Green Aid was born in 2002 out of the passion and commitment of its founding Board of Directors and other key leadership from inside the medical marijuana movement, both in Northern California and beyond. The Board of Directors of GREEN AID: MEDICAL MARIJUANA LEGAL DEFENSE & EDUCATION FUND, INC. invites comments and participation from the public as the work of GREEN AID unfolds.
Please contact them via e-mail: Board@Green-Aid.com.
The Board of Directors
Ed Rosenthal is a lifetime marijuana activist, author, expert witness, and cultivation guru. Green Aid was formed to support his trial in 2003 and over the years has worked to defend child custody rights of medical cannabis users, the right of patients to travel with cannabis and to educate the public about injustices of the Drug War and domestic SWAT raids. Rosenthal started his activist career with the Yippies, which gave him a unique perspective regarding the citizen-government relationship. He was involved with the creation of High Times Magazine in 1972. His books on cultivation were part of a plan for DIY civilian activism. He was a primary mover in the passage of California’s Proposition 215 in 1996. Since then he has promoted the rights of marijuana users and growers through writing, speeches, seminars and direct activism.
Janice M. Vaughn Knox M.D., M.B.A
Dr. Janice Knox spent 32 years as a board-certified anesthesiologist before becoming an Endocannabinologist and Cannabinology specialist. As a cofounder of the American Cannabionoid Clinics, Dr. Janice feels that it’s important to voice how important it is to understand the pharmacology of cannabis and it’s application to the intricate physiology of the endocannabinoid system and the greater endocannabinodome. Dr. Janice feels endocannabinology is here to stay and should become a subspecialty in medical training. The future of cannabis as a medicine is dependent on how we understand the application of cannabis to the physiology of the body as medicine heads toward precision medicine.
Dr. Janice Knox is the CEO of the AC Group Inc., Oregon representative of the Doctors for Cannabis Regulation, a board director for the American Academy of Cannabinoid Medicine and Association, medical advisor to Hemptown USA, a medical advisory board member of PRA Global, medical advisory board member of Greenway DNA, CEO of ADVENT Academy, CEO Doctors Knox, Inc and AC group.
Jeffrey Hamilton
Focusing on the cannabis industry, Jeff Hamilton counsels companies of all sizes, from startups to publicly traded corporations, in a broad range of transactional matters. As a practitioner, Jeff is a generalist by design. His law practice includes mergers and acquisitions, equity and debt offerings, venture capital financings and day-to-day business management, such as fund and joint venture formation, commercial agreements, corporate governance and regulated industry reporting compliance. Jeff leads Farella Braun + Martel LLP’s Cannabis Practice, and was recognized in Chambers USA’s 2020 edition (Cannabis Law: Western United States). Jeff sits on the Executive Committee of the San Francisco Bar Association’s Cannabis Law Section, and the National Cannabis Industry Association’s Cultivation Committee.
Najarian Peters
Najarian Peters joined the KU Law faculty in summer 2020. As an associate professor of law, she teaches torts as well as two new privacy courses she created. Peters’ work and scholarship focuses on privacy law, technology policy and governance. Peters is a Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School. Prior to joining the KU Law faculty, she was the Inaugural Faculty Fellow and Assistant Professor of Law at the Institute for Privacy Protection at Seton Hall Law School where she was the architect of its structure, operations and program portfolio. She is a member of the International Cannabis Bar Association where she has created several continuing legal education presentations on emerging technology (including blockchain) and cannabis law and healthcare.
Peters’ first law article, The Right To Be and Become: Black Home-Educators As Child Privacy Protectors was published as the lead article in the Michigan Journal of Race and Law Volume 25.1 in August 2020. Prior to joining academia in 2017, She served as a corporate compliance and privacy officer in several organizations in the private and public sectors for over a decade. She earned her J.D. at Notre Dame Law School where she created and taught the seminar in the Center for Social Concerns, Environmental Human Rights in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and was the recipient of the Joseph Ciraolo Memorial Award and Africana Studies Book Award. She received her B.A. at Xavier University of Louisiana.
Eviane Ita Coton
Eviane has been on a plant guided path for over 17 years. Herbalist, farmer and teacher she loves to share the wisdom of our plant allies. Her work is focused around environmental stewardship, biologically driven growing practices, and creating a nurturing and empowering work environment. She has extensive experience in the legal Cannabis industry and currently manages OLCC licensed Ebb and Flow Farm and Cascade Hemp Collective Inc. ODA licensed hemp company, she also consults in the field. Ebb and Flow Farm in beautiful southern Oregon has won numerous awards for their Cannabis including first place at the 2018 and 2019 Cultivation Classic for Best Type 2 outdoor and most Credible Cultivar and multiple awards at the Terpene Cup.
Eviane has been invited to share her educational presentations at numerous industry events including multiple appearances at Hemp University. She carries a Permaculture Design Certification and strives to deepen her plant knowledge at every opportunity with a passion for data driven science. Eviane has forged a deep connection with the land, owning an 82 acre farm homestead for over a decade, and developing a neighboring 600 acre hot springs project. She brings the wisdom of organic cannabis and vegetable farming, large scale project management, permaculture, Integrated Pest Management, land and water stewardship, and the wilds to her endeavors. The belief that plants can be one of our greatest teachers inspires her work.
Jeff Jones
Jeff Jones has provided expertise in the medical cannabis field to Californians for over twenty-three years. Jeff’s horticulture knowledge, troubleshooting skills, and easy manner make learning the basics easy for beginners and a challenge for the experts. Jeff co-founded the Oakland Cannabis Buyers’ Cooperative (OCBC) in 1995 simultaneously creating the downtown cannabis-friendly area known as “Oaksterdam†(named after the first two cities to regulate cannabis). With Jeff’s assistance, the City of Oakland became the first U.S. City to contract with a medical cannabis provider back in 1998, and implement a successful city program to issue compassionate provider permits in June of 2004. Jeff set precedent self-regulatory practices that would eventually become the tenants of CA Senate Bill 420 and the Attorney General Guidelines of 2008.
Jeff was named the defendant in the OCBC Federal Civil case, one of the longest-running medical cannabis cases in history as it traveled all the way through the Supreme Court; the first to ask the question of if cannabis can be provided for medical necessity patients. He transitioned the OCBC into advocacy and education with the Patient ID Center (formerly OCBC) and shared his expertise with hundreds of thousands of medical cannabis patients, professionals, and experts.
Jeff also helped establish Alameda County Patient Services, which provided patients and caregivers official Medical Marijuana ID cards in Alameda County, California. He has been educating professionally as the horticulture expert, politics and history instructor for Oaksterdam University since 2007. In 2010, Jeff Jones was co-proponent of the Prop 19 Control, Tax and Regulate Cannabis Act, the first statewide campaign to legalize cannabis in modern history, hoping to protect patients.
Jeff is an original board member of Green Aid and shares two young sons and a baby daughter with Dale Sky Jones, chancellor of Oaksterdam University.
James Turner
James Turner is an IT security engineer and software developer with 20 years of experience delivering solutions to industry. His primary focus of expertise is Data Encryption and Identity Management. He has provided quality support and solutions to multiple government agencies and large corporations. In the past two decades James has become a subject matter expert in Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), Identity Management, and Augmented Reality development.
Green Aid 484 Lake Park Ave #172 Oakland, CA 94610
