Many thanks to the BPG crew for sponsoring my family in our greatest time of need. We honor your commitment and thank you for your support. Below is the plaque we have given you to memorialize your contribution:

If your collective or organization would like to sponsor a month please contact 888-824-6863  or email compassionfamily@gmail.com for  more details. With your help we will weather the storm of injustice.

Many people have shown a great deal of support for my family in this time of despair and anguish. I would like to thank them for their support and honor of my commitment to this movement.

Gives many thanks to those who choose to stand behind us in our time of need. Your commitment to our cause makes us fight even harder for cannabis freedoms. Without your support our family would suffer needlessly for providing safe and effective cannabis medicines.

The following are those who have already made a difference:

Sara Zalkin and Tony Serra from Pier 5 Law for their many hours of free legal work since my sentencing to help gain freedoms and ensure my rights were protected.

Berkeley Patients Group for sponsoring my family for a month and always being there to help since this madness began some 2 and a half years ago. As well, they sponsored the flyers and sign-age for the Ring in the New year Rally.

Oaksterdam for a very generous donation to help my family make ends meet in this time of madness and despair.

Erich Pearson and SPARC for a generous donation in my family's time of need.

Mark Sydow and Marin ASA for a generous donation to my family and for the great card they sent to the HWH.

Mountainside Patient Collective in Chico for helping out when and where they can.

Greenleaf Natural Wellness for ongoing support and tireless dedication to my cause.

To all of the patients and providers who have written letters, emails, and made phone calls to help keep my spirits up.

To my mom for sending me some yummy homemade cookies.

To J-Boogie for getting me a TV to make the time go by a little quicker.

AND MOST OF ALL...To my LOVING WIFE for staying strong, keeping me grounded, and taking care of those two little knuckle-heads while I am away. Your strength, courage, honor, and support means the world to me. Without it I would have given up some time ago.

The support has been great and overwhelming. It is a long year and a wild road ahead. To find out what you can do to help please contact Compassion Family Fund at 888-824-6863 or email compassionfamily@gmail.com or hit the "Donate" button on the right side of this page. Your support is greatly appreciated. I cannot tell you the deep gratitude for those who have helped lift me and my family up while we have been down. Many, many, many thanks!

I would like to take an opportunity to than the many people who have been instrumental in helping me along this journey.  I hope I can remember everyone, as this was a truly collective effort by many members of the community and I am grateful for everyone involved. 

Thank you to Sara Zalkin, lead counsel from Pier 5 Law Offices.  I have known Sara since she graduated law school many years ago and actually had the honor of being her first case many moons ago for a much more insignificant case involving some booze, a small statue, and a taxi cab driver's window, but that is another story.  Sara has known me and my family for years and I consider her to be a friend, as well as a great legal mind.  She has worked diligently on my behalf throughout this process and has gone above and beyond her duty as an attorney, often expressing personal support and defending me in my most trying moments.  I cannot say enough about the hard work she has done on this case.

While we are on the subject of attorneys let me thank the great Tony Serra for his amazing performance in the courtroom yesterday, delivering with passion moments of praise, moments of concern, and moments of humor to the process. This man has done more to fight for the rights of people like me than history will ever be able to truly tell.  It has been an honor to work firsthand with this great soul and experience the true dedication and professional wisdom of his work.  I was in awe of his mastery of the courtroom and he lived up to the billing, as he made the case for my freedom.  I am proud to have Brownie Mary's attorney still fighting for the same cause on my behalf over a decade later.

Thank you to my loving and wonderful wife, who has had to watch as my world imploded and has been a beacon of hope and support through this entire process.  She has stood by me with great honor and pride and supported me unconditionally.  Ellie has never been big on cannabis, as it is just not something that works for her, but she selflessly met the challenges of this situation with grace and poise and never once blamed me for my beliefs in medical cannabis.  Understanding that she had the most to lose in this process, as she would be forced into the role of single mother and be forced to uproot to a different state, she never once expressed her feelings of frustration or anger for the situation.  She brilliantly navigated the rough waters, as I was a roller-coaster of emotion, and often difficult to deal with.  I love you and thank you.

To my loving mother who graciously trusted me to put her home up for my bond and has been as supportive as any mother could be through this process.  My mother is a truly unique individual that has helped shape me into the person I am and has been a wonderful guide along my journey.  Her loving and caring nature have helped me to work through areas of trouble and her wisdom has helped me to understand the world better.

To my many friends that have stood by me when the shit hit the fan and have continued to inspire me to keep working for social change.  It is funny how a situation like this will separate the true friends from the cowards who have nothing but their own interests in mind.  I cannot express enough the gratitude I have for the many people who have risen to the occasion and stood by me when the chips were down.  To the fair-weather friends that fled for higher ground, the people who had the nerve to call themselves my brother and disappeared silently into the night, may you one day feel the sense of abandonment that you left with me.  My christmas card list has gotten shorter, but definitely more full.  Thank you to all that have showed true courage by standing by me.  It will never be forgotten.

Thanks to the magnificent staff of Americans for Safe Access that has helped me navigate the murky waters of the media, the courts, and the community activism.  From the moment we found out our organization was under siege these brave souls have been instrumental in working closely with me and my attorneys to help ensure that the courts were well informed of medical cannabis and that has ultimately lead to my not being incarcerated for a very long time.  Many people in this organization would also be considered good friends and the paragraph above goes out to you to.  Please donate to ASA if you have not already.  Our community needs this organization to be well equipped to help us continue to fight these battles.  Do your part.

To the community based organizations that have helped me financially and with your love and support, I thank you.  I have been ultimately paralyzed by this situation in many ways and without the support of members of this community things could have been much worse.  The "We take care of our own" mantra will forever be a part of the fabric of my reality.  My sincerest gratitudes.

Thank you to the officers of the court that have been ultimately very fair to me and understanding of the unique circumstances of my case.  I am glad to know that within a system of imperfection and on many levels that I may disagree with, there are good natured and understanding individuals that do care about people's lives and the way that family's are affected by situations like mine.  It is too easy for people in this movement to use a broad stroke when characterizing components of the justice system.  I can say firsthand that there are many fair and knowledgeable people working within the system that are good people.  I thank them for looking at our case with an open mind and common sense.  

I would also like to thank the entire medical cannabis movement for continuing to knock down barriers of intolerance and misinformation with your calls for social change.  This may be the largest movement of civil disobedience in history, or simply a base of intelligent and holistic minds the collectively have decided to do what is right, even in the face of danger.  Without patients, doctors, dispensing collectives, medicinal providers, and activists this movement would have been a small blip in history ages ago.  The will and courage to press on for what is just and moral is inspiring and everyday I live in awe of what we have been able to accomplish.  The movement may not move as quickly as we like at times, but there is definitive progress being made daily and slowly but surely we will secure the right for people to heal naturally with cannabis without the fear of being prosecuted senselessly.  Thank you to all.