POT ROAST

Marijuana Movement Grows

As the country's ganja guru, Ed Rosenthal has penned cannabis self-help
books and the High Times advice column "Ask Ed." He's also been a deputized
"officer" growing pot for medicinal purposes for the City of Oakland. That
is, until the Bush administration targeted him in its assault against
medical marijuana

On February 12, 2002, Rosenthal was arrested by federal agents on charges
of marijuana cultivation and conspiracy. His January 2003 trial made banner
headlines after the jury offered him a public apology for convicting him
(jury members complained that prosecutors had withheld pertinent facts -
most notably that the City of Oakland had authorized Rosenthal to grow
marijuana for medicinal use). Last June, he was sentenced to one day in
prison and a $1000 fine - a sentence the feds have since appealed. On
September 20, Rosenthal will speak at the Boston Common for the 14th annual
Freedom Rally, sponsored by the Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition
(MASSCANN). The Phoenix caught up with him at his home in Oakland, where he
discussed his brush with the Bush "ideologues."

Q: Give us a preview of your speech on Saturday.

A: I'll be talking about the purposelessness of the war on marijuana and
its cost to American society. I'm going to talk about how it serves
right-wing conservatives to felonize a large portion of voters who would
vote against them anyway. How it helps to preserve the status quo and
punish a group of people who the right-wingers think are bad. I plan to
relate all this to my personal experience.

Q: Tell us about February 12, 2002.

A: It was 6 a.m. I heard a loud thrashing at the door of my Oakland home. I
ran downstairs, naked, and was greeted by government agents. I was [naked],
so they didn't have to worry about searching for guns. But they were
nervous. They had watched too many cop shows on TV. They were ready for a
gun battle. They screamed, "How many people are in the house?" and I said,
"Just my wife." They had to secure the house, as if we were going to rain
bombs on them. Once they did, though, they were polite. They did not wreck
the house. Most people are not treated with such kid gloves. But this was a
political case. I was selectively prosecuted, and the agents knew the press
would be watching. I think if I could get deep and personal with some of
them, they would agree this was a waste of time, money, everything.

Q: What moment from your trial stands out?

A: I remember the look of utter hatred and contempt that the judge gave me
when I entered his courtroom. Right then, I knew this was going to be a
fake trial, which it turned out to be. In the pretrial hearings, the judge
precluded us from using any of our defenses. He refused to let the jury
hear that I was deputized by the City of Oakland. Or that I thought I was
immune from prosecution. Or that this was a medical case. He was totally
prejudiced.

Q: So were you surprised by the judge's sentence?

A: I was a little surprised by it. But make no mistake: the judge didn't do
this out of concern for me. He did it for himself, because he'd lost
respectability in the community. The local newspapers were calling this
trial a "kangaroo court." Those are harsh words to use against a federal
judge. If the same thing had happened without any press around, I've no
doubt that I would be in prison for five years.

Q: What does your case say to the Bush administration about its assault on pot?

A: Nothing, because the Bush administration only speaks with God. They're
ideologues, and actual information doesn't matter to them. They're using
the same lies about marijuana that people were using 30 years ago. They
talk about pot as a gateway drug. They say it leads to immoral behavior.
The latest anti-pot commercial shows two parents whose daughter just got
pregnant because she smoked a joint. Marijuana never loosened me up like
that when I was dating. But that's just a small example of the lies.

Q: How has this ordeal changed your life?

A: This has given me the opportunity to communicate with Americans on the
issue of medical marijuana and to bring this to people in a personal way.
But I think the trial affected society more than me. Up until this time,
most of the press didn't report marijuana as a real issue. When they did,
it always came with a joking tag line like "All their dreams up in smoke."
When the New York Times picked this story up, it gave the marijuana issue a
new legitimacy. It changed the tenor of reporting, especially when the jury
repudiated its own decision.

Q: So what do you do with your days now?

A: I'm doing research for a revision of my book, Marijuana Grower's
Handbook . It's a total rewrite because so much has been learned about
marijuana cultivation in the last 10 years. And I'm awaiting resolution of
this case. I cannot go back to growing for Oakland until it's all over. I
look forward to getting back to that. I love gardening. I love
horticulture. I love plants. I believe, at the end of this case, I'll be
vindicated, and these medical-marijuana laws will be modified judicially.

To hear more about Rosenthal and the Bush administration's assault on
medical marijuana, check out MASSCANN/NORML's 14th annual Freedom Rally,
this Saturday, September 20, at noon, on the Boston Common.