"Guru of Ganja" (Ed Rosenthal) convicted of marijuana cultivation

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 01/31/03 | DAVID KRAVETS

[MikalM]

A federal jury Friday found Ed Rosenthal, the author of how-to-grow books on marijuana and how to avoid the law, guilty of marijuana cultivation and conspiracy charges.

Deliberating for a day, the 12-member jury concluded that Rosenthal, the self described "Guru of Ganja," was growing more than 1,000 plants, conspiring to cultivate marijuana and maintaining a warehouse for a growing operation. He faces a maximum life term when sentenced June 4.

[jayef]

I just hope I'm not taking a crap.

[jayef]

Yes, well said. Why don't you take your argument up with Bob Barr? Oh, that's right, he was defeated. There is justice in this world.

[Roscoe]

Oh, that's right, he was defeated.

His replacement, Congressman John Linder (R-GA), Chairman of the National Republican Campaign Committee, has proposed that drug users be quarantined at abandoned military bases so they don't infect others.

Poor leftists.

[Bonaparte]

"So who do you think Ed Rosenthal is taking to the dance tonight?"

Nobody. He's free on bail pending outcome of the appeal process. I've said elsewhere and I'll repeat it here -- the 9th Circuit is very likely to overturn the verdict and the USSC is very likely to reinstate it. The trial judge has delayed sentencing so he can arrange special handling for this defendant. He wants to give him a lighter sentence than the minimum. My guess is that a few years from now, Rosenthal will do maybe 18 months of light federal time.

[philman_36]

CWO...Chief Warrant Officer. A person who rises through the enlisted ranks and becomes an officer.
You may be an officer, but you're no gentleman.
Would you do to your troops what you did here?
Will you say nothing? Have you no shame or is it embarrassment?
...I'm moving back out to the front room of free republic.
Where fewer can see you as you really are?

[philman_36]

According to the testimony...
You got a transcript? WOW! Care to post it?

[philman_36]

"Lord Moldy" and I continued over here. I hate to see anyone getting banned, but I'm personally glad he did.
I didn't take his views as a laughing matter like he did. I guess he gave himself too much rope.
I'm rather surprised I didn't get banned. I got pretty hot under the collar about it all. I'm still pretty mad that people can be so complacent and find so much joviality in such things.
See 301.

[philman_36]

330 may interest you also.

[robertpaulsen]

Excellent find. I especially like "pseudo-citizens".

[robertpaulsen]

"The desire to not be incarcerated is one "thing" that prevents me from "blowing dope".
---philman_36

And who says the WOD is not working?

[MrLeRoy]

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/02/01/MN108651.DTL

In a final twist to the trial, the jury foreman said he hoped Rosenthal would win his appeal.

"I am for the use of medical marijuana, as a number of jurors were," Charles Sackett, 51, a construction contractor from Sebastopol, told reporters.

"We just couldn't base our decision on that. . . . We followed the letter of the law."

Later, another juror called the verdict an injustice.

"We were made to feel like we had no choice, even though we were residents of a state that has legalized medical marijuana," said Marney Craig, 58, a property manager from Novato. "It seems like we made a horrible mistake. I should have stood up and said, 'I'm not convicting.' "

Craig said she realized how much information had been kept from the jury when she drove home after the verdict and read newspaper accounts that jurors had been told to avoid during the trial.

[MrLeRoy]

And who says the WOD is not working?

So "saving" philman from his own bad choices is worth ten of billions of taxpayer dollars every year, deaths of innocents in drug-turf wars, deaths of users from impurities or unexpectedly high potencies, enrichment of criminals, and corruption of the justice system by enriched criminals?

[philman_36]

And who says the WOD is not working?
Me, for one.
You like coercion and incarceration as tactics?
Is that freedom?

How soon do you think it'll be before I'm again called a doper?
One instance agreement, the next minute insinuation, as the moment or desire warrants.

[jayef]

Then he will be defeated too. I'd like to see documentation of Congressman Linder's proposal. Pardon me if I suggest that your account of it might be a distortion.

[jayef]

How ya figure? Are you suggesting that there are a great many people who would like to smoke dope, but don't because of the fear of incarceration? Think about the implications of that. I mean really, THINK about it.

Now tell me about this great victory of yours.

[philman_36]

I do wish you people would stop being so rude and discourteous. If you mention me then flag me! I do have the right to know in what circumstances and situations my name is being brought up.
I appreciate your defense of me, but I can voice my own opinions and views and prefer to do so.

[philman_36]

...because of the fear of incarceration?
I don't "fear" incarceration, I just don't want it to occur.

[Kevin Curry]

And who says the WOD is not working?

Exactly.

[philman_36]

You like coercion and incarceration as tactics?
Is that freedom?

[MrLeRoy]

I do wish you people would stop being so rude and discourteous. If you mention me then flag me!

Since you wish me to do so, I will. But for the record, I reject your claim that my not doing so was "rude and discourteous;" clearly my post had nothing to do with you in particular and would not have been meaningfully changed had I referred instead to Joe Smith.