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ROSENTHAL FREED!!!!
(Bob Egelko, SFGate.com, June 4, 2003)
In a dramatic blow to the federal government's campaign against medical marijuana, a federal judge spared pot advocate Ed Rosenthal from a prison sentence Wednesday for his conviction on cultivation charges, saying Rosenthal reasonably believed he was acting legally. . . . "This is day one in the crusade to bring down the marijuana laws, all the marijuana laws," Rosenthal -- whose latest book is called "Why Marijuana Should Be Legal" -- proclaimed after the hearing to about 100 jubilant supporters. . . . Some carried huge puppet figures showing President Bush and Attorney General John Ashcroft in jailhouse garb and depicting Rosenthal and other medical marijuana defendants with angels' wings. San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan was also in the gathering and praised the judge's decision. . . . "He did me no favors" in sentencing, Rosenthal said. "He made me a felon because he would not allow the jury to hear the whole story. He had an agenda. I call on Judge Breyer to resign." . . . Rosenthal plans to appeal his conviction, based on Breyer's rulings that kept virtually the entire defense case from the jury -- Rosenthal's medical motives, his claim that the city of Oakland had designated him as an officer to supply marijuana to a city-endorsed dispensary, and his reliance on Proposition 215, the 1996 California initiative that allowed seriously ill patients to obtain marijuana with a doctor's recommendation. . . . "Today marks the beginning of the end of the federal war on medical marijuana patients," said Robert Kampia, executive director of the nonprofit Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C. . . . "It sends a very strong message to the Bush administration that they had better focus their law enforcement resources on serious and violent crime, especially terrorism, and stop arresting patients and caregivers in the nine states that have legalized medical marijuana," said Keith Stroup, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. . . . Also celebrating were some of the jurors who disavowed their guilty verdict after learning about the evidence that had been excluded. Seven of the 12 jurors signed a letter urging Breyer not to sentence Rosenthal to prison, and four attended Wednesday's hearing. State Attorney General Bill Lockyer also called for a lenient sentence. . . . Rosenthal's case was unique because of his relationship with the city of Oakland. Trying to shield its Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative from the federal crackdown, the City Council declared the organization an official city agency in 1998 and allowed its leaders to designate suppliers -- including Rosenthal -- as city officers. . . . Breyer refused to allow evidence of those events at the trial.

posted by LoZo 6:59 PM