Jon Katz

Pursuing your best defense against marijuana prosecutions from possession to dealing to growing. Many times I have worked with key grow cultivation expert Chris Conrad and medical marijuana expert David Bearman, and twice with marijuana smell expert Richard Doty. The marijuana legalization movement led me in 1991 to switch to criminal defense from corporate law. I was fed up reading that the chief New Orleans federal prosecutor had subpoenaed High Times's advertiser records. In protest, I subscribed to High Times -- and wrote to then attorney general Thornburgh about this protest subscription -- and there learned more about NORML. I broke bread with NORML national director Don Fiedler, a great criminal defense lawyer who helped me figure my path to marijuana, drug and criminal defense. (I later met Dick Thornburgh twice, and give him credit for believing in knowing how to disagree agreeably).

Medical marijuana, partial legalization and decriminalization have come a long way, but my state of Virginia is far behind that trend. We must continue fighting in the courts, through lobbying and in public for marijuana legalization.