 | NORML News: Feds versus Ed |
 
There is no justice as Ed Rosenthal is busted for growing legally authorised medical marijuana. By Harry Cording.
NORML News Autumn 2003
Ed Rosenthal is a hero of the cannabis movement. A founding member of NORML and current member of NORML NZ, Ed is the living “guru of ganga”.
Ed’s columns in High Times and Cannabis Culture have helped many growers improve their crops. Ed has written or edited more than a dozen books on marijuana cultivation and policy, and devoted his talents to producing medical cannabis for seriously ill people in the San Francisco area.
Ed Rosenthal, age 58, now faces up to 20 years in prison. Despite being deputized by the city of Oakland in 1998 to cultivate cannabis for chronically ill patients, he was arrested by federal DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) agents.
US federal laws do not recognise medical use of marijuana, despite medical marijuana laws passed by several states, and the US government has blocked nearly all attempts to conduct scientific studies on the benefits of medical marijuana.
The Bush government has focused its attacks on California, where a 1996 referendum led to the Compassionate Use Act that made marijuana legal with a doctor’s recommendation. The act did not provide for a system of distribution, so several counties, including Oakland, authorized growers to meet this need.
Ed’s trial was rigged from the start. Federal Judge Charles Breyer ruled that the defense team could not tell jurors why Rosenthal’s marijuana was being grown or that marijuana has any medical benefits, and prevented Oakland officials from explaining Rosenthal’s deputisation during the trial. At times he took over questioning of the witnesses, and repeatedly cut off defense attorneys.
It was only after the trial that jurors learned that Rosenthal had been deputized by Oakland to grow medical cannabis, and five jurors held a press conference to apologize to Ed and call for a new trial.. Juror Marney Craig said “We made a terrible mistake and he should not be going to prison for this.”
Jury foreman Charles Sackett said he supports medical marijuana and hopes Rosenthal will win his appeal.
None of the jurors were aware of their right to exercise jury nullification, which allows a jury to find a defendant innocent if the law itself is unjust. Craig said she and her fellow jurors had no idea that they had power to disregard the federal law, because the judge never told them. “I was totally intimidated into going along with the verdict.”
Attorneys for Rosenthal say they will ask an appeals court for a new trial. Their appeal is supported by evidence of jury misconduct, as one of the jurors has admitted that during the trial she called a friend who is a lawyer. She asked the lawyer whether she had any room to exercise her own conscience. The friend apparently told her she must follow the judge’s instructions explicitly — and she told this to another juror.
Ed remains free on bail pending his appeal. Kia kaha brother!
• See Jury Nullification article p. 26.
 Go to the follow-up to this story: Freedom for Ed Rosenthal (NORML News, Winter 2003)
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