JUDGE KEEPS TIGHT REIN ON POT TRIAL

References To Medical Uses Quickly Squelched In Federal Court

The Bay Area's first federal medical marijuana trial ended Thursday with a
bizarre touch that symbolized the entire case: The judge took over
questioning of a defense witness to make sure he didn't refer to the
medical use of marijuana.

It started when Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley mentioned that he had
met defendant Ed Rosenthal "in the context of Proposition 215," the 1996
California medical marijuana initiative.

Without prompting from the prosecutor, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer --

vigilant about keeping the trial focused on federal law, which does not
recognize medical marijuana -- told jurors to disregard the reference.

A few minutes later, as Rosenthal's lawyer struggled to let Miley describe
the defendant's motives and the city of Oakland's endorsement of his work
as a medical marijuana supplier, the judge verbally shoved the attorney
aside. Breyer then asked Miley a few yes-or-no questions and abruptly
curtailed his testimony, to gasps from Rosenthal's supporters.

Breyer's tight rein on Rosenthal's weeklong trial reflected the chasm
between strict federal drug laws and California's official tolerance of
medical cannabis. The judge has made it clear that, in his view, both Prop.
215 and the public sentiment behind it are foreign subjects for a jury
considering federal cultivation charges.

"You are not to consider the purpose for which marijuana is grown," Breyer
told the jurors after defense lawyer Robert Eye made one of his numerous
attempts to enter a forbidden area. At another point, when Eye urged jurors
to use their "common sense of justice," Breyer cut him off and said, "You
cannot substitute your sense of justice, whatever that is, for your duty to
follow the law."

Rosenthal's supporters, who had packed the courtroom, groaned as Breyer
repeatedly blocked defense attempts to refer to Prop. 215, Rosenthal's
intent to grow marijuana for patients at a San Francisco dispensary, and
his relationship with the city of Oakland, which deputized him as an agent
to supply a now-closed medical marijuana cooperative.

Hemmed in by Breyer's rulings, Rosenthal did not testify and was left to
hope that a sympathetic local jury would bridge the apparent gulf between
state and federal law.

"I think the jury knew what the case was all about," Rosenthal told
reporters after the truncated defense case. He said Breyer "didn't want the
whole truth; he only wanted pieces of the truth."

Miley, a former Oakland city councilman who sponsored resolutions to lend
the city's official endorsement to medical marijuana, was also frustrated
with the restrictions on his testimony.

"I think it does a disservice, not only to Ed but to the citizens of this
state who supported 215," he told reporters, suggesting that the federal
government "should just back off" from interfering with the state law.

The jury begins deliberations today.

Rosenthal, 58, is charged with marijuana cultivation, conspiracy and
maintaining a place for cultivation. He faces at least 10 years in prison
if convicted of conspiring to grow more than 1,000 plants.

The prosecution of Rosenthal -- the "Ask Ed" columnist for High Times and
Cannabis Culture magazines, and author of more than a dozen books --
represents an escalation of the federal government's war on medical
marijuana in California that began during President Bill Clinton's
administration.

Voter approved Prop. 215 in 1996. It allowed seriously ill patients to use
marijuana with their doctor's approval. Almost immediately, Clinton's
Justice Department filed civil suits to close local pot clubs and sought to
punish doctors who recommended marijuana.

The Bush administration has turned to statewide raids and criminal
prosecutions -- most notably, the charges against Rosenthal and others
associated with the San Francisco Harm Reduction Center.

Federal agents said they found more than 3,000 marijuana plants in an
Oakland warehouse leased by Rosenthal. The defense tried to show that most
of them were not technically "plants," with root systems, but merely
clones, or cuttings, intended for sale to patients at the Harm Reduction
Center.

Under federal law, cultivation of more than 1,000 plants carries a
mandatory 10-year sentence, and cultivation of 100 to 1,000 plants carries
at least five years.

In closing arguments Wednesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney George Bevan
portrayed his case as open-and-shut: "Cultivation of marijuana is a federal
offense, period. Nothing else matters."

But Prop. 215 sifted into the case, with demonstrations by taped-mouth
supporters outside the courthouse, pretrial questioning of jurors about
their views on the measure, and incessant defense efforts to slip words
like "medical" and "patient" into questioning or testimony, which generally
drew rebukes from Breyer.

After defense lawyer Eye made a final plea Thursday for jurors to follow
their consciences, an irritated Bevan said Eye was out of line. "This is a
federal courtroom," the prosecutor said. "It is not a polling place."