Pubdate: Thu, 14 May 2015 Source: Trentonian, The (NJ) Column: Passing the Joint Copyright: 2015 The Trentonian Contact: http://www.trentonian.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1006 Author: Ed Forchion, NJWeedman.com For The Trentonian MARIJUANA BECAME LEGAL IN JERSEY ON JAN. 18, 2010 At 9 a.m. on May 27th the New Jersey Appeals Court will hold oral arguments in the most important marijuana case in New Jersey history. I'm being a little arrogant, but rightfully so because it's the truth. I'm talking about my case: State vs Forchion, 004477-12. The court must think so too, because the arguments aren't being heard in the regular appellate courtroom, but rather in the NJ State Supreme Courtroom. (PRESS RELEASE: http://tinyurl.com/ForchionPR - It's open to the public.) I've worked hard (along with my attorney John Vincent Saykanic, Esq.) for this opportunity to challenge the state marijuana laws. My family and I personally suffered for it, but now I envision a historic triumph. Activism doesn't pay - it costs, and my two decades of marijuana activism have cost me dearly. I absolutely know I'm not alone; "22,000 other persons" are arrested for marijuana each year in New Jersey and ruined by our Government, based on a LIE. Politicians and lawyers use marijuana laws to enrich themselves. The laws are rooted in racism and based on an outright lie-that marijuana has no medical value. Why is a dread-headed, not-formally-educated citizen presenting this case before the Appeals Court? In my opinion, it's because many criminal defense lawyers are in no rush to slay the cannabis cash cow - they're milking the heifer, lining their pockets by defending victims of the drug war. Not even the state's premier marijuana organization, NORML NJ, would file an "amicus brief" in support of this historic challenge. So pass me the joint and F 'em. People constantly tell me there are more important things to fight for than marijuana legalization. Seriously? Nationwide, 900,000 citizens were arrested for marijuana last year alone, including 22,000 New Jerseyans - 3/4 of them persons of color. I don't know of another issue that affects so many people I personally know. Maybe all my friends are stoners, but the law is still a blatant lie - enriching the legal profession by ruining citizens. Fact: Marijuana is one of the greatest therapeutic substances on the planet. It has always been good for humans. The marijuana laws themselves have always been bad. These bad laws make people poor, prevent many from getting jobs, and deny children their parents; pot convicts are denied public assistance and educational funds and many lose their freedom. That's why last week I helped organize a "poor people's parade for pot" in Camden. (http://tinyurl.com/potparade ) I've been arrested twice on felony marijuana charges (11/24/97 and 4/1/10). In July of 1997, Governor Whitman signed into law a new Omnibus Crime Bill that revamped all of the 2C criminal laws. Also, (N.J.S.2C:43-3(1)) legally describes marijuana as a Schedule I drug - "having no medical value." Most citizens arrested in NJ for marijuana are charged with violating 2C:35-10. On November 24, 1997, I became the first citizen to be arrested under this revamped law. I fought it hard but took a plea deal three days into the trial, which got me a 10-year sentence; I did 18 months in prison and 19 months on parole. What a waste of my life - the day I got off parole I smoked a joint at the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. Between these two arrests, the legal landscape of marijuana changed. On Jan. 18, 2010 Governor Jon Corzine signed into law the NJ Compassionate Use Act C.24:6I-2. In this ACT the state of NJ officially recognized marijuana as a "medicine." The Act reads: "The Legislature finds and declares that: a. Modern medical research has discovered a beneficial use for marijuana in treating or alleviating the pain or other symptoms associated with certain debilitating medical conditions." Yet, no exemption for "medical use" was made in the state's 2C:35 marijuana laws. I believe marijuana was made legal by this legislative oversight here in Jersey. In a quirk of circumstances, on April 1, 2010 I was once again one of the first people arrested after this new medical marijuana law was passed, but the prosecution elected to prosecute me under the 2C:35 criminal statutes again, even though I'm a bone cancer patient and this ACT was supposed to prevent the prosecution of medical marijuana patients like me. Instead of being afforded protection by the Compassion Use of Medical Marijuana Act (CUMMA), I've been fighting this point for over five years now. I was acquitted by a jury of the serious distribution charge, yet I was still unjustly imprisoned for months in Burlington County's filthy jail for possession so I appealed. FACT: New Jersey now has two laws mandating two different things - a clear constitutional violation of Due Process. One law, the most recent, is CUMMA C.24:6I-2, which recognizes marijuana's medical use. The other law, our 2C:35 criminal statues, specifically doesn't recognize marijuana as having medical value, and because of that its still illegal and legally described as a Schedule I drug in New Jersey. By law (due process), wouldn't that render the older 2C:35-10 law, as well as the description in 2C:43-3(1) that specifically doesn't recognize "medical use," outdated and obsolete - flawed at the very least, and outright unconstitutional at worst? This is one of the major arguments in my appeal - it's not my fault the legislature didn't fix this conflict. Shouldn't the state's title 2C:35-10 marijuana laws be voided for vagueness, and nullified as a violation of due process? CUMMA passage in 2010 superseded it! If so, MJ is legal in NJ. This is clearly unconstitutional. How does the state get to prosecute citizens like myself under 2C:35 criminal statutes that are false, and in direct contradiction to the more recent CUMMA law? 2C:35 statutorily classifies marijuana as a Schedule I drug having "no medical value," but under CUMMA C.24:6I-2, other politically connected citizens are allowed to grow and distribute it as medicine. Why is marijuana treated as a legal medical substance for the Alternative Treatment Centers, but for me and 22,000 others each year it's an illegal "non-medicinal substance," and we are imprisoned for it? Why are some 4,000 people permitted to use this "ancient medicine" under CUMMA, while we were prosecuted under a law (2C:35-10) that states it "has no medical value"? Pass the joint and think about this: In 1820 the Missouri Compromise, which described African-Americans as 2/3 of a person, became law. The Supreme Court upheld it in the 1858 Dred Scott decision, declaring, "The negro has no rights which the white man is bound to respect." But the passage of the 13th and 14th Amendments in the 1860s rendered the previous laws like the Missouri Compromise obsolete. Likewise I believe CUMMA voided and nullified the 2C:35 laws that I and 100,000 New Jerseyans have been prosecuted under since CUMMA's enactment in 2010. Other states such as California dealt with this issue by making "medical exemptions" to their criminal statutes SB420. New Jersey has a similar provision (N.J.S. 24:21-3(d)) within the Department of Health to do so as well; this statute even allows the director to change the Schedule, but Christie's "politics of pot" prevented the application of this provision - thus my appeal. I believe every pothead who was arrested and prosecuted under the current 2C:35 marijuana criminal statutes since Jan. 18, 2010 was prosecuted unconstitutionally. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom