cannabisnews.com: Marijuana Martyr





Marijuana Martyr
Posted by CN Staff on February 06, 2003 at 08:09:49 PT
Editorial
Source: Sacramento Bee 
The Bush administration may have just won a case against medicinal marijuana in a federal court, but prosecutors' shameful tactics should cost President Bush and Attorney General John Ashcroft dearly in the court of public opinion.The case was against Ed Rosenthal, a longtime medicinal marijuana activist known as the "ganja guru." The city of Oakland had licensed him to cultivate the crop for patients as sanctioned under California's medicinal marijuana law, Proposition 215.
But a federal anti-drug team raided Rosenthal's property, confiscated the crop and arrested him under federal law, which has no exemption similar to Proposition 215 for any medicinal purpose.Prosecutors never told the jury that they caught wind of Rosenthal thanks to Proposition 215 or the city of Oakland. He was portrayed as any old scum bag in the drug trade. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer refused to allow the jury to know Rosenthal's medicinal motive, for motive can be excluded as evidence when it comes to concluding whether a crime did or did not occur. So jurors convicted Rosenthal.Then they went home, picked up the newspaper and learned the full picture. Some are now aghast at their role in sending the 58-year-old Californian to prison for a sentence that could be as long as 85 years.Snipped: Complete Article: http://www.freedomtoexhale.com/mmr.htm Source: Sacramento Bee (CA)Published: Thursday, February 6, 2003Copyright: 2003 The Sacramento BeeContact: opinion sacbee.comWebsite: http://www.sacbee.com/Related Articles & Web Sites:Green-Aid.comhttp://www.green-aid.com Ed Rosenthal's Trial Pictures & Articleshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/trialpics.htmJudge Just Followed Law in Pot Trial, Experts Say http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15390.shtmlJurors: We've Been Had - San Francisco Examinerhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15381.shtmlJurors Tell Ed Rosenthal They're Sorryhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15379.shtml 
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