MEDICAL MARIJUANA ADVOCATE CONVICTED

Though Guilty Again, No Jail for Rosenthal

Ed Rosenthal was a free man, but not a happy one, after a jury
convicted him Wednesday for a second time of violating federal drug
laws by growing marijuana for medical patients.

Rosenthal, 62, of Oakland -- an authority on cannabis cultivation,
former columnist for High Times magazine and longtime advocate of
legalizing marijuana -- was fuming that the same federal judge who
declined to imprison him had also refused to let him argue to jurors
that his purpose was healing people, not dealing drugs.

"Once again, the jury was not allowed to hear valuable information it
needed to make an unbiased and fair decision," Rosenthal said outside
court after he was convicted of three felony charges. After the
jurors learn that they were "compelled to make an immoral decision,"
he said, they will regret the verdict for the rest of their lives.

Jurors left the federal courthouse in San Francisco without
discussing the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney George Bevan declined
comment. Rosenthal's lawyers said they would ask the judge to throw
out the convictions at a hearing next week.

After a two-week trial and a day of deliberations, the jury convicted
Rosenthal of growing marijuana, maintaining a building for illegal
cultivation and conspiring to grow and distribute marijuana at an
Oakland warehouse where federal agents seized more than 3,700 plants
in February 2002.

Jurors acquitted him of maintaining another pot-growing operation at
the Harm Reduction Center, a San Francisco medical marijuana
dispensary, and deadlocked on a fifth charge of conspiracy to grow
and distribute marijuana there.

A separate jury convicted Rosenthal of similar charges in 2003, but
an appeals court overturned the verdict because of misconduct by a
juror who called a lawyer for advice during deliberations.

The charges normally carry a sentence of at least five years in
prison, but U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer sentenced Rosenthal to
only a day in jail, which he had already served. Breyer said
Rosenthal had believed he was acting legally because Oakland had
designated him as its agent in the city's medical marijuana program.

Federal prosecutors tried to add charges of money-laundering and tax
evasion for the retrial, but Breyer refused, saying the government
was retaliating for Rosenthal's criticism of the case and his
successful appeal. Prosecutors proceeded with the second trial,
rejecting the judge's suggestion that they drop the case, but
conceded that they could not seek additional punishment for Rosenthal.

In both trials, Breyer barred evidence that the marijuana was
intended for medical use under Proposition 215, the 1996 California
initiative allowing patients to use the drug with their doctor's
approval. He also excluded evidence about Rosenthal's designation as
an agent by the city of Oakland.

Left without a defense, Rosenthal's lawyers called no witnesses at
the retrial, and instead argued that the prosecution's case was
tainted by the testimony of some of Rosenthal's former friends and
business partners who had been granted leniency.

Defense lawyers also did all they could to remind jurors of the state
law -- addressing them as "fellow Californians" during opening and
closing arguments, and urging them to do the right thing without fear
of repercussions. But prosecutor Bevan told jurors they were bound by
Breyer's instructions, which required them to apply federal drug laws.