Pubdate: Thu, 29 May 2003 Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA) Copyright: 2003 Hearst Communications Inc. Contact: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388 Author: Bob Egelko 5 YEARS SOUGHT FOR POT GROWER Feds Say He Hasn't Admitted Wrongdoing Federal prosecutors are asking for a five-year prison sentence for Ed Rosenthal, a prominent medical marijuana advocate convicted of growing pot for a San Francisco dispensary. The U.S. attorney's office said in a filing late Tuesday that Rosenthal has never admitted the wrongfulness of his conduct, has falsely claimed that he was an officer in Oakland's city-endorsed medical marijuana program and should get the minimum five-year term provided by federal drug laws. Earlier Tuesday, Rosenthal's lawyers argued for a sentence of probation rather than prison, saying their client was "motivated not by financial gain but by a desire to provide humanitarian relief from suffering to seriously ill patients." U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer is scheduled to sentence Rosenthal next Wednesday. The court's probation department has recommended a year and nine months in prison, well below the usual term for growing marijuana. Rosenthal, 58, was convicted in January of cultivation and conspiracy for growing marijuana at his Oakland warehouse. He said the marijuana was for medical patients at San Francisco's Harm Reduction Center and was legally grown under California's medical marijuana law, Proposition 215 of 1996. During the trial, Breyer excluded evidence of Prop. 215, saying it was irrelevant to the federal law that bans growing marijuana for any purpose. He also barred evidence of Rosenthal's claims that he had been deputized as an officer in Oakland's medical marijuana program and that he had heard secondhand that federal authorities would not prosecute such officers. After the trial, several jurors publicly disavowed their guilty verdict after learning about the excluded evidence, and a majority of the jury -- seven jurors and two alternates -- have urged Breyer not to sentence Rosenthal to prison. State Attorney General Bill Lockyer, a supporter of Prop. 215, has asked the judge to impose the minimum term allowed by federal guidelines. Federal law normally requires a five-year term for anyone convicted, like Rosenthal, of growing more than 100 plants. But both the defense and the probation department contend he is entitled to a shorter sentence under a "safety valve" law covering certain first-time offenders who acknowledge their conduct. Prosecutors argue, however, that Rosenthal is ineligible for the safety valve because of evidence that he supervised others in marijuana growing. They also contend he was responsible for the entire growing operation at the San Francisco center and that he was never validly designated as an officer in Oakland. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens