[coloradan]

Life in prison for someone with a green thumb, prevented by federal law from citing a state law that authorized his activities.

[HairOfTheDog]

The "Guru of Ganja" sign out front was probably a bad idea then. Or maybe the business cards tripped him up.

[Nouge]

Under strict orders from U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, Rosenthal was never able to tell the jury that he was growing marijuana as "an officer" for the city of Oakland's medical marijuana program.

Huh? That makes no sense to me. "Hey, You're not aloud to use your best defense because I say so" Wouldn't that just have been a fact in the case?

[Dane]

Oh sheesh, here come the kangaroo pictures from the Libertarians calling the court and jury "statists" all for following the law.

[Senator Pardek]

Under strict orders from U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, Rosenthal was never able to tell the jury that he was growing marijuana as "an officer" for the city of Oakland's medical marijuana program.

Sickening.

[exnavy]

Oh, well. One less libertine on the streets is not really a bad thing.

[Dane]

Oakland's program and others throughout California were authorized under Proposition 215. Eight other states also allow the sick and dying to smoke or grow marijuana with a doctor's recommendation.

But federal authorities do not recognize those laws.

Best words I have ever seen of describing the marriage between the Greens and Libertarians.

[jodorowsky]

Hopefully this will haunt the jurors for ten-to-life when they find out what they were used for. There must be one or two decent people on the jury.

[Frank_2001]

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

[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.

[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?   

[CWOJackson]

"...the author of how-to-grow books on marijuana and how to avoid the law..."

Oops, time to rewrite that second part. He should have a little spare time.

[Bonaparte]

A couple excerpts from an interview with the "kind" and "honest" ganja guru --

I'm for total legalization, but it won't happen until 2005, after the Bush presidency.

(Ya think he's a Republican?)

Every marijuana user is persecuted, in every country in the world.

(You hear that, Amsterdam? Note: In the same interview linked above, it is pointed out that Belgium and Portugal have decriminalized use and possession, and that other countries like the UK have become lax on enforcement -- but the interviewer was apparently too stoned to note the contradiction between these facts and Rosenthal's sweeping claim of persecution.)

What a phony this guy is. All through the trial, he and his supporters have represented him as an angel of mercy, trying only to help the sick and dying, to ease their agony. But the truth is that he also profits by instructing others on how to grow more potent drug and larger yield crop. He also markets related products such as special soils that he claims will accomplish all this. The "medical" angle is just a trendy cover for his drug dealing operation.

[Lurking2Long]

Build more prisons so we can jail ALL the druggies!

[JimRed]

He faces a maximum life term when sentenced June 4.

WHY does it take six months from conviction to sentence? A week or two to review the proceedings for errors then passing sentence seems right.

[monkeyshine]

Under strict orders from U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, Rosenthal was never able to tell the jury that he was growing marijuana as "an officer" for the city of Oakland's medical marijuana program.

That sounds a bit unfair. One should be allowed to proffer any defense one wants to, and let the jury decide if it is exculpatory.

[unspun]

From a constitutional law perspective, it would be interesting to see this develop in appeals. It would be so 'nice' to see America getting in touch with its Constitution (and vice versa).

As for the how-to marijuana man, let's see, did I have a tear in my eye today? Oh yes, about the shuttle accident.

[jmc813]

WOD Ping

[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.