebrity.Rosenthal, 58, an Oakland book publisher who is married and has two children, faces up to 40 years in prison on federal pot cultivation charges.His case has become the crux of a legal and political debate over the conflict between California's Proposition 215, the medicinal pot measure approved by voters in 1996, and federal law, upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in May 2001, which does not recognize marijuana as medicine.Seven Sonoma County men who, like Rosenthal, were growing marijuana for medicinal use have been arrested, charged or sentenced in federal prosecutions.Five jurors in Rosenthal's case, including jury foreman Charles Sackett of Sebastopol, issued a public apology a week after they convicted him on Jan. 31 and demanded the judge grant him a new trial.Rosenthal's lawyers filed a motion last week alleging juror misconduct as grounds for a new trial. That motion will be considered Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, whom Rosenthal lampooned Sunday night despite warnings that Breyer probably will be the sentencing judge."With Breyer as judge, it was sort of redundant to have a prosecutor," Rosenthal told the crowd at the Sebastopol Veterans Memorial Building.In a joking mood, Rosenthal disputed doctors' contentions that no serious negative side effects have been documented from the medicinal use of pot. "Marijuana does cause hysteria in people opposed to its use," he said.The event was a "joint benefit," fliers said, for Rosenthal's legal defense fund, called Green Aid, and the Town Hall Coalition, an Occidental-based environmental group.Rosenthal, who is free on $500,000 bail, said his legal expenses already exceed $200,000, although his lawyers are not pressing him for payment.Toben Dilworth, program manager of the coalition, said the group, which normally focuses on land-use issues, decided to sponsor Rosenthal's appearance out of concern for government "assaults on civil liberties."The medical pot issue became "personal," Dilworth said, when coalition members found marijuana helpful in enduring chemotherapy treatments for cancer.Note: Sonoma County judge offers support at Sebastopol fund-raiser for Rosenthal.Source: Press Democrat, The (CA)Author: Guy Kovner, The Press DemocratPublished: April 07, 2003Copyright: 2003 The Press DemocratContact: letters pressdemo.comWebsite: http://www.pressdemo.com/Related Articles & Web Sites:Green-Aid.comhttp://www.green-aid.com Ed Rosenthal's Trial Pictures & Articleshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/trialpics.htmJuror Takes The Fifth in Medical Marijuana Casehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15866.shtmlConvicted Pot Guru Wants New Trialhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15851.shtml
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Comment #4 posted by FoM on April 08, 2003 at 22:01:43 PT
News Brief from The Associated Press
 Lawyers for a Marijuana Grower Want a New Trial
 Published: April 8, 2003San Francisco -AP -- Lawyers for a California man convicted in January of federal pot cultivation charges are urging a judge to declare a mistrial.Attorneys for Ed Rosenthal allege that at least two jurors incorrectly believed they had no choice but to convict him.The judge had told jurors not to discuss the case with outside experts during the trial. But juror Marney Craig says she asked an attorney if she could vote her conscience and ignore evidence. The lawyer allegedly told her no.A fellow juror testified that after she was told about the advice, she also felt "there was only one choice."Craig says Rosenthal would have been acquitted if she hadn't been given that advice.The federal judge isn't expected to rule on the new trial request for at least a week.Copyright: 2003 Associated Press 
 
Ed Rosenthal's Trial Pictures & Articles
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Comment #3 posted by afterburner on April 07, 2003 at 17:58:05 PT:
Kegan
Future wealth and power depends on everybody finding out the truth.Wooden shoe?
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Comment #2 posted by Kegan on April 07, 2003 at 17:36:40 PT
What is their problem?
delariand... didn't you hear...?If med pot becomes legal, it will make a huge dent in the pharma-industry.Then Joe Public will say "My doctor is full of shit." and the healthcare system wil fluxuate but not falter.He'll also demand that his fun-toke is legal too.Then Joe Public will hear that you can use hemp for.... well... anything, really, and save the environment.Then he won't buy oil-products because they pollute.Then the people who have a vested interst in oil companies (George Bush, Cheney, etc...) will be less rich and powerful.If they stomp on people like (like activists and growers)the gestapo (or, even more than they do now), then they will only help serve The Hemp Movement. If they do nothing, then they will just lose.They are in a tight jam, so the only choice they have is sticking to the original story that they satrted in the 20's and 30's (the story that pot will ruin society, etc...)THAT is what their problem is. Their wealth and power depends on nobody ever finding out the truth.Wouldn't you?
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Comment #1 posted by delariand on April 07, 2003 at 13:06:51 PT
So true
"Marijuana does cause hysteria in people opposed to its use"It's so true... what's their f'in problem anyway? We just want to kick back with a joint. Antis have no problem kicking back with a beer, or some wine, or even Hard Liquor which can be 10x as strong as the beer your grandparents usd to drink. What've they got stuck up their collective asses?
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