PROFILE ED ROSENTHAL

Pot-Growing Icon Takes Raid In Stride

DEA Sees Author As Bad Medicine

For almost three decades, Ed Rosenthal has helped thousands of criminals
commit a better crime.

"I just give advice on how to cultivate a better garden," Rosenthal said.
"It's not my fault that marijuana -- the plant that is my specialty -- is
still illegal."

The 57-year-old Oakland resident is possibly the world's No. 1 authority on
growing marijuana. He has penned more than a dozen books and the "Ask Ed"
column for High Times and Cannabis Culture magazines. He even gave tips to
the Reagan administration on growing pot at a federal test farm in Mississippi.

Over the years, Rosenthal said, he just doled out advice but didn't
actually grow dope himself.

But on Feb. 12, he got busted. Rosenthal is one of men facing federal
charges of producing more than 100 marijuana plants for sale at the Harm
Reduction Center, a San Francisco medicinal marijuana club.

The raid was the third in the state since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last
year that federal anti-drug law makes no exception for seriously ill
patients using pot under California's medicinal marijuana law, Proposition
215, approved by voters in 1996.

"They woke me up at six in the morning with a search warrant," Rosenthal
said. "There I was: naked, sleepy and under arrest." Rosenthal -- co-author
of "Marijuana Law; Don't Get Busted," about what to do if police show up --
heeded his own advice.

"I didn't tell the cops a thing," he said, with an impish grin. "But I was
polite and cooperative. I gave them the key to my greenhouse so they
wouldn't knock down the door. Hey, it worked -- they didn't trash my house."

POPULAR TARGET

To marijuana advocates, Rosenthal has become a cause celebre, the biggest
and best-known target of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

"If they take down Ed Rosenthal, that means they can get anybody," said
Steve Kubby, who co-authored "Why Marijuana Should Be Legal" with Rosenthal
and was the 1998 Libertarian Party candidate for California governor. "This
is obviously an attack on a movement. They want to silence Ed."

In person, Rosenthal looks more like a middle-aged elf than a drug lord.
His conversations move easily from the types of highs produced by cannabis
indica to teaching methods at his children's high schools.

"I always wanted to be a radical," said Rosenthal, who has a son in an Ivy
League college and a daughter at an exclusive local private school. "But
I've gotten so middle class it's disgusting."

Rosenthal, whose column receives 300 e-mail questions a month, is
successful. Besides his writing, his publishing company, Quick Trading, is
branching out beyond cannabis and hemp books.

His home, on an East Oakland cul-de-sac, is a shrine to gardening. He
raises a wide variety of plants -- roses, pumpkins, tomatoes and plumeria
flowers. His 8-by-10-foot greenhouse is his "little Hawaii," where he
experiments with varieties of pineapples and rare orchid strains.

"The feds came looking for pot, but they found a lot of orchids," he said.
"I just love plants -- even illegal ones."

BOTANICAL ROOTS IN BRONX

Born and raised in the Bronx, Rosenthal has had a lifelong interest in
plants. As a boy, he took classes at the New York Botanical Gardens. After
college, he worked a few years for a Wall Street stockbroker. But it was
the 1960s and he grew restless.

"If you were interested in plants and you grew up during hippie times, you
sort of just gravitated to learning more about marijuana," he said.

BICOASTAL INITIATIVE

An original Yippie who helped found the National Organization for the
Reform of Marijuana Laws, Rosenthal moved to California in 1972 to help
with an initiative campaign, defeated by voters, that would have legalized
marijuana for personal use.

He lived in San Francisco's Mission District and Berkeley before settling
in Oakland almost 20 years ago. All these years, Rosenthal has managed to
steer clear of legal trouble.

But he has spent plenty of time in court -- as an expert witness in the
trials of accused marijuana growers where he debunks government estimates
about the value and volume of marijuana confiscations. His success often
means less prison time for the grower.

Federal agents consider pot-club operators and their suppliers to be just
like any other pot dealers. Growing and distributing marijuana is against
the law and Rosenthal violated that law, authorities say.

"Our job is to target major traffickers," said DEA spokesman Richard Meyer.
"We followed leads to them. We are not going to stop our investigation if
it leads us to a marijuana club or a famous person or a politically
connected person."

DEA Director Asa Hutchinson has said pot has no proven medical value.
According to the agency's Web site: "There are over 10,000 scientific
studies that prove marijuana is a harmful addictive drug. There is not one
reliable study that demonstrates marijuana has any medical value."

MASTER'S IN MARIJUANA

Rosenthal, who has not yet entered a plea, readily admits he grew marijuana
in a converted West Oakland warehouse near the former Carnation Dairy. But
he insists it was solely for medicinal purposes.

"I've been studying every aspect of this for many years, but myself was not
a grower," said Rosenthal, who became "obsessed" with the drug's medicinal
possibilities in 1990 after writing several articles on AIDS patients
smoking pot. "But I only decided to become a grower because the government
is not doing enough research into medical uses."

Using his extensive knowledge of marijuana strains, Rosenthal said he was
"trying to develop varieties with different profiles so that people could
taste and feel the difference. . . . We would have them try different types
of marijuana and see which one helped their symptoms more."

When describing his methodology, he sounds more like a professor than a
pothead.

"I found that certain cannabis sativa varieties are the best at stimulating
the appetite of AIDS patients and cancer patients on chemotherapy. While
some (cannabis) indica types seem to be best at reducing nausea and chronic
pain."

Supporters say his arrest was meant to quiet an outspoken and visible
proponent of marijuana. But it may prove difficult to gag a man of so many
words.

"The government anti-drug policy is a big lie that is supported by a
thousand other lies," Rosenthal said. "My crime is that I am willing to
challenge those lies."

ED ROSENTHAL

A well-known expert and author on growing marijuana, Rosenthal faces
federal charges of cultivating plants for a San Francisco medicinal
marijuana club.

- -- -- Age: 57

- -- -- Occupation: Author and magazine columnist

- -- -- Achievements: Wrote or co-wrote more than a dozen books, including
the "Marijuana Grower's Handbook," "Marijuana Medical Handbook: A Guide to
Therapeutic Use," "Closet Cultivator," "The Big Book of Buds" and
"Marijuana Beer: How to Make Your Own Hi-Brew Beer."

- -- -- Personal: Married, with two teenage children.

- -- -- Quote: "I'm just a writer who likes to give advice to gardeners. I
really wish this didn't have to be a legal crusade."