Feds target Rosenthal

BY J.K. DINEEN
Of The Examiner Staff

July 8, 2003 -- Still licking their wounds, federal prosecutors have fired another shot at freed grass guru Ed Rosenthal, appealing the light sentence that let the convicted medical pot grower walk away a free man last month.
The motion, filed late Thursday in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, does not go into any detail about the grounds of appeal, according to Assistant United States Attorney Matthew Jacobs, who would not comment on why the Department of Justice decided to appeal the sentence.

Rosenthal, who despite getting zero jail time is appealing the felony conviction, said the government's appeal was "not surprising."

"They are wasting more taxpayers' money trying to put me in prison for this," said Rosenthal. "It would be absurd, if it were not so serious."

Rosenthal was convicted last spring of growing pot in an Oakland warehouse. The marijuana growing operation, which supplied a dispensary on Sixth Street in San Francisco, was legal under California law and had been inspected and signed off on by Oakland city officials.

But because federal law does not recognize medical pot, Judge Charles Breyer excluded any testimony dealing with California law, which allows for the medical use of weed with doctors' approval. After the trial, a majority of the jurors who convicted Rosenthal said they would have reached a different verdict had they been allowed to consider the purposes of the growth and that Rosenthal was acting in accordance with local and state laws.

Golden Gate University law school dean Peter Keane said the government usually appeals sentencing only when it falls outside of sentencing guidelines, which Rosenthal's did not. He suggested the appeal would not get very far.

"I think the Ninth Circuit is going to knock that appeal down quicker that you can knock down a stack of cards on your desk," said Keane.

Keane said the San Francisco United States Attorney's office is being pressured to take a stand by the U.S. Justice Department, which does not recognize medicinal uses of pot.

"The U.S. Attorney got its marching orders from Washington, as a matter of course," he said. "(Attorney General John) Ashcroft is very idealistic on the subject of marijuana and medical marijuana and wants the U.S. Attorney to emphasize the fact that they don't like it."

Rosenthal said U.S. Attorney George Bevan, who led the government's case against him, should let it rest.

"They should be happy with what they got," he said. "Right now, I'm a felon and by the time I'm done with this, not only will I be exonerated, the courts will find that these laws should be thrown out."