Over in Salon, they have an amazing interview with one of the jurors who voted to convict Ed Rosenthal and is now horrified by that verdict. As I understand it, California law allows the growing of marijuana for medicinal purposes but federal law, which supersedes, says all marijuana cultivation is illegal. Going by the books, it would seem that the verdict is unjust but technically correct…but (and this is a big "but") shouldn't the feds also be prosecuting the people who received Rosenthal's marijuana and everyone who was part of the dispensing process?
If this were a non-medical situation — and the federal agents are insisting that under the law, there are no such things as medical situations — then the pushers and customers would be prosecuted too, right? I am absolutely not suggesting they deserve to be, but maybe the absurdity of this prosecution would be amplified to the breaking point if they did. There are 80-year-old women out there smoking marijuana because it seems to stop them from losing their eyesight. Shouldn't Mr. Ashcroft's justice department be hauling them into court? For consistency, shouldn't they be put on trial and not allowed to mention the doctor's prescription or why they're doing it? Maybe then someone would do something to clear up this Catch-22.
There's something really wrong with a justice system where Ed Rosenthal and Susan McDougal do hard time but Ken Lay and O.J. Simpson are out playing golf.
Oh — here's the link to the Salon piece. If they make you click through a lot of ads to read it, do so. It's worth it.