cannabisnews.com: They're Doing It Again They're Doing It Again Posted by CN Staff on February 03, 2003 at 15:28:26 PT News Nuggets by Ray Thomas Source: SierraTimes.com The federal government murdered marijuana activist and writer Peter McWilliams by filing federal charges against him for using pot to help him keep his medicine down, in effect, cutting him off from his supply, and the court not allowing him to use the fact that what he was doing was legal in California in his defense. He was forced to forego his use of pot and was soon found dead, having choked to death in his own vomit. Now they've targeted another writer who has written extensively in favor of pot use medicinally and in fact grows it for legal marijuana clubs in California. Writer Ed Rosenthal has been convicted of being a major marijuana grower, for which he could be sentenced to life in prison. As with McWilliams, the court would not allow him to use the "legal in my state" defense. "Cultivation of marijuana is a federal offense, period. Nothing else matters," responded Assistant U.S. Attorney George Bevan in closing arguments on Thursday. Which, of course, sounds like a typical bureaucrat response to a complete quackup he is causing. "Rosenthal is the first sacrificial lamb here," Peter Keane, dean of Golden Gate University Law School told local KCBS radio. "It is a very harsh sentence." Actually, McWilliams was the first, but Rosenthal is the next. The practice of courts refusing to allow a defendant to use his best defense to make it easy to convict him has to stop. Denying a defendant his only defense violates the right to a competent defense guaranteed to each of us in the Constitution. Furthermore, simply prosecuting anybody on a federal crime where the "crime" is legal in a state is unconstitutional. Federal law does not trump state law according to the Constitution, no matter how they twist the Commerce Clause to make it appear otherwise. This activist/writer may not die as McWilliams did, but he will certainly spend the rest of his life in prison on a bogus charge if they have their way -- and will no longer be able to write things they don't like. And they accuse Saddam of being a dictator! Source: Media Awareness Project -- http://mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n160/a10.html News Nuggets™ is Copyright: 2003 by Ray ThomasSource: SierraTimes.com (NV)Author: Ray Thomas Published: Monday, February 03, 2003Copyright: 2003 SierraTimes.com Contact: opeds sierratimes.com Website: http://www.sierratimes.com/Related Articles & Web Sites:Peter McWilliams Memorial Pagehttp://freedomtoexhale.com/Peterm.htmEd Rosenthal's Trial Pictures & Articleshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/trialpics.htmMedical Pot Jury May Speak Out http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15361.shtmlJury Left in Dark at Marijuana Trial http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15359.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #5 posted by mayan on February 03, 2003 at 18:24:59 PT Duzt is right... If Ed wasn't transporting the cannabis across state lines I don't see how the Interstate-Commerce Act would even apply. The 10th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America should have trumped here. Perhaps the feds would do well to read their own Constitution rather than wipe their arses with it! The 10th Amendment says it very clearly...The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.February 15-16: STOP THE WAR - Through Mass Resistance and Protest - http://www.internationalanswer.org/ The way out is the way in - 9/11 Prior Knowledge/Government Involvement Archive: http://www.propagandamatrix.com/archiveprior_knowledge9/11 Exposed: http://www.911exposed.com/The 9/11 Investigative Community: http://www.falloutshelternews.com/911Community.htmThe People's Investigation of 9/11: http://www.911pi.com/9/11 Truth Alliance: http://unansweredquestions.org/alliance/index.htmlThe 9/11 Truth Movement - Selected Resources for Researchers and Activists: http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/LEV212A.htmlMore 9/11 Links: http://www.keystonereport.com/911.htm [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by AlvinCool on February 03, 2003 at 16:26:35 PT Please Clarify The government says that marijuana has no medical benifit and that anyone growing it to give to a person for medical needs is to be arrested.However the government gives it to the 8 remaining patients in the original marijuana program. To continue to give it to them constitutes a medicinal need doesn't it? The Federal government can only continue to do this if they are collecting records for a trial, and I beleive they are not. Hence the Federal government is breaking Federal law by simply giving them marijuana.I'm so confused [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by Duzt on February 03, 2003 at 16:07:42 PT supremacy clause needs to be challenged When is someone going to challenge the supremacy clause? It goes totally against the 10th amendment and is unconstitutional (like creating an amendment to prohibit alcohol was). Rights in the country are reserved first to the people, second to the state and third to the federal government according to the Bill of Rights, not that that old piece of hemp is worth anything. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by afterburner on February 03, 2003 at 15:50:59 PT: WoW! "Federal law does not trump state law according to the Constitution, no matter how they twist the Commerce Clause to make it appear otherwise."ego destruction or ego transcendence, that is the question.Those who visit the Jefferson Memorial in Washington will read Jefferson's words engraved: "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.""I'm gonna be iron, like a lion in Zion. Iron, lion, Zion." -Robert Nesta Marley"One who uses coercion is guilty of deliberate violence. Coercion is inhuman." -Mahatma GandhiShame, shame, shame on the federal government. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by delariand on February 03, 2003 at 15:40:27 PT The constitution Why aren't more journalists pointing out the glaring violations of the constitution to be found in this whole drug war mess? Oh well, nice to see an article like this, now lets see some more! [ Post Comment ] Post Comment