MEDICAL ISSUES, CITY LAW DISALLOWED IN POT TRIAL

Attorneys had hoped

Jury selection began Tuesday for the trial of pro-marijuana author and
activist Ed Rosenthal of Oakland, who faces federal drug charges for
growing marijuana under the state's medical marijuana law.

But evidence of that state law and Oakland's city ordinances will be
excluded from his trial under an order U.S. District Judge Charles
Breyer of San Francisco issued Monday barring Rosenthal from mounting
a defense based on medical issues. The trial begins next Tuesday and
is expected to last more than a week.

Defense attorneys had hoped to show jurors that California voters in
1996 passed a ballot measure permitting medical marijuana use, and
that Oakland has passed ordinances to regulate medical marijuana
cultivation and distribution and protect cultivators from
prosecution.

Rosenthal thought these state and local laws meant he was acting
legally, defense attorneys wanted to contend. But this is a federal
trial alleging a violation of federal law, which still bans all
cultivation, distribution, possession and use of marijuana. Breyer
granted prosecutors' motion to exclude discussion of medical issues.

Still, Rosenthal's lawyers believe Breyer might let Rosenthal testify
about his state of mind and the basis for his decisions --
specifically, that he relied on city and state officials' statements
in forming his own belief that he wouldn't be prosecuted.

Rosenthal, 58, a widely known marijuana activist and author, 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.

Court documents show the DEA claims the Harm Reduction Center, to
which Rosenthal allegedly helped supply marijuana, used the state law
to mask illegal activity. The case has become a rallying point for
medical marijuana activists.