"The Tipping Point presents a new way of understanding why change so often happens as quickly and as unexpectedly as it does. For example, Why is word-of-mouth so powerful? It's that ideas and behavior and messages and products sometimes behave just like outbreaks of infectious disease. They are social epidemics." -- Malcolm Gladwell, THE TIPPING POINT

THE CASE OF "ASK ED" ROSENTHAL
The Tipping Point Potential

The first case GREEN AID has taken on resulted from a round of Drug Enforcement Agency raids that occurred in San Francisco and Oakland in February 2002 to coincide with a speech by DEA Director Asa Hutchison at San Francisco's Commonwealth Club.

As part of the raids, The Sixth Street Harm Reduction Center, a medical marijuana dispensary, was shut down and several key Northern California figures from the medical marijuana movement were arrested by the federal government, including world renowned activist-researcher-writer, Ed Rosenthal, who was providing small "starter" plants to the HRC. The arrest, prosecution and conviction of 58 year-old Ed Rosenthal has emerged as a gift to the GREEN AID cause in the form of a TIPPING POINT OPPORTUNITY.

Based in Oakland, Mr. Rosenthal is a well-loved celebrity of cannabis culture worldwide -- a kind of "POT GURU" meets "Miss Manners" meets ICONOCLAST. For thirty years as a magazine columnist and the author of a dozen books, he has written publicly as an advocate of marijuana -- one of the rare and daring who unabashedly champions the value of cannabis. As "Ask ED," the persona of his trademarked column in first High Times and now Cannabis Culture magazines, he imparts thoughtful, well-informed advice on cannabis to a global audience.

Given Ed Rosenthal's leadership and profile in this arena, GREEN AID recognizes his case provides clear potential as a TIPPING POINT opportunity to advance legal reform. No one quite so well known has yet been charged with criminal medical marijuana offenses. For GREEN AID, this kind of judicial case is key for its program as it sets certain precedents for public scrutiny of medical marijuana laws and related social policies. The case of Ed Rosenthal has served as a watershed moment in the media for medical marijuana and related reforms.

The broader vision for GREEN AID is supported by an emerging hope that medical marijuana is poised to emerge as a signature issue -- social, political, cultural, moral. Green Aid is fighting for Ed Rosenthal's appeal, with the hope of keeping him a free man. But even if he goes to federal prison for the five-year minimum mandated for his conviction, the forces of social awareness and debate are coming together in a "social epidemic" that is likely to boil over and fuel fast and furious change.

BIOGRAPHY: "ASK ED" ROSENTHAL

Mr. Rosenthal is recognized worldwide as a leading authority on marijuana. Over three decades he has written or edited more than a dozen seminal books about marijuana cultivation and social policy that have cumulatively sold over one million copies around the globe. Notably, his first book, Marijuana Grower's Handbook, is the only title on marijuana cultivation to be reviewed by The New York Times Book Review. His trademarked "Ask Ed" advice column has been in circulation for two decades & continues to answer questions on all matters marijuana from readers around the world. He also hosts "The 420 Report," a monthly radio show on KPFA-Berkeley that blends politics and culture with news, music and call-ins.

Mr. Rosenthal was one of the original American writers to travel to Holland bringing back with him both European knowledge and sophistication about cannabis. He has visited countless marijuana gardens, gathering information about the most effective techniques for growing cannabis. He is a member of the International Cannabis Research Society and the Garden Writers Association of America. On the judicial front, Mr. Rosenthal has served as an expert witness on marijuana cultivation in federal and state trials. He also has also been active in promoting and developing policies of civil regulation for marijuana, advising California legislators and working on both local and nationally on relevant political campaigns. He predicts that by the year 2005 marijuana will be regulated in the U.S. in the same manner as tobacco and alcohol.