On June 4, medical marijuana hero and best-selling author Ed Rosenthal will be sentenced in a federal court in San Francisco for manufacturing marijuana. During Rosenthal’s federal trial in January, jurors were not allowed to hear evidence that he was growing marijuana for medicinal purposes. In response, protesters across the nation will rally against the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) harassment of the seriously ill by informing jurors that the federal government has blocked all medical necessity defenses in federal marijuana cases. The jurors will be given leaflets as they report for jury duty on Wednesday.

Earlier this year, several jurors from Rosenthal’s trial banded together calling for a re-trial on the grounds that they had not been allowed to consider the California law that makes medical marijuana legal. Rosenthal, like other medical marijuana patients and providers, had been indicted under federal law, which does not allow the growing of marijuana for any purpose. In fact, the former jurors made a public apology after the decision was made saying that they did not know that the marijuana Rosenthal was growing was for medicinal purposes.

Standing in solidarity with Rosenthal and other medical marijuana patients and providers in the federal system, activists will encourage jurors to learn about their rights. "Potential jurors must know their power prior to going to court," says Aaron Biterman, President of American University Students for Sensible Drug Policy. "Judges often refuse to tell jurors about their option to veto unjust or misapplied laws, and may even dismiss potential jurors who let the court know they're aware of this power, according to studies," says Biterman. U.S. juries have a proud and heroic tradition of standing up to tyranny and saying no to oppressive, unjust, or misapplied laws.

No one has ever died from an overdose of marijuana and it has a wide variety of therapeutic applications: release from nausea and increase of appetite, reduction of intraocular pressure, reduction of muscle spasms, and relief from chronic pain. "Why must our government continue the harassment, persecution, prosecution, and criminalization of innocent, harmless people?" asks Zoe Mitchell, a member of the DC chapter of Americans for Safe Access, a medical marijuana group.

DC:
Federal Courthouse 333 Constitution Ave. NW, beginning at 8:00 AM

San Francisco:
Federal Courthouse starting at 8:00am on the Turk Street side of the SF Federal Building (between Polk & Larkin).