Lawrence resident Bob Eye is the legal guru for the nation’s marijuana guru.

Eye is getting national attention as the lead defense attorney for Ed Rosenthal, a 58-year-old Oakland, Calif., man known for his books and advice columns on marijuana cultivation.

Eye spent much of January flying between Kansas and San Francisco, fighting to keep Rosenthal out of prison during a bizarre and controversial federal drug trial.

In essence, federal drug agents arrested and charged Rosenthal last year for doing what the city of Oakland had given him permission to do: grow a warehouse full of marijuana plants for medical patients.

It was Eye’s job to get him off the hook.

“There’s an obvious conflict between the state and federal laws, and Ed Rosenthal is right in the middle of that conflict,” said Eye, an attorney with the Topeka firm Irigonegaray & Associates. “I believe there are some people who ought to be in prison, but Ed Rosenthal is not that kind of person.”

Mission: Impossible

Eye, a 51-year-old Washburn University law graduate with a history of environmental advocacy, lives with his wife and two stepchildren in a neighborhood south of Kansas University.

He met Rosenthal in the mid-1990s while using him as an expert defense witness in a marijuana trial. Rosenthal’s resume includes a gardening-advice column for “High Times” magazine and book titles such as “The Big Book of Buds.”

Federal agents arrested Rosenthal about a year ago, based in part on surveillance and tips from a confidential informant. After the arrest, Rosenthal called Eye and asked for help.

¢ Green Aid: The Medical Marijuana Legal Defense and Education Fund

“He’s an attorney who is always seeking justice,” Rosenthal said. “He doesn’t take a case for the money — ‘Oh, I’ll argue for you or I’ll argue for the other side.’ He’s not like that. He knows what side he’s on.”

Rosenthal described his defense team as “sort of like a ‘Mission: Impossible’ team,” with a handful of attorneys used for specific purposes. Eye started by researching the case and preparing pretrial motions.

“As I worked with him on the case, it became apparent to me that he would be an incredible lead attorney,” Rosenthal said. “So it just sort of developed organically.”

History in the making

Eye argued throughout the trial that Judge Charles Breyer should allow the jury to hear evidence that Rosenthal was growing the plants with the knowledge and approval of the city of Oakland for distribution to medical-marijuana cooperatives.

More than 30 medical-marijuana dispensaries operate in the Bay Area, Eye said, with the blessing of local and state authorities. In 1996, California voters approved the use of medical marijuana with a doctor’s recommendation, but federal officials vow they won’t allow distribution networks to thrive.

Because federal law makes no exceptions for medical marijuana, the judge didn’t allow Eye to present any evidence about the motive behind Rosenthal’s green thumb.

“Cultivation of marijuana is a federal offense, period. Nothing else matters,” Assistant U.S. Atty. George Bevan said in his closing argument, according to an account in the San Francisco Chronicle.

On Jan. 31, the jury found Rosenthal guilty, but the case took on new life when a majority of the 12 jurors came forward to say they felt duped by not being allowed to consider why Rosenthal was growing the plants.

“They did follow the court’s instructions, and of course learned later about what evidence we would have brought before them had we been permitted to do so,” Eye said. “The rest is history, as they say — or history in the making.”

Since the verdict, Eye has been featured in national newspaper reports and in an interview with Stone Phillips on NBC’s “Dateline.”

Vexing issues

Eye said the case combined a number of vexing issues, from the narrow question of whether a jury can disregard a court’s instruction, to broader issues of states’ rights, drug prohibition and patient-doctor relationships.

Eye said a crowd of about 200 people — some of them medical-marijuana users in wheelchairs — gathered in the courtroom each day.

“I think the most interesting thing that happened to me was realizing that I was in the middle of it — that I was on the cutting edge of change,” Eye said. “I can’t tell you how many people came up to me spontaneously while I was there and said, ‘We’re counting on you.'”

Breyer allowed Rosenthal to remain free on bond until his sentencing June 4. Ironically, Eye said, one factor Breyer considered in making that decision was Rosenthal’s relationship with the city of Oakland.

Rosenthal, who’s married with two children, faces up to 20 years in prison.

Eye said he viewed the guilty verdict as a temporary setback. He plans to file a motion for a new trial by March 14, claiming, among other things, that a juror broke rules by calling a family friend to discuss the case.

“It comes down to trying to do everything we can to eventually get this case won and to keep Ed Rosenthal with his family, which is where he belongs and where he wants desperately to remain,” Eye said.