Ed’s Pitch:
I was in a hotel room one morning flipping channels when I chanced upon Spencer Tracy, a mid-century actor, giving his soliloquy at the conclusion of “Judgment at Nuremburgâ€. I was intrigued with the film speech and realized that it is directly on target regarding the marijuana laws in the United States.
I have modified the speech slightly to represent the current situation.
“The principle of criminal law in every civilized society has this in common: any person who sways another to commit perjury, any person who furthers the crime of imprisoning innocent people, any person who is an accessory to the crime of convicting the innocent, is guilty.
Many prosecutors and judges of marijuana cases loathe the evil that they do. But before we think of compassion for the torment that these prosecutors and judges go through we must not beget forgetfulness of the torture they inflict on the millions who are prosecuted by the Government. Most of these prosecutors and judges’ records illuminate the most shattering truth: If they were all degraded perverts, if they were all sadistic monsters and maniacs, then their decisions and sentencing would have no more moral significance than an earthquake, or any other natural catastrophe.
But the prosecutors and judges of these cases are ordinary, even able and extraordinary people who delude themselves into the commission of crimes so vast and often so heinous that they beggar the imagination. No one who has sat through a medical marijuana trial can ever forget it: people placed on trial because they are politically active, a mockery made of friendship and faith; the restriction of evidence that would exonerate the accused, the separation of children from parents, long sentences for humanitarian deeds.
How easily this happens. There are those who speak of the “protection of children” or ‘stopping moral decay†as their goal. A decision must be made in the life of every nation when it faces a moral dilemma. Some expound that the only way to survive is to use authoritarian, even dictatorial means, to rest survival upon what is expedient – to look the other way.
The answer to that is ‘survival as what’? A country isn’t a rock. It’s not an extension of one’s self. It’s what it stands for. It’s what it stands for when standing for something is the most difficult! Before the people of the world, let it now be noted that here, this is what we stand for: justice, truth, and the value of a single human being.”
The CLOSER:
Since I assumed the role of Executive Director in 2010, Green Aid has embarked on a vigorous program of working in the courts and through the media to change the paradigm of medical marijuana laws in two ways:
1.)Â We use court cases to establish precedents that will have high impact on the quality of life of medical marijuana users.
2.)Â We use the media to educate the public about the medical marijuana laws and how they impact society.
Green Aid has been very successful in its efforts. On this site you will see the cases we have been involved in over the past two years (History) and the cases we plan on embarking upon (Future History). You will notice that each of these has had or will have a positive impact upon society.
Our goal is not to become the biggest organization or to have fancy offices. We are striving to change marijuana policy as quickly as we can while using our limited resources as efficiently as possible.
Green Aid is your best buy as a marijuana reform organization. It spends no funds on offices and our Special Agents are all volunteers. We hire the best lawyers and commit them to bare bones fees. Yet we have been at the center of some of the most important marijuana issues in the last year.
Even with our low-cost operating expenses, we are sill constrained by lack of funds. Last year our entire budget (excluding designated accounts) was only $13,000. If we had a larger budget we would be able to initiate larger cases, with more impact. So we need your help to fund our efforts.
As you can see from this fund raising letter we are not professionals at this. Yet we ask you to make a generous donation so that we can work for you at changing the marijuana laws. Our goal for this year is $50,000, which is an eye-blink to other organizations working for your freedom. Please help us help you by making a generous contribution to Green Aid, The Medical Marijuana Legal Defense and Education Fund.
In addition to our ongoing operations supporting medical marijuana patients fighting for their freedom, we have our proposed campaign that we hope to begin in July of this year.