A MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE

Ed Rosenthal, an advocate of medical marijuana, is to be sentenced this
week on marijuana cultivation charges. His conviction, by a California jury
that was made to believe he was a common drug trafficker, was a miscarriage
of justice.

Growing marijuana for medical use is legal under the California
Compassionate Use Act, passed by the voters in 1996, and Rosenthal was
authorized by the City of Oakland to grow it. But U.S. law does not
distinguish between growing medical marijuana and run-of-the-mill drug
cultivation. At Rosenthal's trial, Judge Charles Breyer prohibited the jury
from hearing a medical-marijuana defense.

Rosenthal could receive up to 60 years in prison. The prosecutor has asked
for five years. But Rosenthal should not receive any prison time at all. It
is a waste of law enforcement resources to prosecute and incarcerate
medical marijuana cultivators, particularly in California, which has
expressly made it legal, and after a trial in which the jurors were not
told the full story.

Growing marijuana for medical use is legal under the California
Compassionate Use Act, passed by the voters in 1996, and Rosenthal was
authorized by the City of Oakland to grow it. But U.S. law does not
distinguish between growing medical marijuana and run-of-the-mill drug
cultivation. At Rosenthal's trial, Judge Charles Breyer prohibited the jury
from hearing a medical-marijuana defense.