Attorneys for Oakland pot advocate Ed Rosenthal asked a panel of federal judges today to overturn his 2003 conviction for growing medical marijuana, while the prosecutors sought to have his one-day prison sentence thrown out because they thought it wasn't long enough. Rosenthal, 60, was arrested in 2002 for growing marijuana for the Harm Reduction Center, a San Francisco dispensary for medical patients. Rosenthal, who is well-known for his "Ask Ed" advice column for cannabis growers, was convicted a year later on federal cultivation and conspiracy charges. [continues 705 words]
SAN FRANCISCO - Attorneys for Ed Rosenthal, the self-described "Guru of Ganja" who has written books on how to grow marijuana and avoid getting caught, asked a federal appeals court to overturn his drug convictions. Rosenthal, convicted two years ago of growing and distributing hundreds of marijuana plants, says he was authorized to do so by the city of Oakland under a 1996 California medical marijuana law. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer refused to allow a jury to hear that defense, and Rosenthal was prosecuted and convicted of being a major drug supplier. [continues 690 words]
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Attorneys for Ed Rosenthal, the self-described "Guru of Ganja" who has written books on how to grow marijuana and avoid getting caught, asked a federal appeals court yesterday to overturn his drug convictions. Rosenthal, convicted two years ago of growing and distributing hundreds of marijuana plants, says he was authorized to do so by the city of Oakland under a 1996 California medical marijuana law. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer refused to allow a jury to hear that defense, and Rosenthal was prosecuted and convicted of being a major drug supplier. [continues 417 words]
Oaklander Argues Even Light Sentence For Pot Convictions Too Harsh; Feds Want 2 To 5 Years More than two years after being convicted and sentenced for growing marijuana, Oakland's self-styled "Guru of Ganja" will make his appeal Tuesday for why even a slap on the wrist was too much. Ed Rosenthal, a renowned pro-marijuana author, activist and cultivation authority, claims he never should have been convicted of three marijuana-growing felonies. The government claims he not only deserved conviction, but he also deserved at least two to five years in prison instead of his one-day, time-already-served sentence. [continues 760 words]
Section 885(d) of the federal Controlled Substances Act entitles undercover police officers to obtain, handle, and sell illicit drugs. It states that "no civil or criminal liability shall be imposed" on any "authorized officer... who shall be lawfully engaged in the enforcement of any law or municipal ordinance relating to controlled substances." Section 885(d) applies to officers employed by cities, counties, and states, as well as to federal agents. After Prop 215 legalized the medical use of marijuana in California, an astute defense specialist named Amitai Schwartz suggested to Jeff Jones of the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Co-op and his attorney, Robert Raich, that Section 885(d) might afford protection if the city officially endorsed distribution through the OCBC. Raich convinced the city council that 885(d) would apply if they deputized Jones to make the herb available to patients qualified to use it under California law. And so they did, by a unanimous vote on July 28, 1998. [continues 1262 words]
Recently, the medical marijuana movement suffered a one-two punch, beginning with a 6-to-3 decision of the United States Supreme Court that even personally grown marijuana consumed for medical purposes can subject a grower or user to federal criminal penalties. At the same time, local governments in California are calling for tighter regulations. The threat of federal prosecutions casts a long shadow over the efforts by states to develop new methods of marijuana control. Ham-handed federal intervention was the rule during Pres. George W. Bush's first term. At the justice department, former Attorney General John Ashcroft had the DEA target political activists and reformers who had organized the 1996 referendum that enacted the California medical marijuana program. These persons had literally spent decades persuading the public that patients should receive the benefits of marijuana. [continues 974 words]
Robert "Duke" Schmidt has been sentenced to 41 months in federal prison for growing and distributing marijuana. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer meted out the terms in his San Francisco courtroom July 7. Schmidt reports to the Bureau of Prisons Sept. 1. He is one of about 30 West Coast medical-marijuana growers, distributors and/or users whose cases had been put on hold pending the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Gonzales v. Raich. Schmidt first appeared before Breyer in March 2003, soon after Ed Rosenthal's widely publicized trial. [continues 1635 words]
Two greater Bay Area members of Congress seem likely to oppose a legislative amendment that medical marijuana advocates called their next best hope after Monday's U.S. Supreme Court defeat. The amendment -- by Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach -- would forbid the Justice Department from using public money to raid, arrest or prosecute patients and providers in states with medical marijuana laws. It is expected to come up as early as next week, and Oakland's Angel McClary Raich -- one of the patients who brought the case decided Monday by the Supreme Court -- intends to go to Washington, D.C., to testify for it. [continues 818 words]
2 Area Reps Among Foes Of Bill To Keep Feds Off Medical Users' Backs Two greater Bay Area members of Congress seem likely to oppose a legislative amendment that medical marijuana advocates call their next best hope after Monday's U.S. Supreme Court defeat. The amendment by Rep. Maurice Hinchey,D-N.Y., and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach, would forbid the Justice Department from using public money to raid, arrest or prosecute patients and providers in states with medical marijuana laws. [continues 866 words]
2 Area Reps Among Foes of Bill to Keep Feds Off Medical Users' Backs Two greater Bay Area members of Congress seem likely to oppose a legislative amendment that medical marijuana advocates call their next best hope after Monday's U.S. Supreme Court defeat. The amendment by Rep. Maurice Hinchey,D-N.Y., and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach, would forbid the Justice Department from using public money to raid, arrest or prosecute patients and providers in states with medical marijuana laws. [continues 452 words]
Ed Rosenthal, the high priest of California's medical marijuana movement, will be the featured speaker Saturday at Houston 420 Fest, an evening of music and political advocacy sponsored by the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. Rosenthal, author of more than 12 books on the use and cultivation of medical marijuana, gained national attention two years ago when he was convicted of a federal charge for growing the drug for medical use in California. His prosecution came after the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously found the state's Proposition 215, which provided for such use of the drug, unconstitutional. [continues 113 words]
Here's a hint: It doesn't refer to April 20 Today's buzzword: 420 Pronounced: Four-twenty Definition: Time to get high Use in a sentence: "420?" (Want to get high?) "420." (I'm taking a break to get high.) "420 at Harold's house." (We're getting high at Harold's house.) This vocabulary lesson is for those who aren't going to a 420 party today and don't patronize the Houston 420 shops. And parents, you should know what those numbers mean if you see them on your kids' text messages. [continues 351 words]
As I write this column the United States Supreme Court is deliberating on the fate of over 32 individuals directly and many millions more by extension. I will dedicate my next column to my opinion of the legal aspects of the case and it's meaning within the overall debate on the use of marijuana as a medicine but for now I want to just introduce a few more facts. The case before the court is one stemming from a 2002 lawsuit filed by two medical cannabis patients, Angel McClary Raich, Diane Monson, and two caregivers, John Doe Number One, and John Doe Number Two who filed a complaint and motion for preliminary injunction against Attorney General John Ashcroft and former DEA Administrator Asa Hutchinson. They asked Judge Martin Jenkins to issue a preliminary injunction during the pendency of this action and a permanent injunction enjoining defendants from arresting or prosecuting plaintiffs, seizing their medical cannabis, forfeiting their property, or seeking civil or administrative sanctions against them for their activities. [continues 567 words]
Violent enforcers of the drug cartels are rampaging on both sides of the Mexican/US border killing cops, journalists and innocent civilians. Osama bin Laden and the Taliban are harvesting tens of millions of dollars each year from their control of the Afghan drug trade. Drug gangs in the US are responsible for needless and countless deaths, mutilations and other violent and reprehensible acts designed to ensure their sales turf remains intact. Each year hundreds of thousands of Americans contract HIV, Hep C or other deadly diseases because government policy will not allow for easy exchange or sales of hypodermic syringes. [continues 663 words]
Every day I write and report in numerous ways that "the emperor has no clothes" (and smells like week-old death.) I implore and cajole, I constantly yell "fire" in a burning theater and yet, most of you do nothing, nothing at all to end the madness of drug war. I see you in public venues, I take your calls and advise you as best I can and yet you do nothing. The drug warriors, those who thrive on eternal drug war refuse to debate me, to interview with me, to email or write me or to even talk with me in public. They are evil; they live in a fabricated world comprised of lies, pilfered profits and mutually protective rackets. To encourage you to grasp this truth, to make the leap of faith and take the initiative to DO SOMETHING to make the drug war dry up and blow away, following is a snapshot description of the evil these bastards bring to the table every day of the year: [continues 589 words]
What if the government finally managed to remove all illegal drugs from the streets of America? The crime rate would fall by almost 50%. Accidental overdose deaths would basically disappear and children would no longer have easy access to drugs. The prison industrial complex would boom like never before, with an annual influx of 2 1/2 Trillion dollars from government coffers. The unemployment rate would drop to zero as we staffed the thousands of new prisons with guards and support staff. More than 100 million US users of black market and redirected pharmaceutical drugs would be off the streets and behind bars. [continues 658 words]
365 days a year, a few thousand drug reformers work to ensure your freedom. Many of you understand that and appreciate the effort, the daily sticking of the neck into the noose for a "fitting". Most of you then pick up the remote and go to Orange County. You have been hypnotized, repeatedly raped, robbed and buggered in numerous ways then placed back on your living room couch (click) for home-brewed, individually designed, therapy "viddies". "Everything is broken..." As Mr. R. Zimmerman begins his umpteenth tour, we should once again heed his words. When it's all broken, the mind wants to shut down, to find a nice cave and do rituals designed to cover up and eliminate the dread and fear that current circumstance allows. If successful in destroying the lust for life and outgoing nature of the American "dreamers", the corporataucracy will have achieved world domination quite simply with the push of a button... a button they trained the populace to push in case of danger. [continues 585 words]
The owners of Advanced Nutrients beat back legal challenges even as they improve yields for B.C. bud Robert Higgins was juggling a dozen headaches. One partner was ill, the other was exiled indefinitely, a new bottling plant was about to come on line, the Australian market was heating up, and those goddamn lawyers . . . Unfortunately, in his view, Higgins has to deal with too many lawyers far too often. "Hey, the cops accused me of having 300 grow-ops -- I said, Come on, what do you think I am small time? It's got to be well over 700!" [continues 5286 words]
Pot Guru Ed Rosenthal Releases The Second Volume Of His Big Book Of Buds Ed Rosenthal sounds kind of sleepy over the phone. Which is no big surprise, considering his career choice. For over 30 years, Rosenthal has been a dispenser of vital wisdom to marijuana consumers, growers and cultivators everywhere, with almost 20 titles under his belt and two decades' worth of experience imparting advice in his High Times magazine Ask EdT column. Last month he published the follow-up volume to his 2001 The Big Book of Buds - a guide to "marijuana varieties from the world's greatest seed breeders." [continues 684 words]
Marijuana Growers Wait On Supreme Court Ruling To Determine If They Must Return To Prison A pending U.S. Supreme Court decision on medical marijuana patients and their caregivers could have far-ranging consequences for cannabis activists slapped with federal drug charges - and those wishing to limit the power of the federal government. At least 30 pending federal marijuana cases will be affected by the outcome of /Ashcroft v. Raich, /a case the Supreme Court heard Nov. 29 that debated whether the feds exceeded their constitutional powers by imposing national drug laws on the local, noncommercial use and cultivation of medical cannabis. A decision is expected by summer. [continues 923 words]
