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Dear
Friend: 2 6 2003
The New York Times issued a scathing editorial today, charging that
"the Bush administration's war on medical marijuana is not only
misguided but mean-spirited" and calling for a change in federal law.
In the meantime, California jurors who inadvertently convicted a
medical marijuana grower on Friday held a news conference today,
apologizing for what they had done. They also called for a change in
federal law.
Please visit http://www.mpp.org/USA to read
the editorial and other
news coverage. And, more importantly, please use the Web page to fax a
pre-written letter to your three members of Congress. The whole
process of typing in your address and selecting a pre-written letter
takes less than two minutes.
We here at the Marijuana Policy Project are trying to build on the
momentum from California and New York to persuade dozens of members of
Congress to introduce legislation to remove the "gag" that the
government is placing on medical marijuana defendants in federal
court. But our lobbying efforts will not be successful if members of
Congress do not hear from their constituents. Would you please visit
http://www.mpp.org/USA today?
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On Friday, a federal jury in San Francisco convicted Ed Rosenthal, a
well-known grower of medical marijuana in the Bay Area, of three
marijuana cultivation felonies. He now faces a mandatory minimum of
five years -- and as many as 85 years -- in federal prison for growing
medical marijuana, which is legal under California state law. His grow
operation, which served hundreds of patients who have their
physicians' approval to use marijuana for medical purposes, was also
officially sanctioned by the Oakland city government. He will be
sentenced to prison on June 4.
Why did the jury convict Rosenthal? Because the federal judge
prevented Rosenthal's defense team from making any mention of medical
marijuana in court. His lawyers weren't even allowed to bring in city
officials who had planned to testify that Rosenthal was growing
marijuana as an officer of the city!
The judge instructed the jury to determine simply whether Rosenthal
was growing marijuana and -- if he was -- they should send him to
federal prison. The jury, feeling pressured to convict him and not
hearing any real defense, found him guilty on all three counts.
If you believe that people who are arrested for marijuana should be
able to argue their case in court without being gagged by a judge and
trampled by prosecutors, please visit http://www.mpp.org/USA
to fax a
pre-written letter to your three members of Congress, urging them to
change federal law.
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The jurors didn't even know it was a medical marijuana trial until
they read the news after issuing their verdict on Friday. According to
an Associated Press story today, the jurors are outraged by the way
the judge used federal law to gag the defense and blind the jury:
* "I feel like I made the biggest mistake in my life," said
juror
Marney Craig, a 58-year-old Novato property manager. "We
convicted
a man who is not a criminal."
* "I really feel manipulated in a way," said juror Pam
Klarkowsky, a
50-year-old Petaluma nurse. "Had I known that
information, there
is no way I could have found that man guilty."
* Juror Debra DeMartini, a 45-year-old Sonoma restaurant manager,
said she would have acquitted had she known what the media
was
reporting during the trial. Breyer ordered the jury not to
listen,
read or watch any news accounts of the trial. "I'm
hearing all of
these things after the fact," she said. "That sheds
a whole new
light on it."
* Jury foreman Charles Sackett, 51 of Sebastopol, said he hopes
Rosenthal's case is overturned on appeal. "Some of us
jurors are
upset about the way the trial was conducted in that we feel
Mr. Rosenthal didn't have a chance and therefore neither did
state's rights or patient's rights," the landscaper
said. "I would
have liked to have been given the opportunity to decide with
all
the evidence."
At their news conference today, the jurors said they felt duped; they
then called on the federal government to make medical marijuana legal.
Please visit http://www.mpp.org/USA to join
the jurors in their
outrage by faxing a pre-written letter to your three members of
Congress.
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As you probably know, it is legal to use and grow medical marijuana in
eight states, including California.
But federal law defines marijuana as having no medical value and
imposes long prison sentences for any kind of marijuana offense.
Because of this, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in May 2001 that people
who are arrested for marijuana under federal law cannot avoid being
convicted just because they were growing for medical purposes. In
fact, people aren't even allowed to talk about medical marijuana in
federal court.
Consequently, we must convince Congress to change federal law so that
it recognizes marijuana's medical value and allows defendants to argue
their case in federal court.
In every social movement, there is a moment in time that crystallizes
the issue and serves as a turning point. Let's hope that the
outrageous events in California -- and the support of The New York
Times -- causes Congress to take action finally on this issue. Please
visit http://www.mpp.org/USA to tell your
three members of Congress
that they should.
Sincerely,
Rob Kampia
Executive Director
Marijuana Policy Project
Washington, D.C.
P.S. Please distribute this message widely to friends and family who
might be willing to visit http://www.mpp.org/USA
to send a pre-
written letter to their three members of Congress.
Thank you ...
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