Trial Looms for Medical Pot Figure from Oakland

[boulder]

Source: Oakland Tribune

 

It looks like pro-marijuana author and activist Ed Rosenthal of Oakland is headed for trial on federal drug charges. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer today will hear testimony from Oakland Chief Assistant City Attorney Barbara Parker on whether Rosenthal might have honestly believed the city's policies on medical marijuana use protected him from federal prosecution.

 

But Breyer on Wednesday didn't seem to think what he hears today will lead to him granting Rosenthal's lawyers' motions to set aside part or all of the case.

 

Instead, he ordered that the parties plan to be in court next Thursday to start picking a jury so Rosenthal's trial can begin Tuesday, Jan. 21.

 

Assistant U.S. Attorney George Bevan estimated it would take him up to five days to present the government's case, while Rosenthal's attorneys said they'd need several days, depending on how Breyer rules on other pre-trial motions.

 

Rosenthal, 58, a widely known pro-marijuana activist and author, was among those arrested last February when Drug Enforcement Administration agents raided his home office and other Oakland sites; the Harm Reduction Center medical marijuana club in San Francisco, and the Petaluma home of Harm Reduction Center founder Ken Hayes.

 

California law says medical use of marijuana is legal; federal law says it isn't.

 

Court documents show the DEA claims Rosenthal and the others arrested in the Feb. 12 raids were involved not only in a medical marijuana dispensary, but in growing marijuana and selling it for profit.

 

Rosenthal's case has become a rallying point for medical marijuana activists and even inspired the creation of a charitable group -- Green Aid: Medical Marijuana Legal Defense & Education Fund, Inc.

 

Breyer on Wednesday denied Rosenthal's lawyers' motions to exclude evidence seized in the raids based on the inadequacy of affidavits supporting the DEA's search warrant. They had claimed agents didn't make a sufficient showing of probable cause, but Breyer found otherwise.