STATE URGES CONGRESS TO RECOGNIZE POT LAW

When a federal judge allowed Ed Rosenthal to walk free earlier this month,
the convicted marijuana guru promised to take his case to state capitols and
city halls across the country.

It appears he hasn't made it very far.

Friday, he stood on the 14th floor of the state administration building,
across the street from the very courthouse where he almost lost his freedom,
celebrating Assemblyman Mark Leno's passage of a resolution urging Congress
to recognize California medicinal marijuana laws.

Last week the State Senate passed the resolution, AJR-13, in a 21-15 vote.
On April 24, the State Assembly passed it by a vote of 42-32.

With the small victory in California won, Leno said he will enlist the help
of governors and legislators of the eight other marijuana-friendly states in
his crusade.

"The federal government has no business interfering with how state voters
care for their dying and suffering citizens," Leno said.

Leno expressed amazement that he had to fight so hard in the California
legislature to pass a bill that encouraged the enforcement of a law that was
passed by the voters of California. Voters passed Proposition 215 in 1996 to
allow the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Leno said the federal government, led by the Bush administration, has been
disregarding the laws of California in its continuing harassment and
prosecution of patients, prescribers, and growers of medicinal marijuana.

He cited Rosenthal as a prime example of this harassment. Rosenthal was
recently convicted in federal court of growing marijuana in a warehouse in
Oakland and providing it to pot clubs in the Bay Area, despite the fact that
he was operating under state law.

During the trial his defense team was not allowed to refer to the medical
purpose of Rosenthal's growing operation; each time the word "medical"
passed the lips of an attorney or witness, Federal Judge Charles Breyer gave
them a strong reprimand.

Leno and his supporters Friday stressed that a sick person's right to smoke
pot should be decided on a state level.

Angel McClary-Raich, who suffers a life-threatening wasting syndrome and an
inoperable brain tumor, said her life would be unbearable without marijuana.

"I think the federal government is scared of California and its voters,"
said McClary-Raich.