The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is targeting and arresting medical marijuana patients, physicians, growers and suppliers. California has been a focus for these attacks, but federal inteference affects all the states that have removed criminal penalties for patients.

States that have passed medical marijuana laws either by intiative or legislative action are Alaska, Arizona (though wording problems have prevented it from implementing), California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington state. The District of Columbia also passed a voter intiative, but Congress overturned it.

In response to attacks on state-legal patients and providers, key leadership from the medical marijuana and law reform movements came together in 2002 to form Green Aid: The Medical Marijuana Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc.-- a 501(c)(3) charitable corporation that provides groundbreaking services designed to protect the civil rights of medical marijuana stakeholders in our local communities.

The mission and vision of GREEN AID are as follows:

--To set new precedents in marijuana freedom for all Americans by moving the fight for medical marijuana rights into the legal and judicial realm exclusively. As a nonprofit with unprecedented focus, GREEN AID will work solely on the legal and judicial front of the fight for medical marijuana change. As such, GREEN AID will enlist services by the finest lawyers available. GREEN AID's unmatched presence in the Courts will reassign public marijuana debates as part and parcel of the range of human rights concerns that grip the very core of our nation in the 21st Century.

--To provide legal representation, ancillary services and financial resources on a small number of TIPPING POINT criminal cases. Whether local, state or federal, these cases are potentially high-impact for creating change with regard to medical marijuana laws, policies, and ultimately with regard to the public's overall perception and opinion on these issues. As part of GREEN AID's strategy, a TIPPING POINT case is further defined by its acute ability to reach beyond the usual suspects and capture the imaginations of the broadest possible sphere of interested stakeholders, supporters, funders and allies. GREEN AID will use its small number of cases, in part, to effectively engage this cause outside of its conventional circles of support--especially in order to break new ground with the public trust, educate the community-at-large, and build a growing base of philanthropy on behalf of this vital social movement.

--To provide necessary public relations and related services that will brand the media as a viable partner and friend of the medical marijuana movement. Through effective work with media outlets, both large and small, the public dissemination of key GREEN AID messages and milestones will build upon a natural momentum that comes with the intensity and drama of high profile court cases. With each breaking news item put forth by GREEN AID's legal prowess, judicial victories will highlight the humanity behind this cause, placing marijuana reform rightly at the forefront of social and cultural debate.

--To place much needed emphasis on the strategic enforcement of existing state laws that command safe access to medical marijuana for the sick and infirm. Since Proposition 215 was voted in by Californians in 1996, the integration of medical marijuana laws into local law enforcement has been largely set aside by elected officials, handed over cautiously to city governing bodies. It is the position of GREEN AID that state lawmakers have missed the opportunity to use medical marijuana as a tool to more clearly define themselves in relation to their Federal counterparts - purely as sovereign lawmakers. As uncharted terrain in general, the effective administering of medical marijuana on a local level provides states with all kinds of promising terrain to build new areas of power and influence, especially in the realm of Federal policy where it matters most.

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Founded on an activist impulse, GREEN AID seeks to be bold and daring in its efforts "to legislate on behalf of the will of the people." With its focus on the legal and judicial realm, Green Aid will serve as an important vehicle for new points of public dialogue regarding marijuana, not to mention new platforms forms of civic engagement. GREEN AID is a key partner among others already hard at work for marijuana reform over the last three decades.