Medical Marijuana Goes Up Against Federal Law

Re “ ‘Guru of Ganja’ Found Guilty of Federal Marijuana Charges,” Feb. 1: Had the jury appreciated the little-known “jury nullification” option available, Ed Rosenthal would have been found not guilty and the federal government would have failed in any further attempt at enforcing the federal cannabis prohibition. Juries, put in the same circumstance of deciding such federal cases, can no longer be kept ignorant of their power of finding innocence in cultivation, distribution and possession cases. I expect the guilty verdict in this case to change at appeal.

Jacob Slauson

Goleta

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I found the details of Rosenthal’s trial and conviction on federal marijuana cultivation and conspiracy charges sickening. It read more like a Stalinist show trial than American justice. According to a federal government spokesman: “There is no such thing as medical marijuana.” Californians overwhelmingly disagree with his statement. It has become abundantly clear that the so-called war on drugs has in fact become a war on Americans and our civil liberties.

Kennedy Gammage

San Diego