POT VERDICT: FIGHT BACK

THE CONVICTION OF Ed Rosenthal on charges of illegally cultivating
marijuana should be seen as what it really is: a direct attack on the
state of California by the Bush administration.

U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer, who presided at Rosenthal's
trial, refused to allow the defendant to tell the jury what he was
really doing: The city of Oakland had essentially hired him to grow
pot to distribute to sick people under Proposition 215. He's free on
bail until his sentencing June 4 and is appealing his case.

The Oakland City Council and San Francisco Board of Supervisors
should pass resolutions calling on Breyer to depart from federal
sentencing rules, which call for minimum 10-year jail terms. The
cities should also be preparing to file amicus briefs to support
Rosenthal's motion for a new trial and his appeal. And both cities
should be developing a battle plan to protect medical marijuana
suppliers like Rosenthal. A good place to start: Designate plenty more
caregivers like Rosenthal as agents of the city, then get the cities
directly into the medical pot-growing business (as called for under
San Francisco's Proposition S) - and promise an all-out legal fight to
support them. Let's see if the feds really want to indict the city and
county of San Francisco.