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(AP)

The case of a terminally ill Iowa man convicted last week of growing marijuana has drawn national attention and prompted the editorial board of the local newspaper, the Quad City Times, to call the trial "a public expose' on America's tragic drug war."

Benton Mackenzie, 48, and his wife, Loretta, 43, were found guilty of manufacturing marijuana and other crimes related to growing pot. The couple say they grew marijuana so they could use it to help treat Mackenzie's late-stage cancer, an argument they were not permitted to raise during their trial, reports Quad-City Times reporter Brian Wellner.

The Quad-City Times editorial board blasted local law enforcement's handling of the case.

America's drug war bandwagon pursues homegrowing cancer patients with the same fervor as meth makers, and all to the same end: Packed jails and an undisturbed flow of more, better and cheaper drugs.

Mackenzie's expose' goes deeper. In the same week that Iowa law allowed cannabis extract for some epilepsy patients, he received a felony conviction for making his own form of the very same extract. The hypocrisy continues: His fatal form of cancer doesn't qualify under Iowa's narrow medicinal marijuana law.

Obviously ill, huddled in a blanket, Mackenzie shivered in a courtroom where the judge barred him from even mentioning any connection between his marijuana plants and his illness.

Mackenzie, who was hospitalized at one point during the trial, is scheduled to be sentenced next month.

Other marijuana-related headlines worth checking out this morning:

DEA may be losing the war on marijuana politics (Evan Halper, Los Angeles Times)

Will your state be next to legalize pot? (Josh Harkinson, Mother Jones)

White House says marijuana policy is states' rights issue (Ryan J. Riley, The Huffington Post)

-- Noelle Crombie