CALIF.'S AG URGES LENIENCY FOR POT 'GURU'

David Kravets, AP Legal Affairs Writer

May 28, 2003 - California's attorney general urged a federal judge to be lenient when he sentences a self-described "Guru of Ganja" who was convicted on marijuana cultivation charges.

Ed Rosenthal, 58, says he legally grew marijuana for medical use under a 1996 law approved by California voters, and was deputized by the city of Oakland to carry out the task. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer refused to allow a jury to hear that defense.

In a two-page letter submitted Tuesday, Attorney General Bill Lockyer asked Breyer to impose a sentence on June 4 that takes the California Compassionate Use Act of 1996 into account. The law, the attorney general wrote, "authorizes the possession or cultivation of marijuana for the personal medical purposes of the patient upon the written or oral recommendation or approval of a physician."

Rosenthal's prosecution underscored the federal government's position that medical marijuana is illegal and that the will of California voters has no affect on federal drug law.

The federal Probation Department recommended Rosenthal receive a 21-month prison term. The maximum term is 60 years. Prosecutors have not said how much time they are seeking and did not return a call Tuesday.

Lockyer asked Breyer "to impose the minimum sentence allowed under the federal sentencing guidelines." Dennis Riordan, Rosenthal's attorney, said the lowest allowable term would be no prison time at all.

Meanwhile, nine of Rosenthal's 12 jurors asked the judge Tuesday not to imprison Rosenthal. The panelists decried their own verdict after learning that Rosenthal was acting under the auspices of the city of Oakland's marijuana program.

"We feel strongly that Mr. Rosenthal deserves uninterrupted freedom because we convicted him without having all of the evidence," the nine jurors wrote Breyer.

Rosenthal once wrote a 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."