Selection of Jury in Pot Case Moved Up

[boulder]

Jury selection for the federal drug trial of pro-marijuana author and activist Ed Rosenthal of Oakland has been moved up due to a judge's concern about public opinion making it hard to find unbiased jurors.

 

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer of San Francisco said Thursday jury selection will start Tuesday rather than next Thursday, leaving two extra days to pick a panel before Rosenthal's trial starts Jan. 21.

 

"He is clearly concerned about the amount of time it's going to take to get a fair and impartial jury," said Bill Simpich, one of Rosenthal's attorneys.

 

Breyer also Thursday denied the last of the pre-trial motions made by Rosenthal's lawyers, which had claimed Rosenthal was entrapped because he thought he had the federal government's tacit consent to grow the drug under California's medical marijuana law.

 

Oakland Chief Assistant City Attorney Barbara Parker testified the city's medical marijuana ordinance was meant to protect certified cultivators such as Rosenthal from prosecution. And Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley testified that in his former capacity as an Oakland City Council member, he had visited Rosenthal's cultivation facility and given it his blessing.

 

Both said the federal government never contacted the city to say the ordinance and anyone cultivating marijuana under it were breaking federal law. And an Oakland Police official testified DEA agents with whom he worked on drug investigations also never told him the city or the growers it permitted were in violation.

 

But Breyer found the federal government's silence can't be read as acquiescence, and the federal Controlled Substances Act clearly prohibits marijuana cultivation, possession and use, no matter what California's or Oakland's laws say.

 

"It wasn't sufficient to get a full dismissal of the case, but he didn't rule out the possibility of Ed using it as a defense at trial," Simpich said.

 

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.

 

The DEA claims in court documents that the Harm Reduction Center, to which Rosenthal allegedly helped supply marijuana, used the state law to mask illegal activity. The case has become a rallying point for medical marijuana activists.

 

Source: Oakland Tribune (CA)