Help Save ED

Discussion in 'Cannabis News & Industry Updates' started by RMJL, Feb 24, 2003.

  1. http://forum.grasscity.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=14799

    This is the link to Ed Rosenthal's interview with Stone Phillips.
    I don't mean to shove his situation down your throats but the federal government has run over the state government in California and deceived jurors and hurt many people. They need to know that we don't approve of their actions.




    This is a column written by Joel Frady to Help Save ED. Forgive the format...it's copied and pasted from my email.




    Pubdate: Mon, 17 Feb 2003
    Source: Technician, The (NC State U, NC Edu)
    Copyright: 2003 The Technician
    Contact: opinion@technicianstaff.com
    Website: http://technicianonline.com/
    Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2268
    Author: Joel Frady
    Cited: Marijuana Policy Project http://www.mpp.org/
    Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Ed+Rosenthal

    HELP "SAVE ED"

    Over time, it's been one of those small things that got shoved down
    our throats. It wasn't around all that much, but every now and again
    it would appear during a court show, lawyer movie or during the
    evening news.

    The Statue of Lady Justice, an American symbol designed after the
    Greek goddess Themis, stands with a sword in one hand and a scale in
    the other. Her eyes are blindfolded, and frequently there's a banner
    somewhere in the area that says "Justice is Blind."

    For many people, that's reassuring -- it's easy to believe that
    anyone, no matter who he or she is, would get a fair, unbiased trial
    where the truth is found among all the evidence, and the guilty
    parties are actually punished.

    A recent court case, however, has put a new spin on things: Is justice
    blind or is justice blinding?

    Meet Ed Rosenthal. Author, columnist and self-described "Guru of
    Ganja," Rosenthal was found guilty on Jan. 31 on three felony charges
    stemming from his arrest for growing medicinal marijuana plants. An AP
    report even states that "he was portrayed as a major drug
    manufacturer."

    It is now fairly well-known information that Rosenthal was actually
    growing the plants under California's Proposition 215, which exempts
    patients who possess and cultivate marijuana for medicinal uses from
    laws that forbid those activities. He was even growing the plants as
    an officer for the city of Oakland.

    This information, however, was not given to the jury, for U.S.
    District Court Judge Charles Breyer wouldn't allow the defense to
    argue the Proposition 215 case, because while Rosenthal's actions were
    legal under California state law, they were illegal under federal law.
    So jurors were never told about the proposition, the fact that the
    plants were for medicinal use or the nifty little reality that he was
    actually working for a major U.S. city.

    On Feb. 3, some of the jurors began to come forward, expressing regret
    about their decision in the trial and even stating they felt cheated
    because they weren't given all the information.

    "I feel like I made the biggest mistake in my life," said Marney
    Craig, a juror on the case, in a Feb. 5 AP report. "We convicted a man
    who is not a criminal."

    This only backed up what Rosenthal had been saying all along. On the
    day of his conviction, he had stated to the press that "[The jury]
    didn't have the whole truth. They didn't have nothing but the truth.
    They had lies and deceptions and half-truths."

    He's also begging all of us to think about one question very clearly.
    We can't actually approve of a judicial system that convicts a man
    without bringing out all the evidence. If you, your sibling or your
    close friend were on trial, you would expect it to be a fair one. At
    least one where the defendant is able to speak his case, tell his
    story and get judged accordingly.

    Can we really lay back and let an innocent 58-year-old man face 85
    years -- the rest of his natural life -- in prison?

    Can we really stand back while officers of the Drug Enforcement Agency
    brag about the trial's verdict? DEA spokesman Richard Meyer even
    stated, "We feel that the people of California have spoken. We're
    pleased with the verdict. We're happy with what happened today."

    If you can stand back and allow this, you might want to re-examine
    your moral compass, because it's something I can't just ignore. This
    man has done so much good for his community, a community that refers
    to him as the "Mother Teresa of medical marijuana."

    As it turns out, taking a stand against the decision is easier than
    you think. Since Feb. 4, more than 9,700 people have sent faxes to
    their Congressmen through the Marijuana Policy Project, which offers
    the service online at www.mpp.org. The process, which takes about five
    minutes, is incredibly simple: Simply type in your mailing address
    (this is so the appropriate politicians can be selected, and all
    information is private). Now choose one of the many pre-written
    letters, at which point it will show up in a text box, and you'll be
    able to modify it as you see fit.

    Once you're done, click a button, and the fax is sent.

    It's that easy, and by the time you read this, it's very likely that
    over 10,000 faxes will have been sent to public representatives -- not
    a shabby number at all.

    But still, imagine the impact that it could have if the number of
    faxes continue to rise. Imagine if every day more and more people send
    these faxes and start placing little stickers on bathroom stalls that
    read "Save Ed."

    Imagine if waiters and waitresses start wearing little pieces of flair
    that read "Save Ed," and it starts to adorn the bumper stickers of
    every car in the nation!

    Okay, maybe bumper stickers are a bad idea. But whether or not you
    believe patients with cancer and other illnesses deserve medicinal
    marijuana to fight the pain and infection, it is time to make it known
    that we can't be proud of a country that doesn't even give one of its
    citizens a fair trial. If this is how the people working to benefit
    humanity are being treated, how are the rest of us going to be treated?

    My fax has already gone through the lines and landed in the fax
    machines of Senator Elizabeth Dole, Senator John Edwards and
    Representative Bob Etheridge. My voice has been heard, even if only in
    the form of a few pieces of paper.

    Now it's your turn.
     

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