Pubdate: Fri, 06 Jun 2003 Source: Contra Costa Times (CA) Copyright: 2003 Knight Ridder Contact: http://www.bayarea.com/mld/bayarea/contact_us/feedback_np2 Website: http://www.bayarea.com/mld/cctimes Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/96 Author: Kim Curtis, Associated Press Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Ed+Rosenthal ROSENTHAL PLEDGES TO LEGALIZE MARIJUANA USE SAN FRANCISCO - Ed Rosenthal is on a crusade. And a federal felony conviction isn't going to slow down his fight to legalize marijuana. "No law should be more harmful than the behavior it's attempting to regulate," Rosenthal said Thursday. "How harmless does a drug have to be to be legal?" The self-described "Guru of Ganja" barely hung on to his freedom Wednesday when a federal judge sentenced him to one day in prison, then credited him for time served and let him go. Prosecutors had asked U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer to sentence Rosenthal to 6 1/2 years behind bars for his January marijuana conviction. Sounding anything but contrite, a red-faced Rosenthal immediately lashed out. "I don't think one day in jail is justice," Rosenthal shouted to dozens of supporters outside federal court Wednesday. "There should be no criminal penalties for marijuana. All marijuana should be legal." Rosenthal, who received three years supervised release and was ordered to abide by state and federal laws, including drug laws, has repeatedly refused to answer questions about his own marijuana use. "I'm not doing anything that's outside the restrictions placed on me," he said Thursday. "I'm not growing marijuana." Rosenthal, who dropped out of college in 1967, had a brief stint as a stockbroker before becoming interested in marijuana cultivation and helping launch High Times magazine. He's authored several books on marijuana, including "The Big Book of Buds" and "Ask Ed: Marijuana Law. Don't Get Busted." Despite the lenient sentence, Rosenthal filed his notice of appeal Thursday. GreenAid, the Medical Marijuana Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc., has received more than $100,000 to help pay for his defense. His attorney, Dennis Riordan, believes his case is strong and was only bolstered by Breyer's symbolic sentence. "You like a case where the claims of error -- when you connect the dots -- add up to a theme," he said. "In this case they do." Rosenthal will ask the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to consider whether Breyer erred in excluding medical marijuana evidence from the trial. "There's very good law that says judges can't take defenses from juries," Riordan said. The appeals court also will be asked whether a city or municipality may grant immunity to people growing and distributing medical marijuana. It's the same protection offered to undercover police officers buying drugs, Riordan said. The law says "any official who's enforcing state or federal law relating to drugs cannot be arrested," he said. California's Proposition 215, which allows marijuana as medicine, was passed by voters in 1996. Eight other states also have declared medical marijuana legal, although federal authorities say any marijuana use is illegal. Deputy U.S. drug czar Andrea Barthwell, in San Francisco on Thursday visiting a drug treatment center, called the notion of smoking pot for medicinal purposes "silly." "We prefer to deliver the active ingredient in the pill form," she said, referring to the drug Marinol, which contains a synthetic form of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. "We do not want to encourage patients to smoke weed ... or smoke opium when we have much more effective ways of delivering that stuff." Rosenthal was arrested Feb. 12, 2002, for marijuana cultivation and conspiracy. He had been growing starter plants in a warehouse in Oakland, in his capacity as an "officer of the city" under the city's medical marijuana ordinance. The plants were distributed to organizations and clubs that serve the seriously ill. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake