This is a press release about the ongoing Ed Rosenthal persecution:
In an incredible waste of limited federal resources, The U.S. Attorney’s office, represented by “Mr. Marijuana for the government”, Asst. U.S. Attorney George Bevan Jr., wants to re-indict medical cannabis guru Ed Rosenthal and Richard Watts, son of noted philosopher Alan Watts, in a mockery of the justice system by persecuting sick and dying medical cannabis patients.
Federal agents raided Rosenthal’s Oakland home, his warehouse grow-op and the 6th St Harm Reduction Center in February 2002 and charged the pair with multiple cannabis felonies. Ed Rosenthal was convicted in 2003, after a travesty of a trial in which medical marijuana could not be mentioned. After the verdict was announced, nine of twelve jurors recanted their decision, saying if they’d have known it was about medical cannabis, they wouldn’t have voted guilty.
Judge Charles Breyer sentenced Ed to one day, and concluded Rosenthal had “reasonably” but erroneously believed that he was acting legally because of his support from local officials, saying that “extraordinary, unique circumstances of this case” justified an exemption from the usual five-year minimum term . Rick Watts has spent the last five years in federal probation, in legal limbo, awaiting trial for the same offenses.
In April 2006, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed Rosenthal’s convictions and remanded his case to U.S. District Court for retrial, due to possible jury misconduct. The U.S. Attorney’s Office has the power not to retry him or Rick Watts, yet they choose to squander valuable taxpayer dollars by prosecuting Rosenthal and Watts in an obvious miscarriage of justice and subversion of the will of California voters who voted for Proposition 215 in 1996.
We call on all outraged medical cannabis patients, their caregivers and supporters to phone or fax the U.S. Attorney’s office [ph.: (415)436-7200 fax: (415)436-7234] to demand they immediately cease their prosecution of both cases, as well as all those currently awaiting trial for medical cannabis related offenses and for the federal government to release all medical cannabis prisoners currently in custody.
Contacts: Clark Sullivan 415 424 0125 webmaster@hempevolution.org; Shona Gochenaur 415 240 5247 axisoflovesf@gmail.com
cannablog 
September 12, 2006 at 7:25 pm
[…] Press release on Ed Rosenthal […]
September 12, 2006 at 7:32 pm
Stay on ’em. When ya’ll start contributing more than the law and order nuts to the politicians war chests, the laws will change.
September 12, 2006 at 9:22 pm
Good point, J. You guys have been buying elections a long time, eh?
September 13, 2006 at 9:53 am
It tends to work that way in the US. When the parties can’t buy an election, it freaks them out, kindof like this.
September 13, 2006 at 11:05 am
Well, that’s a different thing. The insiders have their own club and they don’t want to lose their membership.
But populist candidates do get elected sometimes. I’m against the Minute Men though because they are practicing a divide-and-conquer strategy against immigrants.
I’m more interested in promoting peaceful social change than in having political involvement. I’ll have dialogue with anyone, though I don’t promise to agree with anything you say.
September 13, 2006 at 11:15 am
The minute men aren’t my cup of tea either. It’s just an example that if the people feel strongly about something, all the money in the world won’t sway them.
September 13, 2006 at 11:21 am
Good point, J. There is no amount of money that is going to stop cannabis either, there are too many of us who know what it can do. How much money would you take to spend the rest of your life in a wheelchair? No, there will be a change and it will not be based on who can pay the piper.
September 13, 2006 at 12:26 pm
[…] How much money would you take to live the rest of your life in pain? To suffer, when you could treat yourself and feel better, except for the threat of having everything taken away from you? There are those who say that we have the best government money can buy, and there is a lot of truth to it, but some things cannot be bought. Your health, and the health of those you love, would be worth any expense if it could help. […]
September 13, 2006 at 12:30 pm
Good luck. Forcing someone to suffer if there’s anything in the known universe that can allevaite that suffering is a moral outrage.
September 14, 2006 at 3:02 am
[…] Recent Comments More on the administration’s war crimes « cannablog on Bush authorizes torture againLess briefly noted than intended « cannablog on More on the administration’s war crimesMore on the administration’s war crimes « cannablog on Does George Bush admit his administration has committed war crimes?Movie review « cannablog on Propaganda on TelevisionJ on Press release on Ed Rosenthal and Richard Watts […]