A VINDICTIVE DRUG WAR

Ed Rosenthal, the author of numerous books on marijuana, is being used as a
scapegoat in Attorney General John Ashcroft's latest attack on the use of
marijuana for medicinal purposes. On Jan. 31, Rosenthal was convicted on
three federal counts of cultivation and conspiracy, charges that carry a
minimum five-year sentence. He had been raising marijuana plants to
distribute to sick people in the San Francisco Bay area whose doctors
recommended the drug as a way to ease their pain and other symptoms.

His activities were in strict conformance with California's medicinal
marijuana law known as Proposition 215. But Ashcroft refuses to respect the
decision of nine states to allow the use of marijuana for medicinal
purposes. And to demonstrate his belief that no sick person -- not even the
terminally ill -- should have access to the drug, Ashcroft hauled Rosenthal
before a federal court as if he were just another drug pusher.

It is hard to imagine a more irresponsible and vindictive use of federal
power.

For all Ashcroft's promotion of "states' rights" when he was a senator from
Missouri, he now seems to have little respect for any sovereign but himself.
As attorney general, he has used various tactics to close access to medical
marijuana in the states where it is legal. He has threatened to strip
prescription-writing privileges from doctors who recommend the drug, and he
has authorized harsh predawn raids of cannabis clubs.

Ashcroft justifies these tactics in the name of the war on drugs. But it
really is a war on people with cancer, AIDS and glaucoma. Marijuana has been
shown to provide relief to people suffering from these and other conditions.
Federal law allows physicians to prescribe morphine and OxyContin, but not
marijuana, a drug that is far less harmful.

Because U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer ruled that Rosenthal's
defense could not bring up the fact that he was growing the plants as
medicine, Rosenthal was portrayed by the prosecution as a major drug dealer.
In fact, he had been raising marijuana in a warehouse under the auspices of
the city of Oakland, which had given him official status as a medical
marijuana provider. He was convicted because the jury never learned the full
story. Since then, five jurors have come forward to express deep regret for
the outcome. They said during a press conference that they never would have
convicted Rosenthal had they known he was raising the crop as medicine.

Sentencing in the case is set for June. In the meantime, Rosenthal is out on
$200,000 bail. His attorneys promise to pursue every appeal option. But if
Rosenthal does end up spending years behind bars, then, as Charles Dickens
wrote, "The law is a ass."