T
The420Guy
Guest
A marijuana activist who drew national attention with his recent drug
conviction in San Francisco is fighting a different legal battle in
Maricopa County Superior Court.
This time money is at the center of a fight between Ed Rosenthal and
administrators of a trust set up by Thomas Forcade, a Phoenix native and
1970s counterculture icon.
Forcade, whose real name was Gary Goodson, founded the still-published High
Times magazine in 1974, vowing it would provide "the most wide-ranging dope
coverage anywhere."
Four years later, the brooding Forcade killed himself at age 33, leaving
behind the trust.
No one is saying how much money is in the trust. Family members and other
associates hold most of the shares, and the National Organization for
Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML, is a beneficiary.
Rosenthal wants a judge to force trust officials to disclose the trust's
value, but administrators refuse.
Rosenthal, 58, of Oakland, whose popular "Ask Ed" column on pot cultivation
appeared in High Times for 17 years, says he also should be a beneficiary.
So he and Andy Kowl, 51, a former High Times executive, filed suit in
Superior Court.
Kowl and Rosenthal say they qualify under trust provisions that reward
"loyal employees" with 10 years of service between 1976 and 1999.
"I was at the heart and soul of that magazine at its inception," said
Rosenthal, whose name was listed on the magazine's masthead.
In February, a month after he filed the civil suit, Rosenthal was convicted
in a federal court in San Francisco, for the first time on drug charges.
His lawyers argued that he was deputized by Oakland to grow medicinal
marijuana, but that evidence was not allowed in court. He is awaiting sentence.
Phoenix lawyer John Goodson, who is Forcade's cousin, drafted the trust. He
said in an interview that Rosenthal was little more than a magazine
freelancer, trading his columns for space to advertise his books on growing
pot.
Rosenthal says he agreed to the arrangement, because "they were always
pleading poverty with me. I never dreamed they would use it against me."
Goodson said his cousin "trusted me to decide who was loyal and who was
not. And in my opinion they were not."
He said Rosenthal was always "arguing with the staff" and was "rejected by
my cousin."
Goodson won't reveal the numbers without a fight.
"Rosenthal and Kowl aren't trustees" Goodson said, "and they don't have a
right to that information."
The Arizona Republic
Apr. 21, 2003 12:00 AM
by Carol Sowers
conviction in San Francisco is fighting a different legal battle in
Maricopa County Superior Court.
This time money is at the center of a fight between Ed Rosenthal and
administrators of a trust set up by Thomas Forcade, a Phoenix native and
1970s counterculture icon.
Forcade, whose real name was Gary Goodson, founded the still-published High
Times magazine in 1974, vowing it would provide "the most wide-ranging dope
coverage anywhere."
Four years later, the brooding Forcade killed himself at age 33, leaving
behind the trust.
No one is saying how much money is in the trust. Family members and other
associates hold most of the shares, and the National Organization for
Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML, is a beneficiary.
Rosenthal wants a judge to force trust officials to disclose the trust's
value, but administrators refuse.
Rosenthal, 58, of Oakland, whose popular "Ask Ed" column on pot cultivation
appeared in High Times for 17 years, says he also should be a beneficiary.
So he and Andy Kowl, 51, a former High Times executive, filed suit in
Superior Court.
Kowl and Rosenthal say they qualify under trust provisions that reward
"loyal employees" with 10 years of service between 1976 and 1999.
"I was at the heart and soul of that magazine at its inception," said
Rosenthal, whose name was listed on the magazine's masthead.
In February, a month after he filed the civil suit, Rosenthal was convicted
in a federal court in San Francisco, for the first time on drug charges.
His lawyers argued that he was deputized by Oakland to grow medicinal
marijuana, but that evidence was not allowed in court. He is awaiting sentence.
Phoenix lawyer John Goodson, who is Forcade's cousin, drafted the trust. He
said in an interview that Rosenthal was little more than a magazine
freelancer, trading his columns for space to advertise his books on growing
pot.
Rosenthal says he agreed to the arrangement, because "they were always
pleading poverty with me. I never dreamed they would use it against me."
Goodson said his cousin "trusted me to decide who was loyal and who was
not. And in my opinion they were not."
He said Rosenthal was always "arguing with the staff" and was "rejected by
my cousin."
Goodson won't reveal the numbers without a fight.
"Rosenthal and Kowl aren't trustees" Goodson said, "and they don't have a
right to that information."
The Arizona Republic
Apr. 21, 2003 12:00 AM
by Carol Sowers
