"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.

[philman_36]

It probably won't be ready for a while.
Then why did you make such a demand from me knowing that it wouldn't be ready for a while?
Your slip is showing...

[philman_36]

You forgot this question...So you can only determine if he did anything wrong by having a transcript?
Is it troublesome?

[Darheel]

'He faces a maximum life term'

Cruel, most cruel, but not unusual, punishment. This is war, America declared it on its own people. The man is a political prisoner at this point, as well as a war criminal I believe. Guess we better all toe the gov'mint line 'ere we rot.

[LibKill]

Without entering the endless WOD flamewar, I will merely note that Rosenthal was growing large quantities of marijuana, publicly. He was daring the Feds to bust him.

This is very much like holding out your hand to an attack-trained doberman and saying "get it!"

[EaglesUpForever]

Neither do I, but I am not suggesting that this same unconstitutional law will be the one that gets you. Perhaps it will be owning a gun under Hitlery's second term or some such offense...

When the Constitution and state rights are trampled under foot we all lose.

[philman_36]

He was daring the Feds to bust him.
He was doing what he did with the knowledge, and apparently the blessings, of Oakland city officials. How do you consider that "daring the Feds to bust him"?
Marijuana Grower's Trial Under Way
Snip...State law allows medical use of marijuana and Rosenthal grew it with the knowledge of Oakland city officials, but federal law still bans all marijuana cultivation, possession and use.

[philman_36]

Where'd you go Roscoe?
You forgot this question...So you can only determine if he did anything wrong by having a transcript?
Is it that troublesome of a question?

[LibKill]

He was doing what he did with the knowledge, and apparently the blessings, of Oakland city officials. How do you consider that "daring the Feds to bust him"?

Rosenthal is not ignorant of Federal law. He's a smart guy, I have read some of his writings. He knew that they would come after him and that the Blessings of Oakland wouldn't mean much to the G-Men.

What I can't figure is why he did this so publicly. Was he trying for a test case? If so, it didn't work well for him.

[Jonathon Spectre]

What's the old saying? "Don't do the crime if you can't do the time."

If only he had committed an actual crime...

Don't bother to respond, I've heard everything you and your ilk have to say already.

[Trailerpark Badass]

12 people in San Francisco think druggies belong in jail. How did they find 'em?;)))

Many, if not most, people cower in awe at the enormous power of the state. And given the chance, they will do its bidding with nary a second thought. History is replete with examples of such behavior, where people make a god of the state and subrogate their own moral conscience to the Benthamite "good" of society.

I wonder if those people think they're going to heaven?

[TigersEye]

OK, it's called the Supremacy Clause. The Oakland City Council can't pass an ordinance which would conflict with a federal statute on the same point.

Isn't that a bit turned around? The Tenth Amendment states:

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

Since the Constitution doesn't delegate to the United States the power to regulate drug use, agriculture or State laws, so long as those laws aren't specifically prohibited to the States by the Constitution, (and in this case they are not) then it would seem that the supremacy of Constitutional law favors the State here.

[philman_36]

None of that answers the question I asked.
How do you consider that "daring the Feds to bust him"? You're backtracking awfully fast.
What I can't figure is why he did this so publicly.
Do you think, possibly, that he figured the city officials would defend him? Well, they never got the chance, did they!
Was he trying for a test case?
I don't know. You presume he was "daring the Feds to bust him" and you speculate (If so, it didn't work well for him.) that he did indeed try for a test case.
A whole bunch of guessing going on.

[TigersEye]

I don't do illegal drugs.

Do you own a gun?

[LibKill]

Ease up Phil. I don't have anything against Rosenthal. I just wondered why he did this in public.

I think the 10th amendment would forbid all this federal stuff, but not too many people know about the 10th, much less respect it.

[philman_36]

I just wondered why he did this in public.
Apparently, from what I've read, because public officials supported his actions!

[LibKill]

Phil, you are being as unreasonable as some of the WOD types. Thanks for reminding me why I usually stay away from these threads.

[jodorowsky]

"No society can exist unless the laws are respected to a certain degree. The safest way to make laws respected is to make them respectable. When law and morality contradict each other, the citizen has the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense or losing his respect for the law. These two evils are of equal consequence, and it would be difficult for a person to choose between them.

"The nature of law is to maintain justice. This is so much the case that, in the minds of the people, law and justice are one and the same thing. There is in all of us a strong disposition to believe that anything lawful is also legitimate. This belief is so widespread that many persons have erroneously held that things are "just" because law makes them so. Thus, in order to make plunder appear just and sacred to many consciences, it is only necessary for the law to decree and sanction it. Slavery, restrictions, and monopoly find defenders not only among those who profit from them but also among those who suffer from them."

The Law

[The FRugitive]

Too bad for him he's not a crack head like Noelle Bush who commited FELONY FRAUD. Then he'd get rehab instead of life in prison.

[GirlShortstop]

 
The verdicts were a victory in the federal government's battle against California's 1996 voter-approved medical marijuana law. Rosenthal's arrest last year was among a string of Drug Enforcement Administration raids on medical marijuana suppliers in California.

TENTH AMENDMENT anyone?   

[philman_36]

Phil, you are being as unreasonable as some of the WOD types.
I'm being unreasonable?
You're the one claiming he "dared" the Feds to bust him. You're the one trying to figure out why he did this publically. I'm the one trying to give you a possible reason as to why he did what he did.
No, I don't see that I'm the one being unreasonable.
Thanks for reminding me why I usually stay away from these threads.
Then resume the position.