Pubdate: Thu, 07 Aug 2014
Source: Trentonian, The (NJ)
Copyright: 2014 The Trentonian
Contact:  http://www.trentonian.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1006
Author: NJ Weedman
Page: A5
Referenced: http://mapinc.org/author/Jeff+Edelstein

PASSING THE JOINT: NEW JERSEY'S MARIJUANA ACTIVIST GOES MAINSTREAM

Over 1.7 million people have read my material on my website,
NJweedman.com. But now I'm mainstream - a columnist for The
Trentonian. I expect there to be some amount of consternation and
criticism directed at me and the editors of The Trentonian for giving
me this platform to make my voice heard. So bring it on. Of all the
newspapers in New Jersey, The Trentonian has been the most receptive
to my cause, and so it makes sense it would be the publication to
enable me to reach out to the public like this. For that I'm grateful
and yes, I lit up an "illegal" phattie and ate a THC-infused brownie
banned by Governor Christie to celebrate.

Today, I want to introduce and explain myself to the readership. I
want you to understand where I'm coming from and where I'll be going
with this "Cannabis Column." I'm not only a marijuana activist - I'm a
black man. I've dealt with the racist aspect of this government
declared war firsthand, and I speak out about it.

Background: Little has changed between what I say now and what I said
back in 1999 when The Trentonian's Jeff Edelstein first wrote about
me. The government's claims of marijuana's harms and dangers are a
clear and blatant lie. This lie has been used to imprison millions,
mostly those with dark complexions. To me, the drug laws have always
been racially driven and enforced no differently than the Jim Crow
laws that were enacted after the Civil War. Whites who get arrested
are simply collateral damage.

I consider this a righteous cause, and to borrow a quote from Malcolm
X, it's "By any means necessary." I've brought discussion to this
issue with my methods. Over the years I've initiated plenty of
tactics and antics to get media attention and government reaction.
Example: Smoking a joint in the State House in front of the entire
State Assembly. Like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I also believe in
peaceful civil disobedience. (I can't wait to hear the feedback from
the black Bible thumpers about that comment.)

Cannabis is one of the safest therapeutic substances on the planet and
our nation's drugs laws in general - and our marijuana laws
specifically - are racist and have been used to fill the
prison-industrial complex with brown faces by design. It's no mistake
we're nearly four times more likely than whites to be arrested for
marijuana, according to an ACLU study.

To those who say, "Why don't you just shut up and move out west? Why
do you want to write and stir the pot even more? Why even be in New
Jersey?" I say I did-in 2007 I moved to Los Angeles and yelled at New
Jersey lawmakers from afar. But the DEA raided my legal marijuana
business in December of 2011 - at the behest, I believe, of the
Christie administration and the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office
- - putting me out of business, destroying my Hollywood life, and
prompting me to come home to New Jersey and renew my fight.

Over the years I've confronted our racist drug war with limited
resources and tried to raise awareness and support for this cause.
Getting to write this column is my greatest activist accomplishment.
I'm extremely happy and grateful to The Trentonian for giving me a
legitimate mainstream media voice. Expect me to use this column to
continue speaking out.
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MAP posted-by: Matt