Jurors claim they were misled in marijuana trial (of pot guru)

Modesto Bee ^ | 2/5/03 | Angela Watercutter

[hoosierskypilot]

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A marijuana advocate and the jury that convicted him are making an unexpected show of solidarity: Jurors claim they were misled and the defendant says it isn't them he blames. Ed Rosenthal, the self-described "Guru of Ganja," was allowed Tuesday to remain free on $200,000 bail until his June 4 sentencing on federal drug violations.

[rhombus]

actually saw an article today saying that drug enforcement has been a failure and as a result money would not be increased, for what it's worth

[MindBender26]

Wonderful.

By your "assinine" logic, a person could grow Ricin or Anthrax, or build an atomic bomb in most states, and until they killed people with it or took it acorss state lines, no one could do anything about it, because most states do not have laws dealing with these items, rathe rleaving them to the Federal government.

Just the clear logic we expect from the pro-drug crowd.....

[Protagoras]

It's only a matter of time before the citizens take matters into their own hands via jury nullification as they did in the first prohibition.

If I was on this jury, it would have been hung at best.

[dirtboy]

Bush and Ashcroft? Seems like it goes back further than that...

Hello? Ashcroft is the AG right now. The decision to prosecute was made by him. I agree this problem goes back quite a ways, but we have to deal with the AG in office now.

[an amused spectator]

Jurors said they felt cheated because they weren't allowed to hear that Rosenthal supplied Oakland's medical marijuana program, an outgrowth of a 1996 medical marijuana initiative that conflicts with federal law.

The little stage play that is the American "justice" system, the ever-growing joke where the facts ain't the facts if one of the lawyers can suppress them.

What a mockery.

[MindBender26]

Victimless crime" Drugs, tax, ????

If someone sells drugs that end up in the veins of a dead overdosed 12 year old, there is a victim,

When some creep cheats on his taxes, the victims are the rest of us who pay more.

Reality is a bitch.

[Roscoe]

I suspect the former jurors are being misled by the marijuana evangelists now. Proposition 215 did NOT purport to supercede federal law and it contained NO provision for Oakland to modify it.

[dirtboy]

By your "assinine" logic, a person could grow Ricin or Anthrax, or build an atomic bomb in most states, and until they killed people with it or took it acorss state lines, no one could do anything about it, because most states do not have laws dealing with these items, rathe rleaving them to the Federal government.

Another strawman. First of all, no state in the union is going to protest federal action against illegal ricin manufacture or making atomic weapons. However, several states have asserted that they have the right to regulate pot within their own boundaries, in clear agreement with the limited government concept of the Constitution, so they are no longer willing to roll over to the feds and are re-asserting their rights as states under the 10th Amendment.

You gotta bring your "A" game to this debate, the same old recycled nonsense doesn't impress anyone.

[MrLeRoy]

If someone sells drugs that end up in the veins of a dead overdosed 12 year old, there is a victim

A few years ago, a man pursuing a relationship with a woman at a party gave her young child alcohol to get the child out of the way, and the child died as a result. The man should be jailed---but should alcohol be banned?

[MindBender26]

Please, stop the ad hominum attacks. People here know they are a sign a weak logic on the part of the poster.

RE: your post itself: Certain states claiming the right to regulate drugs, etc.

Certain states also claimed the right to leave the Union, not pay taxes, declare war, etc.

Certain people also claimed they were committing suicide to return to the mother ship!

You also move onto a very slipery slope when you try to argue that "no state is going to protest federal action against illegal ricin manufacture." What state resiources would have been committed to finding anthrax labs on September 10, 2001?

I would remind you that the State of Arkansas tried to avoid, and were infact, successfully avoided Federal controls on their shipment of AIDS tainted blood within their own state, across state lines, in fact across international borders, resulting in the deaths of 16,000 +/- people.

Simply put, these were big time druggies who tried to put up a smokescreen that they were only "helping sick people." How many thousand 12 year old kids attending school in one city need street drugs for some supposedly terminal disease?

I have a videotape of Rosenthal saying tongue in cheek, "I smoke marijuana for an undiagnosed case of possible glaucoma, and the reason no doctor can diagnone it is that I smoke dope." The audience of heads roared at that one.

The judge didn't buy it. The courts don't buy it. Smart people don't buy it.

[MindBender26]

No, but Rosenthal is not a drug.

He is the perp who sold drugs to 12 year olds. Even worse, when he was Editor of "High Times' he taught 8 year olds how to hide their drug use from their parents, how to get their friends hooked on drugs too.

Nice guy!

[MrLeRoy]

Certain states claiming the right to regulate drugs, etc.

It's a legitimate claim, since the Constitution gives the federal government no authority to regulate the intrastate making, distributing, selling, buying, or using of any drug.

What state resiources would have been committed to finding anthrax labs on September 10, 2001?

What federal resources were committed to finding anthrax labs on September 10, 2001?

I would remind you that the State of Arkansas tried to avoid, and were infact, successfully avoided Federal controls on their shipment of AIDS tainted blood

Clinton pal Art Lockhart, head of the Arkansas Department of Corrections, conned the FDA. How does that prove that the feds are more trustworthy than the states?

[MrLeRoy]

Rosenthal [...] is the perp who sold drugs to 12 year olds.

Provide evidence for your claim.

Even worse, when he was Editor of "High Times' he taught 8 year olds how to hide their drug use from their parents, how to get their friends hooked on drugs too.

"High Times" was targeted at 8 year olds?

[dirtboy]

Please, stop the ad hominum attacks. People here know they are a sign a weak logic on the part of the poster.

Oh, that is a hoot. You come barging into this thread with these kind of statements:

, these new drug gangsters want to poison all our kids slowly so they can buy another Rolex, sawed off shotgun or stretch limousine.

And then whine about ad hominum attacks? BWHAHAHA.

Don't worry, I won't attack you any more on this thread, because I won't respond to you any more, either. I don't have time to waste with hypocrites.

[dirtboy]

I would remind you that the State of Arkansas tried to avoid, and were infact, successfully avoided Federal controls on their shipment of AIDS tainted blood within their own state, across state lines, in fact across international borders, resulting in the deaths of 16,000 +/- people.

I will respond to this one because it is so pointless. Commerce occurred here, both intrastate and interstate, so the feds are well within their powers to regulate this trade, for what good it apparently did. No commerce occurs when someone grows pot for their own consumption, but the feds outlaw that anyway. So exactly what point are you trying to make here, other than you applaud at federal usurpation of power, something the Constitution was set up to try and prevent?

BTW, first of all, I don't smoke weed, and second of all, I think a state is well within its rights to ban cultivation and consumption of weed within its borders, or importation from other states where it might be legal. It's not about weed, although I think weed is about the same as booze. It's about federalism.

[Britton J Wingfield]

Please tell me what the lethal dose is for marijuana in a 12 year old. (or in any individual, for that matter)

[MindBender26]

Actually, with some of the newer BC Gold and like marijuanas, there are cases presentingin the ER all the time with respiratory distress, respiratory depression, etc. new stuff can be as much as 50 more potent than 70s stuff. "It aint your momma's marijuana" is the new warning whenever someone ends up in clinical trouble from the new grass.

Secondly, it's whatever dosage that teaches his 12 year old logic system that the solution to his problems is in a pill, potient, or puff, rather than in his own brain and problem solving sequence.

There are other deaths than a stopped heart.

[tdadams]

Whenever they make teir “states’ rights” argument, they are using the same logic and reasoning the Ku Klux Klan used 50 years ago to keep Black children out of school in the segregated South.

So, states rights is an illegitimate concept in your opinion, only good for allowing criminals to circumvent federal law?

[tdadams]

The conduct of the court in this case is egregious. They clearly made a deliberate effort to misrepresent the defendant and mislead the jury as to his motives. This is prima facie proof that he did not get a fair trail and his conviction should be overturned.

The behavior of this court makes third world kangaroo courts seem fair by comparison. This should not happen in America.

[tdadams]

I agree. I think Americans are mostly disinterested in the conduct of the Fedgov in this battle, but a case like this will get attention and bring people to their feet to say "this isn't right and our government shouldn't be doing this."