'GURU OF GANJA' GOES FREE

Judge Sentences Rosenthal

Renowned marijuana activist and author Ed Rosenthal walked out of
court a free man Wednesday after a federal judge sentenced him to just
one day in prison - time he already served - for three
marijuana-growing felonies. Medical marijuana advocates across the
nation hailed the ruling as a major victory and the beginning of the
end for the federal ban on the drug, even though the judge said the
leniency shown Rosenthal won't be shown to anyone who follows in his
footsteps.

And although elated by his reprieve, the self-styled "Guru of Ganja"
immediately cast himself as a Moses of marijuana, exhorting the
federal pharaohs to let his people go so he can lead them into the
promised land of legalization.

"This is an historic day," he shouted during a fiery speech to about
200 cheering supporters outside the courthouse. "This is day one in
the crusade to bring down the marijuana laws -- all the marijuana laws!"

If the federal government makes no distinction between medical and
recreational marijuana use, neither will he. "All marijuana should be
legal," he said, urging the immediate release of all those imprisoned
for marijuana crimes.

Vowing to appeal the felony convictions staining his record, Rosenthal
- - flanked by his tearful wife and daughter - railed against those
who put him through this 16-month prosecution, including the judge who
had set him free just minutes earlier.

"He thinks he's going to get applause for it. Not from me - he still
violated my rights," Rosenthal, 58, said of U.S. District Judge
Charles Breyer, who kept jurors from hearing the defense Rosenthal
sought to mount. "It is unacceptable, it is corrupt, and he had an
agenda. Today I call on Judge Breyer - resign!"

Prosecutors wouldn't comment on Breyer's ruling Wednesday, other than
to say they hadn't yet decided whether to challenge it in the 9th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals.

Special Agent Richard Meyer, spokesman for the Drug Enforcement
Administration's San Francisco office, said Breyer's ruling won't
deter agents from pursuing marijuana cases.

"Our job is not to sentence someone for a crime, our job is not to
prosecute ... our job is to make the community safe, to take the
illegal drugs off the street and to bring the perpetrators to
justice," he said. "That's exactly what we did and that's what we plan
on doing in the future."

California voters in 1996 approved a law permitting medical use of
marijuana, but federal law still bans its cultivation, possession and
use for any purpose. DEA agents enforcing that federal law last
February arrested Rosenthal, who has written many books and a
long-running magazine column on marijuana cultivation and law.

Rosenthal had wanted to defend himself by claiming the state law and
an Oakland ordinance - under which he was deemed an officer of the
city permitted to grow marijuana - immunized him from federal
prosecution.

But Breyer didn't let jurors hear that, ruling before trial that the
state and city had no authority to "deputize" Rosenthal in this way
and his status under their laws was irrelevant. Jurors convicted
Rosenthal on Jan. 31 but, upon learning afterward of the state and
city protections, soon disavowed their verdict and rallied to
Rosenthal's defense.

Breyer on Wednesday said he believed Rosenthal reasonably - albeit
erroneously - thought the state and local laws immunized him from
federal prosecution. Although not a permissible defense, the judge
said, it is a mitigating factor that justifies an enormous reduction
from the sentence Rosenthal otherwise would have faced.

Yet no future defendant will be able to claim this good-faith belief
in immunity, Breyer said - the rulings and the extensive news coverage
this case produced put everyone on notice that states and cities
cannot shield medical marijuana providers and patients from the long
arm of federal law.

Two of the counts of which Rosenthal was convicted were punishable by
five to 40 years in prison, the third by up to 20 years. A mandatory
minimum of five years applied, but Breyer - over Assistant U.S.
Attorney George Bevan Jr.'s objection - found Rosenthal eligible for a
"safety valve" exception to that minimum because he had a clean
record, wasn't violent, didn't hurt anyone, didn't lead others in
committing his crime and provided the government with truthful
information. Breyer also overruled Bevan to grant additional leniency
for Rosenthal's acceptance of responsibility for his acts.

One of Rosenthal's attorneys, Dennis Riordan, acknowledged this
slap-on-the-wrist sentence "does not affect the structure of the law
and the legal right of people in California to grow marijuana"

But Breyer "gave us a very, very powerful weapon in the battle to
convince the 9th Circuit" that Rosenthal's conviction should be
overturned, Riordan said. Saying Rosenthal had a "reasonable" belief
in his immunity gives the appeals court room to rule the state and
city laws should have been permitted as a defense at the trial, he
said - a ruling that truly would gut the federal ban on medical marijuana.

Keith Stroup, executive director of the National Organization for the
Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) in Washington, D.C., called the
sentence "a great victory for Ed Rosenthal, a great victory for
state's rights and a great victory for the medical use of marijuana"
despite Breyer's caution that this get-out-of-jail-free card can be
played only once.

"It would be foolish for any other individual to think they can use
the sentencing decision in Ed's case as a precedent," Stroup
acknowledged. Yet "any U.S. Attorney in any of the states that have
legalized medical use of marijuana are going to have to think twice
now before they bring a federal prosecution against someone operating
under those laws."

Even if only in this case, Breyer "has made a distinction between
someone growing marijuana for medical purposes and somebody growing
marijuana as a drug dealer," Stroup said, denoting "a slap in the face
to the Bush administration and its head-in-the-sand position that
marijuana has no medical use."

Bruce Mirken, communications director for the Marijuana Policy Project
in Washington, D.C., went further: "For all practical purposes, what
Judge Breyer did today was overturn the federal law banning medical
marijuana.

"He cited the extraordinary circumstance of the case, but the whole
reason Ed Rosenthal was prosecuted is that federal law doesn't
recognize anything extraordinary or even any difference between
seriously ill people and their caregivers, and common drug dealers,"
Mirken said. "I think Breyer's actions speak very much louder than his
words, and his actions show he gets it."

In any event, the widespread attention Rosenthal's case has drawn sets
an informal precedent, he said. "There will never be another jury that
can be fooled the way this jury was - this can't happen again."

Rosenthal said it more simply: "These laws are doomed."

Rosenthal will be on supervised release, the federal equivalent of
probation, for three years, during which he's barred from committing
any crimes or possessing any drugs. Asked if he will manage to comply
with the latter requirement, the pot potentate replied, "Next question?"