Oakland Cannabis Court Case
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41US CA: Pot Advocate Gets 1 Day In Jail And Gives Judge A Piece Of His MindSat, 07 Jul 2007
Source:San Francisco Chronicle (CA) Author:Egelko, Bob Area:California Lines:Excerpt Added:07/07/2007

Marijuana advocate Ed Rosenthal lectured a federal judge Friday before being sentenced to a day in jail -- which he has already served -- for growing pot plants for medicinal use.

"I am proud of what I did. I know I have done nothing wrong," Rosenthal told U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer. Referring to the two juries that convicted him of violating federal drug laws without hearing evidence that the marijuana was intended for medical use, Rosenthal said, "You have now hurt 24 jurors. ... You left them feeling guilty about their unwitting role in these faux trials."

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42 US CA: 'Guru Of Ganja' Is Spared Prison TimeSat, 07 Jul 2007
Source:Los Angeles Times (CA)          Area:California Lines:35 Added:07/07/2007

Ed Rosenthal, the self-described "Guru of Ganja," will get no prison time despite a conviction for growing and distributing hundreds of marijuana plants, a federal judge ruled Friday.

A jury convicted Rosenthal, 63, in May of three cultivation and conspiracy charges after U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer prohibited Rosenthal's lawyers from telling the jury that he was working for a pot club sanctioned by the city of Oakland.

On Friday, Breyer said a one-day prison sentence was punishment enough for Rosenthal, who once wrote the "Ask Ed" column for High Times magazine and has written books with titles including "The Big Book of Buds" and "Ask Ed: Marijuana Law. Don't Get Busted."

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43US CA: Marijuana Grower Wants A New TrialSun, 24 Jun 2007
Source:San Francisco Chronicle (CA) Author:Lee, Henry K. Area:California Lines:Excerpt Added:06/24/2007

Ed Rosenthal, twice convicted of violating federal drug laws by growing marijuana for medical patients, wants a new trial.

The 62-year-old Oakland man claims U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco wrongly barred him from telling jurors his goal was helping the sick.

In a motion filed earlier this month, Rosenthal's attorney argued Breyer should have allowed him to present evidence regarding "the scientific value of medical marijuana."

Assistant U.S. Attorney George Bevan said Rosenthal's allegations are without merit, according to a motion he filed Wednesday.

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44US CA: 'Ganja Guru' Reconvicted but Won't PayThu, 31 May 2007
Source:Contra Costa Times (CA) Author:Richman, Josh Area:California Lines:Excerpt Added:05/31/2007

Rosenthal Already Has Served His One-Day Sentence and Won't Face Prison, Fine or Probation

SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal jury in San Francisco convicted Oakland "Guru of Ganja" Ed Rosenthal on Wednesday of three of the five marijuana-growing felonies of which he stood accused.

After starting deliberations Tuesday afternoon, jurors convicted Rosenthal, 62, of one conspiracy count; one count of growing, intending to distribute and distributing marijuana; and one count of using a commercial building -- 1419 Mandela Parkway in Oakland -- as a site for growing and distributing marijuana.

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45US CA: Medical Marijuana Advocate ConvictedThu, 31 May 2007
Source:San Francisco Chronicle (CA) Author:Egelko, Bob Area:California Lines:Excerpt Added:05/31/2007

Though Guilty Again, No Jail for Rosenthal

Ed Rosenthal was a free man, but not a happy one, after a jury convicted him Wednesday for a second time of violating federal drug laws by growing marijuana for medical patients.

Rosenthal, 62, of Oakland -- an authority on cannabis cultivation, former columnist for High Times magazine and longtime advocate of legalizing marijuana -- was fuming that the same federal judge who declined to imprison him had also refused to let him argue to jurors that his purpose was healing people, not dealing drugs.

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46US CA: 'Ganja Guru' Re-ConvictedThu, 31 May 2007
Source:Oakland Tribune, The (CA) Author:Richman, Josh Area:California Lines:Excerpt Added:05/31/2007

A federal jury in San Francisco convicted Oakland "Guru of Ganja" Ed Rosenthal on Wednesday of three of the five marijuana-growing felonies of which he stood accused.

After starting deliberations Tuesday afternoon, jurors convicted Rosenthal, 62, of one conspiracy count; one count of growing, intending to distribute and distributing marijuana; and one count of using a commercial building -- 1419 Mandela Parkway in Oakland -- as a site for growing and distributing marijuana.

But they acquitted him of growing and distributing marijuana at the Harm Reduction Center medical-marijuana club on San Francisco's Sixth Street, and they deadlocked on whether he had conspired to do so.

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47 US CA: The Drug War Soldiers OnTue, 22 May 2007
Source:San Francisco Bay Guardian, The (CA) Author:Schulz, G. W. Area:California Lines:239 Added:05/23/2007

Why Tom Ammiano's Well-Meaning Marijuana Ordinance Hasn't Tamed The Cops

It's been five months since the Board of Supervisors passed Sup. Tom Ammiano's ordinance directing the San Francisco Police Department to make cannabis busts its lowest possible priority.

But is it safe to say San Franciscans can openly smoke, grow, or distribute cannabis without being harassed by law enforcement, as the nighttime talk show hosts and news pundits are fond of pronouncing?

Eric Luce, who's worked as a public defender in Jeff Adachi's office for the past four years, doesn't think so. He's seen a spike in recent cannabis busts and has eight open cases right now involving small-time marijuana sales.

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48US CA: Rosenthal Trial BeginsWed, 16 May 2007
Source:San Francisco Chronicle (CA) Author:Egelko, Bob Area:California Lines:Excerpt Added:05/16/2007

San Francisco Pot Advocate's New Trial Begins

The lawyer for marijuana advocate Ed Rosenthal pushed as far as she could Tuesday against a judge's edict to keep the subject of medical marijuana out of his retrial on federal cultivation charges, trying to let jurors know that Rosenthal was growing cannabis for sick patients. Defense attorney Shari Greenberger began her opening statement in federal court in San Francisco by addressing jurors as "fellow Californians,'' a less-than-subtle reminder that state voters legalized marijuana for medical use in 1996. She later acknowledged that "this is a federal case brought by the federal government. There are certain areas where we cannot go.'' Greenberger said, "Mr. Rosenthal is a scientist and the government will attempt to suppress his ideas. ... For the past 40 years, my client, Ed Rosenthal, has been a proponent of marijuana advocacy and reform, and that is why we are here.'' Her opening statement drew repeated objections from the prosecution, and U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer told the jurors they were there to decide whether Rosenthal was guilty of growing marijuana, not to draw conclusions about why the government was prosecuting him. For his part, Assistant U.S. Attorney George Bevan described the case as a straightforward prosecution for marijuana cultivation. He reminded the jurors in his opening statement that they had promised to apply the law according to Breyer's instructions. Rosenthal, 62, an authority on marijuana cultivation and writer of numerous books and magazine articles on the subject, was arrested in 2002 and charged with growing thousands of plants in an Oakland warehouse for patients at a San Francisco dispensary. He was convicted in 2003 but sentenced by Breyer to only one day in jail, which he had already served.

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49US CA: Medical Pot Advocates Suffer Court SetbacksFri, 11 May 2007
Source:San Francisco Chronicle (CA) Author:Egelko, Bob Area:California Lines:Excerpt Added:05/11/2007

One Case Dropped; Ruling Bars Defense Claim In Second

A medical marijuana patient whose challenge to federal drug laws reached the U.S. Supreme Court dropped her long-running legal case Thursday, while in another case a noted pot advocate lost an attempt to introduce evidence about the medicinal value of cannabis at his retrial on cultivation charges.

The separate developments represented victories for federal prosecutors who have sought to override California's 1996 medical marijuana initiative in federal court. Although the law, which allows patients to use the drug with their doctor's recommendation, remains in effect, patients and suppliers can be prosecuted under federal law that recognizes no legitimate use for marijuana.

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50 US TN: Pot Grower Who May Lose Farm Says His Only Crime Was CaringSun, 22 Apr 2007
Source:Dickson Herald, The (TN) Author:Alligood, Leon Area:Tennessee Lines:223 Added:04/22/2007

Bernie Ellis is an unrepentant soul.

"I remain unashamed of what I was doing," he said on a recent afternoon, the first warm day since dogwood winter settled on the month of April. He sat on a deck at a West Meade home where he has been employed as a landscaper for several months.

When lawmen raided his farm in August 2002, this man of medicine -- a professional public health consultant who has worked for anti-substance abuse programs across the country -- told officers he was growing marijuana for medical reasons. He also gave it to friends and acquaintances suffering from AIDS, cancer or chronic diseases.

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51US CA: Getting CardedSun, 22 Apr 2007
Source:San Francisco Chronicle (CA) Author:Rubien, David Area:California Lines:Excerpt Added:04/22/2007

One Journalist's Trip Through the Culture of Medical Pot Clubs to a Pain-Free Life

I'm not sure why it didn't occur to me sooner to treat my condition with medical marijuana. I have the journalist's disease -- repetitive strain injury, which results from excessive or nonergonomic typing and mouse use. When the RSI acts up, my fingers tingle and an electrical sensation radiates up my arms, causing nagging pain in the rotator cuff area, prompting me to compulsively poke at the spot.

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52 US CA: Bongloads of JusticeThu, 19 Apr 2007
Source:Pasadena Weekly (CA) Author:Piasecki, Joe Area:California Lines:249 Added:04/19/2007

How Getting Caught Up in a Federal Drug Raid Turned Pasadena Comic Tere Joyce into a Marijuana Missionary

Tere Joyce finds humor in just about everything, but not this.

During a stop on her way home from a radio interview last week, the Pasadena comic and former star of the NBC reality show "Last Comic Standing" found herself at the wrong end of a rifle, caught up in a surprise Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) raid on a medical marijuana dispensary in Woodland Hills.

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53US CA: Official Backs Marijuana OutletSun, 15 Apr 2007
Source:Contra Costa Times (CA) Author:Pal, Meera Area:California Lines:Excerpt Added:04/15/2007

Pleasanton: Councilman Studies Issue As Others Seek Ban on Medical Dispensaries

Pleasanton Councilman Matt Sullivan would like to make a medical marijuana dispensary work in the Tri-Valley.

Sullivan convinced the City Council at its April 3 meeting to postpone a decision on whether to enact a ban on dispensaries. Since then, he has been doing research into how they affect the communities that have them.

"The last time we looked at this, the staff presented all the horror stories and the bad experiences," he said. "But I felt like there was maybe another side of the story, where it has been successful."

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54US CA: OPED: Rejected in Court, Medical Pot Advocates Turn to DEASun, 15 Apr 2007
Source:Sacramento Bee (CA) Author:Cooper, Claire Area:California Lines:Excerpt Added:04/15/2007

A federal appeals court's rejection of Angel Raich's plea for permission to ease her suffering without fear of prosecution has medical marijuana advocates looking for reform in a surprising venue - -- the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Raich's loss severely diminishes prospects of reform through litigation. But a February "opinion and recommended ruling" by a DEA administrative law judge holds out the possibility that prescription marijuana will be developed and approved by the Federal Drug Administration, ending the long federal-state standoff over medical pot.

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55US CA: They Can't Send 'Guru of Ganja' To Jail, but Feds Will Retry CaseSat, 14 Apr 2007
Source:San Francisco Chronicle (CA) Author:Egelko, Bob Area:California Lines:Excerpt Added:04/15/2007

Federal prosecutors brushed off a judge's suggestion that they not retry a prominent marijuana advocate on cultivation charges and said Friday they would press ahead, even though he cannot be sent to prison if he is convicted.

Assistant U.S. Attorney George Bevan made the announcement at a hearing in San Francisco before U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, who presided over the first trial of 62-year-old Ed Rosenthal of Oakland. When Bevan said last month that the government intended to retry the self-described "guru of ganja," Breyer urged him to reconsider, suggesting that federal resources might be used more productively in prosecutions that result in imprisonment.

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56 US IA: Reader's Plea To Legislature For 'Common Sense'Sat, 24 Mar 2007
Source:Independent Iowan, The (IA) Author:Olsen, Carl Area:Iowa Lines:54 Added:03/27/2007

Advocates Joining 12 Other States Permitting Use Of Medical Marijuana

There are a number of drug law reform issues in the 2006 Iowa Democratic Party State Platform, particularly regarding marijuana. I don't expect Iowa legislators will be so bold as to support decriminalization of marijuana like Dennis Kucinich (http://www.decriminalizemarijuana.info/), but it is certainly within expectation that Iowa will show the same courage as New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and do something to protect people who use marijuana as medicine.

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57US CA: Column: Still Waiting To InhaleSun, 25 Mar 2007
Source:Orange County Register, The (CA) Author:Bock, Alan Area:California Lines:Excerpt Added:03/25/2007

California voters in 1996 passed Proposition 215, which exempted bona fide patients with a recommendation from a licensed physician from certain aspects of state prohibition against the possession, use or transportation of marijuana, or cannabis. More than 10 years later, however, implementation of the law is spotty and still controversial.

Several recent developments, however, have put the issue in the news: Comedian Drew Carey is stepping up as a Hollywood spokesperson; the Orange County Board of Supervisors is weighing medical marijuana ID cards, and one of the most famous cases has come to an unhappy and unfavorable, in my view, conclusion. There have been a number of promising studies and decisions, too.

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58US CA: Perils Grow In Battle For Medical PotThu, 22 Mar 2007
Source:San Francisco Chronicle (CA) Author:Collier, Robert Area:California Lines:Excerpt Added:03/22/2007

Laws In Conflict -- Environment Dicey For Patients, Dealers

A decade after Californians approved the medical use of marijuana, the state's battle with the federal government over the use of marijuana still is being fought hard, with contradictory results.

In the past five years, the number of medical marijuana clubs -- stores authorized under state law where people can buy cannabis with a doctor's approval -- has tripled in the state, to more than 300. But club operators and pot growers are increasingly subject to federal arrests, seizures and prosecution.

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59US CA: Pot Case Decision A Month AwaySun, 18 Mar 2007
Source:San Jose Mercury News (CA) Author:Richman, Josh Area:California Lines:Excerpt Added:03/19/2007

Prosecutor Must Decide Whether To Appeal Ruling

A federal judge Friday gave a prosecutor one month to decide whether to continue the government's case against "Guru of Ganja" Ed Rosenthal.

Judge Charles Breyer on Wednesday tossed out money-laundering and tax-evasion charges against the 62-year-old former High Times magazine columnist. The San Francisco-based judge said those new charges amounted to vindictive prosecution after an appeals court overturned Rosenthal's 2003 conviction on three marijuana-growing felonies.

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60 US CA: Calif Appeals Court Rules Against Dying WomanThu, 15 Mar 2007
Source:Alpena News, The (MI)          Area:California Lines:75 Added:03/16/2007

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A woman whose doctor says marijuana is the only medicine keeping her alive can face federal prosecution on drug charges, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.

The ruling was the latest legal defeat for Angel Raich, a mother of two from Oakland suffering from scoliosis, a brain tumor, chronic nausea and other ailments who sued the federal government pre-emptively to avoid being arrested for using the drug. On her doctor's advice, Raich eats or smokes marijuana every couple of hours to ease her pain and bolster her appetite.

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