5 YEARS SOUGHT FOR POT GROWER

Feds Say He Hasn't Admitted Wrongdoing

Federal prosecutors are asking for a five-year prison sentence for Ed
Rosenthal, a prominent medical marijuana advocate convicted of growing pot
for a San Francisco dispensary.

The U.S. attorney's office said in a filing late Tuesday that Rosenthal has
never admitted the wrongfulness of his conduct, has falsely claimed that he
was an officer in Oakland's city-endorsed medical marijuana program and
should get the minimum five-year term provided by federal drug laws.

Earlier Tuesday, Rosenthal's lawyers argued for a sentence of probation
rather than prison, saying their client was "motivated not by financial
gain but by a desire to provide humanitarian relief from suffering to
seriously ill patients."

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer is scheduled to sentence Rosenthal next
Wednesday. The court's probation department has recommended a year and nine
months in prison, well below the usual term for growing marijuana.

Rosenthal, 58, was convicted in January of cultivation and conspiracy for
growing marijuana at his Oakland warehouse. He said the marijuana was for
medical patients at San Francisco's Harm Reduction Center and was legally
grown under California's medical marijuana law, Proposition 215 of 1996.

During the trial, Breyer excluded evidence of Prop. 215, saying it was
irrelevant to the federal law that bans growing marijuana for any purpose.
He also barred evidence of Rosenthal's claims that he had been deputized as
an officer in Oakland's medical marijuana program and that he had heard
secondhand that federal authorities would not prosecute such officers.

After the trial, several jurors publicly disavowed their guilty verdict
after learning about the excluded evidence, and a majority of the jury --
seven jurors and two alternates -- have urged Breyer not to sentence
Rosenthal to prison. State Attorney General Bill Lockyer, a supporter of
Prop. 215, has asked the judge to impose the minimum term allowed by
federal guidelines.

Federal law normally requires a five-year term for anyone convicted, like
Rosenthal, of growing more than 100 plants. But both the defense and the
probation department contend he is entitled to a shorter sentence under a
"safety valve" law covering certain first-time offenders who acknowledge
their conduct.

Prosecutors argue, however, that Rosenthal is ineligible for the safety
valve because of evidence that he supervised others in marijuana growing.
They also contend he was responsible for the entire growing operation at
the San Francisco center and that he was never validly designated as an
officer in Oakland.