cannabisnews.com: Drugs War Hits a High as Sick Demand Marijuana





Drugs War Hits a High as Sick Demand Marijuana
Posted by CN Staff on February 08, 2003 at 19:00:16 PT
By Ros Davidson
Source: Sunday Herald UK
In the latest battle between Washington and proponents of medical marijuana, jurors who opted to convict a man of criminal drug charges are saying they were duped by the US prosecutors. As TV cameras crowded around, five of the 12 jurors said they would have acquitted Ed Rosenthal had they known he was growing pot for medical patients in the San Francisco area.
The federal judge repeatedly denied attempts by Rosenthal's defence lawyers to introduce evidence that California voters had passed a law in 1996, by a popular vote of 20 million, legalising medical marijuana.Lawyers for Rosenthal, who now faces life in prison, are appealing and hope to have the verdict overturned next month. Rosenthal, one of the country's most outspoken advocates of marijuana, was even once officially designated by the nearby city of Oakland to supply medicinal pot.'For the first time in my life, I find myself questioning the court system,' said jury foreman Charles Sacket, an accountant who describes himself as conservative. Rosenthal will be sentenced on June 4.Prosecutors successfully portrayed the 58-year-old, who was caught with 100 marijuana plants, as a major drug dealer. Rosenthal, sometimes known as the Mother Teresa of medical marijuana, has written numerous books that are sold internationally. He is also a founder of America's largest marijuana pressure group.The jurors' rare move is increasing the already-high tension between the Bush administration and seven states that have legalised use of pot by sick people. The administration's war on drugs is being ramped up, under Attorney General John Ashcroft, even as public opinion -- at least in more liberal parts of the country -- is shifting in the other direction.The US Drug Enforcement Agency, then headed by Asa Hutchinson, started targeting pot co-operatives and buyers' clubs in California two years ago. 'There is no such thing as medical marijuana, says the agency's California spokesman, Richard Meyer. 'We're Americans first, Californians second.'In late 2001, the US Supreme Court ruled that federal law bans giving marijuana to sick people, and federal authorities have since shut down several cannabis clubs, most of them in California. More than 40 alleged users or distributors are currently facing prosecution.Yet, according to a recent poll, 80% of Americans support seriously ill people having access to medical pot.The attorney generals of both California -- the world's sixth-largest economy -- and San Francisco are backing Rosenthal. On February 4, America's newspaper of record, the New York Times, followed suit. 'Rosenthal's harsh punishment shows that the misguided federal war on marijuana has now escalated out of control,' said the broadsheet. 'The administration should stop tyrannising doctors and sick people and focus on the more important aspects of the drug war.'Indeed since September 11, 2001, the federal government has prosecuted more cases involving medical marijuana than terrorism, says the Coalition for Medical Marijuana. The coalition is one of the pressure groups behind more than 50 billboards erected beside major freeways in time for medical marijuana week, which starts on February 15. 'Compassion, not federal prison,' says the advertisement. The billboards also picture eight-year-old Ashley Epis holding a sign saying, 'My dad is not a criminal.' Convicted in October, Bryan Epis is serving 10 years in prison for growing pot he says was for a medical marijuana distributor and was thus legal under California law.So far 30 groups have been raided or harassed, says Jeff Jones, of the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Co-operative, the group for which Rosenthal was reportedly growing his plants. The group, one of those involved in the case that went to the Supreme Court in 2001, estimated that up to 30,000 Californians use medical marijuana and that at least 1400 physicians have recommended it.In one highly publicised case two years ago, armed federal agents raided a cannabis club in West Hollywood, confiscating plants and growing equipment such as lights. The building, part owned by the city, is currently being forfeited by the federal government. Indeed West Hollywood, a quirky small town on the edge of Hollywood, has declared itself a 'medical marijuana sanctuary.'Some of America's most influential medical groups have also advocated its use, or at least more study of its potential. In 1996 the New England Journal of Medicine accused the Bill Clinton administration of needlessly interfering in medicine. That was after the White House threatened that physicians would lose their licences or go to jail if they recommended pot under California's new and groundbreaking law.One of those most critical of the Rosenthal trial is Angel McClary Raich, a severely ill Oakland woman who is suing Attorney General Ashcroft and the former drug enforcement agency administrator Hutchinson. She and her co-defendants say that the US government is violating their civil rights by interfering in state laws and in their medical treatment.Raich has an inoperable brain tumour and a wasting disease. At 5'4", she weighs slightly under seven stone. Her clothes are baggy. She says that before she started taking marijuana, when it became legal under Californian law, she was bound to a wheelchair. Without it, she says she is so nauseated she can't eat. And she cannot tolerate synthetic painkillers.'I think it's an absolute travesty of justice,' she says of Rosenthal's case, seated in her home office in the picturesque Oakland Hills. 'The jury didn't hear all the facts.' She is a member of the official Oakland Medical Cannabis Task Force.A former accounting specialist, she now advocates for medical pot, speaking at events and meetings and testifying in court whenever she can. The current crackdown on medical pot is terrifying, she says. It is as if armed agents could raid her home anytime: 'I hear that knock on the door, and it could be the end of my life.'Note: The government says smoking pot is illegal even if you're seriously ill ... but 80% of the population disagree. Ros Davidson in San Francisco reports.Complete Title: Drugs War Hits a High as Sick Demand Medicinal MarijuanaSource: Sunday Herald, The (UK)Author: Ros DavidsonPublished: February 9, 2003Copyright: 2003 Sunday HeraldContact: editor sundayherald.comWebsite: http://www.sundayherald.com/Related Articles & Web Sites:Ed Rosenthal's Trial Pictures & Articleshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/trialpics.htmBryan Epis Protest Pictures & Articleshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/protestpics.htmState Revolts Over 'Medical' Drug Usehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15422.shtmlJuries: Just Say No -- Joel Millerhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15416.shtmlPot Jury Rebellion -- Salon.comhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15413.shtml
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