TRIAL LOOMS FOR MEDICAL POT FIGURE FROM OAKLAND

More Testimony On Pre-Trial Motions Today, Jury Selection Next Week

SAN FRANCISCO -- It looks like pro-marijuana author and activist Ed
Rosenthal of Oakland is headed for trial on federal drug charges.

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer today will hear testimony from Oakland
Chief Assistant City Attorney Barbara Parker on whether Rosenthal might
have honestly believed the city's policies on medical marijuana use
protected him from federal prosecution.

But Breyer on Wednesday didn't seem to think what he hears today will lead
to him granting Rosenthal's lawyers' motions to set aside part or all of
the case.

Instead, he ordered that the parties plan to be in court next Thursday to
start picking a jury so Rosenthal's trial can begin Tuesday, Jan. 21.

Assistant U.S. Attorney George Bevan estimated it would take him up to five
days to present the government's case, while Rosenthal's attorneys said
they'd need several days, depending on how Breyer rules on other pre-trial
motions.

Rosenthal, 58, a widely known pro-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.

California law says medical use of marijuana is legal; federal law says it
isn't.

Court documents show the DEA claims Rosenthal and the others arrested in
the Feb. 12 raids were involved not only in a medical marijuana dispensary,
but in growing marijuana and selling it for profit.

Rosenthal's case has become a rallying point for medical marijuana
activists and even inspired the creation of a charitable group -- Green
Aid: Medical Marijuana Legal Defense & Education Fund, Inc.

Breyer on Wednesday denied Rosenthal's lawyers' motions to exclude evidence
seized in the raids based on the inadequacy of affidavits supporting the
DEA's search warrant. They had claimed agents didn't make a sufficient
showing of probable cause, but Breyer found otherwise.