cannabisnews.com: Medical Marijuana: Blind Injustice





Medical Marijuana: Blind Injustice
Posted by CN Staff on February 06, 2003 at 09:29:12 PT
By Marney Craig
Source: San Jose Mercury 
Last week, I did something so profoundly wrong that it will haunt me for the rest of my life. I helped send a man to prison who does not belong there.As jurors, we followed the law exactly as it was explained to us by Judge Charles Breyer. We played our part in the criminal justice system precisely as instructed. But the verdict we reached -- the only verdict those instructions allowed us to reach -- was wrong. It was cruel, inhumane and unjust.
As a result, Ed Rosenthal will spend years in federal prison, separated from his wife and daughter, for doing nothing more than trying to help the sick.There is no doubt that Rosenthal was growing marijuana. Though there was some dispute as to the number of plants, the defense never claimed that marijuana wasn't being grown.But Rosenthal's attorneys were not allowed to tell us the critical facts: He grew marijuana for use by people suffering from cancer, AIDS and other horrible diseases whose physicians had recommended it. He acted with the knowledge and active encouragement of his local government, under a policy overwhelmingly endorsed by the citizens of his community, because city and county officials believed that patients who need medical marijuana should not have to buy it from street dealers.But Judge Breyer barred us from considering why Rosenthal was growing the marijuana. ``The purpose for which the marijuana was grown is not a defense and is irrelevant,'' he said.This is insane. A person accused of shooting his neighbor is allowed to explain why he did it, and motivation is often central to guilt or innocence: Did he act out of cruelty and malice, or did he shoot in self-defense, or to protect others? No one would dream of preventing an accused killer from explaining why he killed.All Ed Rosenthal did was grow some plants, but he wasn't allowed to tell us why.Some shreds of information did slip through, enough that most of us suspected that medical use was somehow involved. But Judge Breyer firmly told us we had to ignore even those tiny scraps of information, and as good citizens, we obeyed.Even more tellingly, he instructed us, ``You cannot substitute your sense of justice, whatever that is, for your duty to follow the law.''That was the trial in a nutshell. Justice was barred from Judge Breyer's courtroom, and a man whom no rational society would consider a criminal will go to federal prison.The central irrationality is the federal law that decrees, as Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman Richard Meyer told reporters, ``There is no such thing as medical marijuana.'' Medically, that's nonsense. No less than the New England Journal of Medicine -- considered the world's most authoritative medical journal -- has called for an end to the federal ban on medical marijuana, calling it ``misguided, heavy-handed and inhumane.''Ever since the verdict, we have sat awake nights, anguished at the injustice we participated in and angry at ourselves for failing to follow our consciences and vote to acquit. We hope Judge Breyer and the prosecutor share at least a little of that anguish at the cruel charade they conducted.But mostly we hope that Congress and the president will act quickly to end the federal ban on medical marijuana. No jury should ever again have to choose between the law and justice.Marney Craig, a property manager in Novato, served as a juror in the trial of Ed Rosenthal, who was convicted Jan. 31 of growing marijuana. Note: Judges's instructions and withholding of critical facts led Jurors to convict grower.Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)Author:  Marney CraigPublished:  Thursday, February 06, 2003Copyright: 2003 San Jose Mercury NewsContact: letters sjmercury.comWebsite: http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/Related Articles & Web Sites:Green-Aid.comhttp://www.green-aid.com Ed Rosenthal's Trial Pictures & Articleshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/trialpics.htmA War Against The Peoplehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15394.shtmlAngry Rosenthal Jurors Call For New Trialhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15385.shtml
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Comment #4 posted by p4me on February 06, 2003 at 16:22:08 PT
P.S. to comment 3
Ariana Huffington had a great say on John Snow released yesterday. The government of/for/by the people is gone. The link at AlterNet is http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15109 
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Comment #3 posted by p4me on February 06, 2003 at 11:58:10 PT
The juror was duped
The judges deception is going going to hurt the fascists' Dupes Against Dope campaign, acronymed DAD. One of the terms I liked at the old DE messageboard was fiddled. Collectively, we have all been duped down this road of cannabis prohibition. We have all been fiddled.Look how the jurors feel after learning they were fiddled and now they cry foul. That is the way many people will feel when they learn of the Schedule One Lie with the event being the release of GWP's cannabis extracts. Awareness is going to hit some people's present position so hard they will cry for legalization.The issue of the difference in price of Canadian pills and American pills is going to shout for the public's awareness also, as the American pill companies are out to stop the public from buying from Canadian outlets. This is a big picture situation where the public will finally see that Congress took government of/we/by the people and handed it over to corporate interest. Now the media will have to defend Congress's Pill Policy that says Your Money or Your Life."Things like the John Snow appointement to Treasury Secretary raise the issue of the revolving door between big business-lobbyist-government when a person making millions leaves his job to take a job that has to be doubled 3 times to make it to a million$ a year. And the issue of how CSX Railroad payed less in taxes while making billions than the guy at McDonalds, is a lingering issue as corporations game the system with their Congresscritters the way the pill companies do. We cannot help but have deficits for the children to pay if corporations and the rich write the tax policy. The general awareness that Congress is for Corporations and the media is for Corporations and the courts are for corporations has to come if the cannabis issue is to lead to legalization. The cannabis issue cast an illuminating light on government of/for/by the multi-national corporations. The legalization is going to come out of a greater awareness that we have all been fiddled out in the barn while the orchestra plays in the big house.Stuff matters and people don't. War and pollution could kill a billion people and they could be replaced in 12 years. You cannot make more oil, or more copper, or more land. People can be replaced and some stuff cannot. People don't count and when the right wingers get the lifetime appointments for their fundamentalists judges we are going to really have a mess.Stop the fiddle and march up to the big house and tell them to quit celebrating.
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Comment #2 posted by greek_philosophizer on February 06, 2003 at 10:35:20 PT:
Git while the Gittin is good.
I just hope ED gets to Canada
before they decide to lock him up.He can file his appeals from Canada..
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Comment #1 posted by Ethan Russo MD on February 06, 2003 at 09:41:56 PT:
Amen
Maybe she should run for the U.S. Senate.
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