LOCKYER URGES LENIENCY FOR 'GURU OF GANJA'

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer urged a federal judge Tuesday to
be lenient on self-described "Guru of Ganja" Ed Rosenthal who was convicted
Jan. 31 of marijuana cultivation charges.

Rosenthal, 58, says he was growing medical marijuana under a 1996 law
approved by California voters, and was deputized by the city of Oakland to
carry out that task. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer prohibited
Rosenthal's federal jury from hearing any evidence of that sort, and
Rosenthal was painted in the jury's eyes as a major drug supplier.

In a two-page letter submitted Tuesday, Lockyer asked Breyer, when he
sentences Rosenthal June 4, "to consider the California Compassionate Use
Act of 1996 ... which authorizes the possession or cultivation of marijuana
for the personal medical purposes of the patient upon the written or oral
recommendation or approval of a physician."