MEDICAL MARIJUANA RIGHTS GO ON TRIAL

Ed Rosenthal, who has long advocated pot, faces a life term if convicted.

SAN FRANCISCO ? The federal marijuana cultivation trial of former High
Times columnist Ed Rosenthal began Tuesday.

Prosecutor George Bevan told jurors that agents seized some 3,000 plants
growing in Rosenthal's warehouse in Oakland. "It's a federal offense,"
Bevan said.

This is no routine drug prosecution for a man whose column and books preach
the gospel on tips for growing marijuana and evading the law. Rosenthal
says he was growing medical marijuana "to help the sick," which is legal
under California law.

Rosenthal's case and others are an outgrowth of the government's drug war,
two years after the U.S. Supreme Court said it was a violation of federal
drug laws for medical marijuana clubs to dispense pot to the sick.

The government has raided several medical marijuana clubs and growing
operations in California over the objection of marijuana advocates and
local officials.

But Rosenthal and other medical marijuana advocates have countered with
fresh legal attacks that will soon reach the Supreme Court, which may not
have written the final word on the topic.

The justices said they addressed only the issue of a "medical necessity
defense" being at odds with a 1970 federal law that marijuana has no
medical benefits and cannot be prescribed.

Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that unresolved constitutional questions
remained, such as Congress' ability to interfere with intrastate commerce,
the right of states to experiment with their own laws and whether Americans
have a fundamental right to marijuana as a way to be free of pain.

Rosenthal, 58, who faces a maximum life term if convicted, said he and his
attorneys made all those arguments in a bid to have the case dismissed.

"But the judge won't let them in," Rosenthal said, adding that he would
appeal his case if convicted.

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer also ruled that jurors cannot be told
why Rosenthal was growing marijuana.