A WAR AGAINST THE PEOPLE

Outrage barely begins to describe it.

But once more, the drug warriors have taken aim at democracy, freedom and
self-determination.

Back in 1996, California voters approved -- by a margin of 55.6 percent to
44.4 percent -- Proposition 215, legalizing the use of medical marijuana,

In response, the city of Oakland established a program to grow marijuana
plants, so sick people authorized by their doctors to use the drug wouldn't
have to search the streets for dealers. In 1998, the city deputized
self-described "Guru of Ganja" Ed Rosenthal to grow the drug.

It was legal under state law. And Rosenthal, something of a marijuana
expert who had written books on the subject, had the sanction of the city
of Oakland.

But on February 12, 2001, Rosenthal was arrested in a federal sweep of
marijuana clubs in the Bay Area. You see, under federal law, marijuana is
illegal.

"There is no medical marijuana," Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman
Richard Meyer told the newspapers. "We make no distinctions because there
are none -- people who grow marijuana are marijuana traffickers. Our job is
to enforce federal laws, and we surely will."

From there, things got even worse. Rosenthal was hauled into federal court
and ordered not to tell the jury he'd been authorized by Oakland to grow
marijuana, which is not a crime under California law. Jury selection was
moved up because of the publicity surrounding the trial, and prosecutors
even tried to impose a gag order during the proceedings so that jurors
wouldn't learn the truth: Rosenthal was legit, not the big-time marijuana
kingpin that the government wanted to portray.

Unethical? Certainly. But lies are necessary tools of the war on drugs, and
just as dangerous as armed thugs who use explosives to break into clubs
where marijuana is distributed.

The judge, Charles Breyer, brother of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen
Breyer, even told the jurors not to substitute their "sense of justice for
their sense of duty." And the jurors, kept in the dark about the real
reason Rosenthal was growing hundreds of marijuana plants in that Oakland
warehouse, went along with the sham and convicted Rosenthal after
deliberating for a day.

After the trial, the tissue of lies collapsed. The jurors learned the
truth. And they were outraged.

"I feel like I made the biggest mistake of my life. We convicted a man who
is not a criminal," juror Marney Craig told The New York Times. Added
fellow juror Charles Sackett, the foreman: "We as a jury truly were kept in
the dark. I never want to see this happen again." Five jurors apologized to
Rosenthal, who accepted, saying, "Both the jury and I were victims of a
vicious persecution."

Alternate juror Donald Withers, who didn't take part in the deliberations,
marveled at the tension between federal and state law. "It seems confusing
to me that federal law and state law would actually contradict each other.
If the state does one thing and the federal government does another, what's
a citizen to do?"

That's an easy one, Donald: Acquit.

In a case in which the federal government -- or any government, for that
matter -- is trying to prosecute a victimless crime, citizens have not only
the right but the moral obligation to refuse to enforce unjust laws.
There's a healthy tradition of doing so in American jurisprudence.

In this case, it's even worse: Although the government said Rosenthal and
others were really just growing marijuana for profit, the truth is, those
plants were intended to help ease the suffering of sick people. Sick
people, by the way, who will now have to search elsewhere for relief, all
because the federal government says there's no such thing as medical marijuana.

But because the jurors didn't question the kangaroo court when they had the
chance, Rosenthal faces decades in prison, for doing something he clearly
believed was perfectly legal under state and local law.

Let there be no doubt about what's happening: The federal government is
waging war on American citizens via storm troopers carrying gold federal
badges. They don't give a damn about the law, the sick people who are
helped by marijuana or even the concept of guilt or innocence. They care
only about enforcing the edicts of distant kings in Washington, D.C. In the
past, a hardier stock of Americans decided they had had enough of that,
staged a rebellion and wrote a Constitution so it would never happen again.
But it is happening again, and the worst part is, this time around most
people don't even care.

During Rosenthal's trial, a billboard ad campaign was launched to draw
attention to the abuse. The ads feature 8-year-old Ashley Epis, daughter of
Bryan Epis, who was sentenced in October to 10 years in federal prison for
growing marijuana at a Chico, Calif., co-op. "My Dad is not a criminal,"
Ashley's sign read.

It's becoming more clear every day who the criminals in the war on drugs
really are.