A marijuana legalization supporting friend frequently delivers this insight. "It's a plant, L.A. People should not be arrested for smoking a plant," she says. Her potted observations includes the same allowance for Cannabis oil, butter, gummy bears, coffee, etc. Her observation attracts a certain appreciation except for the fact that smoking such plant remains a violation of New Jersey law. Now, if people want to smoke that plant in public or sell such green produce behind the guise of religious temples and fruit smoothies store frontage, then that's the chance they take. [continues 485 words]
Congratulations to the Press on its recent series of articles concerning New Jersey's growing heroin epidemic. They follow the Press' past editorials opposing legalization of recreational marijuana. Convincing Democrat legislators in Trenton to abandon their lust for marijuana-generated tax dollars would be a life-saving decision. It is actually blood money and should never be used to redistribute New Jersey's wealth. Why state legislators led by Sen. Nick Scutari, D-Middlesex-Union-Somerset, are anxious to entice our young into lives that include narcotics is a mystery. This, is in spite of medical professionals and statistics that prove experimentation with marijuana leads to heroin and other hard-core addiction. [continues 155 words]
Henry Gunther was an unhappy man, according to stories told years later by the BBC and The Baltimore Sun. He was unhappy for good reason, as well: It was World War I, he was fighting on the Western Front, and he had recently been demoted back to the rank of private. But the worst was yet to come for Gunther. At 10:59 a.m. on November 11, 1918, outside the village of Villedevant-Chaumont, north of Verdun, Gunther, acting on his own and despite the shouts of his fellow soldiers, ran with his bayonet in hand and single-handedly attempted to attack a heavily fortified German position. In fact, not only did his fellow soldiers tell him to stop, the Germans also yelled at him to stop. [continues 614 words]
Robert Edward "Ed" Forchion Jr. created the persona NJ Weedman shortly after emerging in the late 1990s on his way to becoming one of New Jersey's best known marijuana legalization advocates. During his two-decades of advocacy for the legalization of marijuana, he's been on the front pages of newspapers, in jail cells and courtrooms, and he's run for elected office on all levels of government. Forchion has used marijuana since he was a teen, but in 2001 he says he was diagnosed with tumors in his knees and shoulders, which later become cancerous. He uses marijuana medically too, he maintains. [continues 895 words]
TRENTON - Less than 30 hours after his East State Street businesses were raided by police, Ed Forchion was back at the Joint, rolling a joint and vowing to beat county prosecutors in court. "They just gave me another platform to continue my goal," Forchion told The Trentonian at 10:30 p.m. Thursday, about two hours after his release from jail. "This is exactly what happened in Burlington County. I beat those prosecutors, and I'll beat the Mercer County Prosecutor's Office too. They're on the wrong side of history." [continues 643 words]
TRENTON - Prosecutors say complaints from the community regarding constant foot traffic in and out of Ed Forchion's businesses sparked a two-month investigation that resulted in his property being raided Wednesday afternoon. Prosecutors also say they received information from multiple sources that Forchion, a pot legalization activist known as NJ Weedman, was distributing marijuana from out of the premises. The Mercer County Narcotics Task Force raided Forchion's businesses, which includes a restaurant, religious sanctuary and tobacco shop, on East State Street and allegedly seized more than $19,000 in marijuana. [continues 436 words]
(AP) - A New Jersey marijuana advocate dubbed NJ Weedman has been arrested again on pot charges after police raided his restaurant and cannabis temple. Ed Forchion was arrested Wednesday along with 10 other people after a raid of his business across the street from Trenton City Hall. Forchion has spent time in prison on previous drug charges. He wasn't immediately available to comment. Forchion opened NJ Weedman's Joint and an attached cannabis church last year. He sued Trenton police last month, saying they infringed on his religious rights after shutting down the cannabis temple for operating too late. [end]
TRENTON - The authorities raided NJWeedman's Joint on East State Street Wednesday afternoon. According to police sources the narcotics task force raided the restaurant around 4 p.m. A number of police were seen going in and out of the building, and several people were detained by police. Social media posts have popped up with the hashtag #FreeNJWeedman and friends of Ed Forchion, better known as NJ Weedman, were saying that Forchion, proprietor of the shop, was among those arrested. In addition to running the restaurant and temple, Forchion is a well-known marijuana legalization activist. [continues 236 words]
Dear Gov. Christie my old pal - we will be puffing outside your office on 4/20 at 4:20 p.m. Take this as a personal invitation from me: NJWeedman. April 20 - The Stoner Holiday is next week and once again here in New Jersey there is a planned civil disobedience demonstration on the steps of the state capitol as a direct challenge to you Gov. Christie and your prohibitionist policies. http://tinyurl.com/CapitolSmokeout - - I personally plan on firing one up in your honor celebrating your demise at the Presidential level, don't stand to my left unless you want to see what you've erroneously and naively railed about. Try it i think youll like it. [continues 1062 words]
"I TOLD YOU SO." Harper's Magazine dredged up a 22-year-old interview with President Nixon's former Chief Advisor John Ehrlichman, who admitted the administration created the War on Drugs as a means to intentionally target and decimate the black community. This old story has become big news again, going viral with The Huffington Post, CNN, Rolling Stone and USA Today all covering this "revelation" like it was breaking news. WTF. "The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I'm saying? We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did." [continues 1090 words]
Awful Pain, but Still She Struggled With Decision. Dana Kelley recalls the exact moment when her neurologist suggested she try medical marijuana. The retired Army Intelligence linguist said it caused her emotional upheaval and led her to question her willingness to continue living in constant pain. Kelley's neck and back were severely fractured in a car crash three years ago in her hometown of Pennsville, Salem County. She underwent five surgeries, including a fusion of a large part of her spinal cord, and was prescribed morphine and opiates. [continues 1087 words]
Advocates are happy it was named, but not about the delay in naming it or the people on it. New Jersey's health commissioner recently appointed a panel that will decide whether chronic pain, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other conditions should be added to the list of a dozen ailments that qualify a patient to buy medical marijuana in the state. Patient advocates have been pressing for nearly four years to have the list expanded, saying it is too restrictive and prevents many severely ill patients from obtaining cannabis. [continues 825 words]
I'm passing this special JOINT to the Trenton Police Officers. Dear Trenton Police Officers. I am not your enemy, none of you should be mad at me for ignoring the marijuana laws. In fact I think you should ignore them as well. They do in the suburbs. You know the potheads are a peaceful bunch. You know arresting someone for marijuana ruins his/ her life more than marijuana use ever could. Some of your spouses, siblings, offspring and parents are potheads. But you continue to arrest non-family potheads here in Trenton. [continues 1255 words]
State Says Prices Are 37% Higher Than Selected Other States. As Pennsylvania moves closer to adopting a medical marijuana program, New Jersey has released a report on its six-year-old program that says its dispensaries charge the highest price for an ounce of marijuana on average, compared with other states with similar programs. The Department of Health report said the five dispensaries operating statewide charge an average of $489 per ounce, about 37 percent more than the average price in Arizona, New Mexico, Vermont, Maine, and Rhode Island. Most of these states have a cost-of-living index of 10 percent or less than New Jersey, said the report, released this month. [continues 530 words]
As Pennsylvania moves closer to adopting a medical marijuana program, New Jersey has released a report on its six-year-old program that says its dispensaries charge the highest price for an ounce of marijuana on average, compared with other states with similar programs. The Department of Health report said the five dispensaries operating statewide charge an average of $489 per ounce, about 37 percent more than the average price in Arizona, New Mexico, Vermont, Maine, and Rhode Island. Most of these states have a cost-of-living index of 10 percent or less than New Jersey, said the report, released this month. [continues 533 words]
Well I really wanted to write about the GOP politics and the national election campaigns going on this week but instead - thanks to the Trenton Police Department (TPD). I'll be opinionating my point of view on "FREEDOM of RELIGION" because it obviously differs from TPD's view. In third or fourth grade social studies I was taught at Winslow Twp. School number two that all Americans have the right to choose their own religions. This right was so revered by the founders (sorry natives) of this country that they made it the first right. As most people as a child I followed the faith of my parents. I was brought up in a traditional Baptist church, the First Baptist of Berlin, New Jersey. Most of our services were at traditional hours 8 a.m.-5 p.m. at the latest, but occasionally we had Midnight Mass on special occasions like New Years, and Easter. Black eye peas & pork, hymnals and amens. The Winslow Twp. Police would never had banned this. [continues 905 words]
TRENTON (AP) - After battling the legal system on two coasts and spending time in and out of prison, New Jersey's loudest champion of marijuana went legit last year when he opened up a restaurant across from city hall in this state's capital city. Now, he's headed back to court. Ed Forchion, better known as NJ Weedman, said Wednesday that Trenton police infringed on his religious rights after shutting down the cannabis temple attached to his restaurant for operating too late at night last weekend. [continues 472 words]
TRENTON - Marijuana activist and businessman Ed Forchion, better known as NJ Weedman, alleges the city of Trenton violated his First Amendment rights early Saturday when police officers asked the congregants inside Forchion's East State Street sanctuary to pack up and vacate the premises. "They came out here like it was a shooting," Forchion said of the police action. "The only thing that was missing was yellow tape." Forchion operates enterprises across from Trenton City Hall that include NJ Weedman's Joint restaurant at 322 East State St. and the adjacent Liberty Bell Temple III LLC at 320B East State St. [continues 825 words]
LITTLE FALLS, N.J. (AP) - The New Jersey attorney general's office has notified prosecutors that a lab technician failed to properly analyze evidence in a drug case, calling into question more than 7,800 criminal cases he's worked on over the last decade. Division of Criminal Justice director Elie Honig wrote in a memo last week that Kamal Shah was observed spending insufficient time analyzing a substance to determine if it was marijuana. In a memo dated Monday, Passaic County Deputy Public Defender Judy Fallon said Shahwas basically "observed writing 'test results' for suspected marijuana that was never tested." "Obviously, all his results have been called into question." Shah worked in the drug unit of the state police's North Regional Laboratory. He was removed from lab work in December, said Peter Aseltine, spokesman for the Office of the Attorney General. [end]
The New Jersey Attorney General's Office has notified prosecutors that a forensic scientist botched a lab analysis in a drug case, potentially calling into question thousands of criminal cases across the state. The attorney general has advised county prosecutors to alert defense counsel in the 7,800 cases on which the scientist worked since 2005. Most of the cases are in North Jersey, according to a spokesman for the Attorney General's Office. The scientist, Kamal Shah, worked in the drug unit of the State Police's North Regional Laboratory. [continues 165 words]
Inside New Jersey
