T
The420Guy
Guest
A Massachusetts-based nonprofit group is
placing 150 billboards in Oakland and San Francisco to urge support
for convicted marijuana grower and activist Ed Rosenthal.
The billboards, of various sizes, have two slogans. One is "Free Ed.
Free The Jury. Free America," and the other is "Vote Your Conscience.
Free America." The signs are the work of Change the Climate Inc., a
Greenfield, Mass., educational nonprofit group.
"Change the Climate is a national organization primarily of parents
and business people," said executive director Joseph H. White Jr.
"Our perspective is that existing marijuana laws for the most part
are really counterproductive, they're a waste of tax dollars, ... and
as a parent, they put my children at risk."
The all-volunteer group has run ad campaigns in Washington, D.C., and
elsewhere calling attention to the government's huge spending on
prosecution and imprisonment of marijuana offenders.
California law allows medical marijuana use, but federal law still
bans all growing, possession and use. Rosenthal, 58, of Oakland, was
arrested in 2002 by Drug Enforcement Administration agents. Jurors at
his federal trial were not allowed to consider his status under
California's medical marijuana law, and were not told of his
protection by an Oakland ordinance.
"When the stormtroopers of the federal government busted in while he
was doing the city's good work, and the judge would not allow any
consideration of a law now supported by over 80 percent of Americans,
it cried out for justice, and that's why we chose the case," White
said.
White, 47, is a father of three and a co-founder of Share Group Inc.,
a telemarketing firm that does fund-raising, voter outreach, customer
service and grass-roots organizing for progressive nonprofits and
socially responsible companies. Among Change the Climate's directors
is Mal Warwick, founder and chairman of a direct-mail fund-raising
business in Berkeley.
This is the largest billboard campaign Change the Climate has mounted
so far, White said, estimating its cost "in the tens of thousands."
White said the group's funding "comes from business executives like
Peter Lewis -- chairman and CEO of insurance giant Progressive Corp.
- -- and others" as well as parents and others who see the ads.
Lewis has helped bankroll drug reform efforts across the nation,
including California's 1996 medical marijuana initiative. Financier
George Soros and University of Phoenix founder John Sperling, who
often pool their money with Lewis' for drug reform efforts, are not
donors to Change the Climate, White said.
The group's 2001 tax return shows revenue of about$34,000, of which
$31,000 came from just two donors whose names are blanked out; White
said he doesn't recall who they were.
"We don't have a lot of contributors -- we have a handful of well-off
individuals who are often the kind of people who help fund new
organizations, whether they be in marijuana reform or other social
issues," he said, adding that more donors have given since 2001. "One
of our larger contributors over the last two years is a well-known
Bay Area high-tech entrepreneur."
For more info, see:
https://www.changetheclimate.org/campaigns/03_03_ca/index.php
Oakland Tribune
By Josh Richman, STAFF WRITER
Friday, March 07, 2003
placing 150 billboards in Oakland and San Francisco to urge support
for convicted marijuana grower and activist Ed Rosenthal.
The billboards, of various sizes, have two slogans. One is "Free Ed.
Free The Jury. Free America," and the other is "Vote Your Conscience.
Free America." The signs are the work of Change the Climate Inc., a
Greenfield, Mass., educational nonprofit group.
"Change the Climate is a national organization primarily of parents
and business people," said executive director Joseph H. White Jr.
"Our perspective is that existing marijuana laws for the most part
are really counterproductive, they're a waste of tax dollars, ... and
as a parent, they put my children at risk."
The all-volunteer group has run ad campaigns in Washington, D.C., and
elsewhere calling attention to the government's huge spending on
prosecution and imprisonment of marijuana offenders.
California law allows medical marijuana use, but federal law still
bans all growing, possession and use. Rosenthal, 58, of Oakland, was
arrested in 2002 by Drug Enforcement Administration agents. Jurors at
his federal trial were not allowed to consider his status under
California's medical marijuana law, and were not told of his
protection by an Oakland ordinance.
"When the stormtroopers of the federal government busted in while he
was doing the city's good work, and the judge would not allow any
consideration of a law now supported by over 80 percent of Americans,
it cried out for justice, and that's why we chose the case," White
said.
White, 47, is a father of three and a co-founder of Share Group Inc.,
a telemarketing firm that does fund-raising, voter outreach, customer
service and grass-roots organizing for progressive nonprofits and
socially responsible companies. Among Change the Climate's directors
is Mal Warwick, founder and chairman of a direct-mail fund-raising
business in Berkeley.
This is the largest billboard campaign Change the Climate has mounted
so far, White said, estimating its cost "in the tens of thousands."
White said the group's funding "comes from business executives like
Peter Lewis -- chairman and CEO of insurance giant Progressive Corp.
- -- and others" as well as parents and others who see the ads.
Lewis has helped bankroll drug reform efforts across the nation,
including California's 1996 medical marijuana initiative. Financier
George Soros and University of Phoenix founder John Sperling, who
often pool their money with Lewis' for drug reform efforts, are not
donors to Change the Climate, White said.
The group's 2001 tax return shows revenue of about$34,000, of which
$31,000 came from just two donors whose names are blanked out; White
said he doesn't recall who they were.
"We don't have a lot of contributors -- we have a handful of well-off
individuals who are often the kind of people who help fund new
organizations, whether they be in marijuana reform or other social
issues," he said, adding that more donors have given since 2001. "One
of our larger contributors over the last two years is a well-known
Bay Area high-tech entrepreneur."
For more info, see:
https://www.changetheclimate.org/campaigns/03_03_ca/index.php
Oakland Tribune
By Josh Richman, STAFF WRITER
Friday, March 07, 2003
