The persecution of Ed Rosenthal

By now drug war readers probably heard this story and I did a post on it last night so I won't repeat all the details here. For those of you who come for the gossip, here's the really short version.

Ed Rosental is a marijuana activist who was growing pot for the City of Oakland after a state law was passed legalizing medical marijuana. There is no person on earth more qualified than Ed Rosenthal for the job. He literally wrote the book. I had dinner with him once in New York, back in 1971. I doubt he would remember me, but I never forgot him. By no stretch of the imagination could this man be considered a danger to society.

The feds came in and arrested him for culitvation under federal law. The trial was ugly but Ed was eventually sentenced to one day in jail and his conviction was later overturned on a technicality. The feds are now retrying him on the exact same charges, even though he can't go to jail because he already served the sentence. They're going to spend tens of thousands of your tax dollars simply to harass Ed and intimidate reformers and medical marijuana patients.

Not to mention, while they're wasting our government's limited resources on persecuting a gardener, thieves, con artists, murderous bigots and corrupt politicians will go free because they don't have the manpower to investigate and prosecute them. And they call the potheads crazy?