cannabisnews.com: Lockyear Urges Leniency for Pot `Guru'





Lockyear Urges Leniency for Pot `Guru'
Posted by CN Staff on May 27, 2003 at 18:51:27 PT
By David Kravets, AP Legal Affairs Writer
Source: Associated Press
California Attorney General Bill Lockyer urged a federal judge Tuesday to be lenient on self-described "Guru of Ganja" Ed Rosenthal who was convicted Jan. 31 of marijuana cultivation charges. Rosenthal, 58, says he was growing medical marijuana under a 1996 law approved by California voters, and was deputized by the city of Oakland to carry out that task. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer prohibited Rosenthal's federal jury from hearing any evidence of that sort, and Rosenthal was painted in the jury's eyes as a major drug supplier. 
In a two-page letter submitted Tuesday, Lockyer asked Breyer, when he sentences Rosenthal June 4, "to consider the California Compassionate Use Act of 1996 ... which authorizes the possession or cultivation of marijuana for the personal medical purposes of the patient upon the written or oral recommendation or approval of a physician." Rosenthal's prosecution underscores the federal government's position that medical marijuana is illegal, that it has no medical value and that the will of California voters has no affect on federal drug law. Lockyer asked Breyer "to impose the minimum sentence allowed under the federal sentencing guidelines." Dennis Riordan, Rosenthal's attorney, said the lowest allowable term would be no prison time at all. The federal Probation Department is recommending a 21-month term, according to court documents. The maximum term is 60 years. Prosecutors have not said how much time they are seeking and did not return a call Tuesday seeking comment. Meanwhile, nine of Rosenthal's 12 jurors also asked the judge not to imprison Rosenthal. The panelists decried their own verdict after learning that Rosenthal was acting under the auspices of the city of Oakland's marijuana program. "We feel strongly that Mr. Rosenthal deserves uninterrupted freedom because we convicted him without having all of the evidence," the nine jurors wrote Breyer Tuesday. Rosenthal once wrote the "Ask Ed" column for High Times magazine and has written books with titles including "The Big Book of Buds" and "Ask Ed: Marijuana Law. Don't Get Busted." The case is United States v. Rosenthal, 02-0053. Editors: David Kravets has been covering state and federal courts for a decade. Source: Associated PressAuthor: David Kravets, AP Legal Affairs Writer Published: Tuesday, May 27, 2003Copyright: 2003 Associated Press Related Articles & Web Site:Ed Rosenthal's Trial Pictures & Articleshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/trialpics.htmNew Trial Request Denied http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16390.shtmlGanja Guru -- If Only Truth Could Set Him Freehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16354.shtmlThe Rebellion and Its Martyrs http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16346.shtml
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Comment #6 posted by paulpeterson on May 28, 2003 at 11:10:39 PT
DR. RUSSO
Thank you for sharing your views and expertise with the judge. Hopefully these sane "amicus" letters from the Cal. AG & yourself will help, of course the bold efforts of our genetically superior (it would seem, at least in the political world) friends mostly to the North can't hurt, at just this time in history.Rather heady, ain't it?
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Comment #5 posted by kaptinemo on May 28, 2003 at 06:54:04 PT:
The Feds don't know what they are doing
As our closest cultural neighbor moves to join the rest of Western civilization in dropping the insane American Drug War, we can expect further vitriol from the prohibs. Which, like Joyce Nalepka's supposed histrionics at being excluded from the Maryland bill signing, will become ever more irritating in volume and sheer nonsense. Walter's remarks about cannabis is showing precisely how far out of step the antis are and they will soon utter something so obviously, impossibly incorrect that moderates will be able to risk castigating them publicly. Their intransigence may lead to a very frightening scenario...There's one thing the Feds fear above all others: A Constitutional Convention. And given the imperialistic way the Feds have been meddling in State affairs - the same way the US government interferes in the internal affairs of friendly nations; see the point? - the time is long past ripe for such a convention. One led by western States.The problem is that the Constitution itself could be modified in a very dangerous way. But given the slide towards facsism that we are witnessing, maybe it's time to risk it.
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Comment #4 posted by FoM on May 27, 2003 at 21:03:32 PT
Dr. Russo
Thank you.
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Comment #3 posted by Virgil on May 27, 2003 at 20:39:18 PT
Good Letter Dr. Russo
Let's hope the judge is not talked into a public service sentence. That public service can get you arrested if you get good at it.
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Comment #2 posted by Sam Adams on May 27, 2003 at 19:23:36 PT
Very nice
Thanks for writing Dr. Russo, and thanks for sharing with us.Sort of reminds me of Gallileo pleading for mercy before the Inquisition. Kind of frightening to think of how small and helpless any one of us is before the massive, militarized federal government.
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Comment #1 posted by Ethan Russo MD on May 27, 2003 at 19:01:35 PT:
My Letter to the Judge
	                  May 23, 2003Dear Justice Breyer,
	I wished to write to you to discuss the prospective sentencing of Ed Rosenthal. By way of introduction, I am a clinical child and adult neurologist in Missoula, MT, clinical assistant professor of medicine at the University of Washington, and adjunct associate professor of pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Montana. I am also the author of Handbook of Psychotropic Herbs, editor-in-chief of Journal of Cannabis Therapeutics, and editor of three books, Cannabis and Cannabinoids, Cannabis Therapeutics in HIV/AIDS, and Women and Cannabis.
   As such, I have a strong professional interest in Mr. Rosenthal’s case. I have known him for several years, and find him to be a highly educated person on the clinical applications of cannabis, and its unique benefits for a group of desperately ill patients who fail to gain benefit from the best available conventional medicines. I have become acquainted with Ed and his wife, Jane, during this interval and have appeared twice on his radio show. In these encounters, I have been absolutely convinced of his sincerity and selfless devotion to advancement of his cause: the alleviation of the pain and suffering of clinical cannabis patients.
   As you may be aware, the availability of cannabis to patients in need is much more advanced in other countries. Successful clinical studies attesting to its therapeutic benefits accrue weekly in the medical literature at this point, and many nations have allowed access, including Holland, with prescription cannabis now available in pharmacies, and Canada, which provides exemptions from prosecution for cannabis to several hundred patients. A prescription whole cannabis extract from GW Pharmaceuticals was submitted for regulatory consideration by the Medicines Control Agency in Great Britain on March 31 of this year, and its approval is widely expected in the near future. Even in our country, the federal government has acknowledged the benefit of clinical cannabis through its continued provision of legal supplies through NIDA to seven surviving patients in the FDA’s Compassionate Use Investigational New Drug program.
   In point of fact, it is my declaration that Mr. Rosenthal’s arrest and prosecution arose because he has dared to be “ahead of the curve” in this country in his knowledge and advocacy of clinical cannabis that is in keeping with the facts as they exist and are applied in other jurisdictions. The failure of availability of this treatment modality here represents a failure of the political system rather than one based on available science.
   With respect to Mr. Rosenthal’s sentence, I would urge you to consider these factors. I emphatically believe that his incarceration will demonstrate no benefit whatsoever, either for his “rehabilitation” or setting an example for society at large. His actions in this case were not motivated by any personal profiteering or greed, but rather represent his commitment to the public good and welfare as he interpreted it. Thus, the “greater good” was manifested by his attempts to provide cannabis medicine to patients in need of treatment, as the “greater harm” would occur in their going without it, and suffering continued pain without adequate remedy. This is a tragedy I witness daily in my clinical practice, and I share Mr. Rosenthal’s passion in seeking its remedy.
   Judge Breyer, I thank you very much for your consideration of this matter, and hope that your decision as to Mr. Rosenthal’s sentence in this action will reflect wisdom and compassion for his true feelings and intentions, which represented motivations not of crime, but of charity. 
Sincerely,
Ethan B. Russo, MD 
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