MEDICAL MARIJUANA GROWER'S TRIAL STARTS

Rosenthal's Lawyers Must Try To Mount Defense Without Including Medicinal
Use Of Pot

SAN FRANCISCO -- The criminal trial of a renowned pro-marijuana author and
activist from Oakland began Tuesday, a microcosm of the conflict between
state and federal laws on whether the drug can be used legally as medicine.

Ed Rosenthal's lawyer, Robert Eye, repeatedly tried to elicit testimony to
show that the marijuana Rosenthal grew was destined for Bay Area
cooperatives, which in turn provided it to patients bearing doctors'
recommendations.

But U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer decided last week this testimony
wouldn't be allowed, and he sustained almost all of Assistant U.S. Attorney
George L. Bevan Jr.'s objections Tues-day.

"I've ruled that the purpose for which the marijuana was grown is not a
defense and is irrelevant," Breyer told Eye while jurors were out of the
courtroom for a recess.

Breyer said federal law doesn't distinguish between medical use and any
other use.

"That may be what the law should say, but that's not what the law does say.
I'm not the Congress, I'm not the FDA (Food and Drug Administration.) You
cannot introduce that evidence to the jury."

Still, it's hard to unring a bell, and although Breyer ordered jurors to
disregard anything said about Rosenthal's purpose in violating federal
laws, some of Rosenthal's supporters seemed pleased that jurors had heard
mentions of medicinal use prior to the recess. Jurors glanced several times
at that crowd of supporters, which included some people in wheelchairs.

Rosenthal, 58, was among those arrested last February when Drug Enforcement
Administration agents raided his home office and other Oakland sites; the
Harm Reduction Center medical marijuana club in San Francisco; and the
Petaluma home of Harm Reduction Center founder Ken Hayes.

State law allows medical use of marijuana and Rosenthal grew it with the
knowledge of Oakland city officials, but federal law still bans all
marijuana cultivation, possession and use. He's char-ged with conspiracy,
cultivation and maintaining a property -- a commercial building on West
Oakland's Mandela Parkway -- for cultivation. If convicted, he could go to
prison for decades.

Bevan made his opening statement Tuesday by briefly outlining evidence
against Rosenthal and naming a litany of federal agents and other witnesses
who will testify. Eye and co-counsel Bill Simpich chose to reserve their
opening statement until after Bevan is done presenting his case.

Bevan's first witness was James Halloran, 62, of Oakland, who was arrested
in the same series of raids as Rosenthal. Halloran has pleaded guilty to
marijuana cultivation and money laundering in a deal with prosecutors that
requires his testimony against Rosenthal in exchange for a reduction of his
sentence to 56 months in federal prison rather than 50 years to life.

Halloran testified he leased the Mandela Parkway building in 1997 so he and
Rosenthal could use it for marijuana cultivation, but he walked away from
the partnership and let Rosenthal assume the lease in 1998.

He established his own operation to grow marijuana elsewhere in Oakland --
also raided last February -- but visited the Mandela Parkway building often
and saw Rosenthal several times a week for racquetball or coffee.

Rosenthal grew marijuana up until the raids, Halloran testified, and had
told Halloran he was providing marijuana to the Harm Reduction Center.

But during cross-examination, Breyer sustained Bevan's objections as Eye
tried to get Halloran to explain what the center and other clubs like it
were doing with the marijuana Rosenthal provided.

Eye did get Halloran to testify that Rosenthal made no effort to hide the
marijuana from Oakland Fire Department officials who inspected the Mandela
Parkway building, and the fire officials didn't make an issue of it.