cannabisnews.com: War on Drugs Turns Into an Atrocity 





War on Drugs Turns Into an Atrocity 
Posted by CN Staff on July 11, 2003 at 12:42:12 PT
By Dave Zweifel
Source: Capital Times
It didn't get much play here in the Midwest, but the man in a closely watched marijuana case in California was set free last month despite the U.S. government's determination to send him to prison for five years. Ed Rosenthal of San Francisco had been arrested by the feds for growing more than 100 marijuana plants. Rosenthal was growing the plants as an officer under California's medical marijuana law that allows people to grow pot for medicinal purposes. 
Marijuana is known as a significant pain reliever for people with cancer and other terminal illnesses and some states have approved its use for those kind of things.(Wisconsin is still not one of them.) The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which is in charge of the so-called "war on drugs," refuses to honor the state laws under orders of John Ashcroft's Justice Department. So last year the federal narcs nabbed Rosenthal and charged him with a felony that provides for a five-year minimum prison sentence - sort of an in-your-face to California. A federal jury went on to find Rosenthal guilty, but only after federal prosecutors succeeded in keeping from the jury any information about Rosenthal's role in the California medical marijuana program. Later, when newspapers in the Bay area reported Rosenthal's circumstances, several members of the jury publicly stated they would have voted to acquit him had they only known. U.S. District Court Charles Breyer threw the zealous prosecutors a curve, though, at Rosenthal's sentencing just a few weeks ago. Although he didn't overturn the conviction, he did declare that Rosenthal had already been through enough and then snubbed his nose at the five-year prison minimum and set him free. That may not be the happy ending that Rosenthal deserves, though. The U.S. attorney's office is already making noises about appealing Breyer's arbitrary decision and one agitated federal lawyer pledged to go all the way to the Supreme Court, if necessary. There are many questions about the DEA and its hugely expensive, but painfully inept war on drugs. The Rosenthal case has at least served as an eye-opener for many on just how incredibly vindictive that war has become. It also helps explain why the United States has now become the No. 1 country in the civilized world - including even Russia - for the number of people imprisoned per person. It wastes tens of millions of dollars to prosecute citizens like Ed Rosenthal for something that some states don't consider a crime and then to feed and house them in prison. Ah yes, priorities. About Dave:Dave Zweifel has been editor of The Capital Times since 1983. A native of New Glarus, Wis. and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, his life-long goal was to be the editor of this newspaper. He has had more luck achieving that than his other fondest hope — watching the Chicago Cubs win the World Series. He served for many years as president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council and served two years as a juror for the Pulitzer Prizes.Dave Zweifel is editor of The Capital Times. E-mail: dzweifel madison.comSource: Capital Times, The (WI)Author: Dave ZweifelPublished: July 11, 2003Copyright: 2003 The Capital TimesContact: tctvoice madison.comWebsite: http://www.captimes.com/Related Articles & Web Sites:IMMLYhttp://www.immly.org/DPFWIhttp://www.drugsense.org/dpfwi/Ed Rosenthal's Trial Articles & Pictureshttp://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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Comment #1 posted by Virgil on July 11, 2003 at 12:55:08 PT
Neo-conned!
The transcript of the Ron Paul speech yesterday in the House of Representatives starts out with "Neo-conned!" - http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2003/cr071003.htmAmericans have been sold a bunch of slogans while the treasury is being sucked dry- now an average of $1.53 billion a day since 9/30/02. Well they were nice slogans and they made pretty pictures when printed everywhere on a blue background with Chief Duffas in another blue suit. The slogans do not match anything and a lot of people are about to find out they have been Neo-conned.It is a house of cards, cards of slogans, that will be collapsing. I wish we could pull the cannabis slogans out and see the whole thing collapse. Looks like the sledgehammer will beat us to it though.
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