Pot's new Cold War

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It was great to see my dear comrade Ed Rosenthal with Larry Gabriel in last week's Higher Ground. One of the greatest developments in American jurisprudence, in my experience, was when the San Francisco jury that was instructed to convict Ed for growing marijuana found out after the trial had ended that he had been cultivating the weed under contract to the city of Oakland.

I happened to be in San Francisco for the Rosenthal verdict, and was truly amazed the next day when the jury held a press conference to denounce the judge and prosecutor. Had they known the facts, seven members of the jury told the media, they would never have convicted the defendant. We need to hear this more often!

This week's column examines some other bizarre twists and turns in the battle against the War on Drugs. First, my readers will be happy to hear that opposition to the Dutch government's plans to bar "drug tourists" from the nation's 750 coffeeshops is starting to grow. DutchNews.nl reports that the city council of Tilberg has instructed the mayor "not to accept the system unless the government makes it compulsory."

This pleasant little university town, best known for its imaginative music festivals, has now joined Breda, Den Bosch and Eindhoven in opposing the legislation, along with the city councils of the Hague, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Utrecht and Maastrich — a good sign that the present system will prevail.

The report concludes that "Tilburg, like the other cities, is worried that turning coffeeshops into closed clubs will lead to an increase in street dealing." Duh!

Closer to home, the rabid new "tough nerd" government of Michigan and its crusading General of Attorneys William Schuette — leader of the unsuccessful opposition to the medical marijuana law — is using his post to undermine the law any way he can and is currently attempting to get it overturned in court, claiming the state law is pre-empted by federal law.

Rather than simply accepting the will of 63 percent of the voting public, Schuette keeps picking away at what he sees as weaknesses in the statute and is now teamed up with equally hostile legislators to force through measures to compromise patients' privacy, severely restrict when and where patients may cultivate, and take away the legal rights of patients to challenge overly restrictive ordinances.

The Michigan Senate Judiciary Committee has already approved Senate Bill 377, which would require medical marijuana patients' names and addresses to be sent to a database accessible by the Department of State Police with or without a warrant. This bill treats patients like criminal suspects and allows police agencies to go fishing for suspects without probable cause.

A second measure, SB418, is designed to prevent individuals from suing to overturn municipal ordinances that violate state law, like the local ordinances passed by several Michigan cities that prohibit "any activity that violates federal law."

> Email by John Sinclair