cannabisnews.com: DEA is Out of Touch





DEA is Out of Touch
Posted by CN Staff on June 19, 2003 at 08:02:50 PT
A Times Editorial
Source: St. Petersburg Times 
The Drug Enforcement Administration cannot fail to hear the message sent by the one-day jail term given Ed Rosenthal, a grower of medical marijuana in California. The reaction of the federal agency to this exceptionally lenient sentence was to say, essentially, that it will continue to pursue medical marijuana growers even in states that have legalized the drug for that purpose.
Rosenthal's case was closely watched around the nation. Before being arrested last year, Rosenthal was a well-known activist for the legalization of marijuana and was growing the drug under the auspices of the city of Oakland and its medical marijuana program. California voters passed a ballot initiative legalizing medical marijuana in 1996. But the Justice Department, under Attorney General John Ashcroft, reversed a prior hands-off approach and unleashed the DEA to shut down medical marijuana operations.Rosenthal was charged with marijuana cultivation and conspiracy, crimes that carry a penalty of up to 100 years in prison and a $4.5-million fine. He was convicted after being precluded by Federal District Court Judge Charles Breyer from raising medical marijuana as a defense at trial. After the verdict, a majority of the jurors wrote the judge to say they would not have convicted Rosenthal had they known about the medical marijuana connection. California's attorney general and other state leaders added their voices to the call for leniency, as did editorial pages around the country, including this one. Snipped: Complete Article: http://www.sptimes.com/2003/06/19/Opinion/DEA_is_out_of_touch.shtmlSource: St. Petersburg Times (FL)Published: June 19, 2003Copyright: 2003 St. Petersburg TimesContact: letters sptimes.comWebsite: http://www.sptimes.com/Related Articles & Web Site:Ed Rosenthal's Pictures & Articles http://freedomtoexhale.com/trialpics.htmGuru of Ganja Sees Cracks Developing in Lawshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16597.shtmlReefer Madness: Our Current Prohibitionhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16587.shtml 
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