Everyone's talking about America's racial problems without mentioning the armor-plated Humvee in the room. America's drug policy is the leading cause of the animosity between the police and the communities they're charged with protecting. Everyone cheers the police when they arrest a burglar or arsonist, but it's hard to see how institutionalizing locals for weed does anything other than harm a community. The police are not racist, the laws are. From its Jim Crow origins to the racially coded language of Nixon and Reagan to different sentencing for cocaine and crack, the war on drugs is, and has always been, a racist enterprise. [continues 79 words]
In the past year, to my great satisfaction, the NJ family court has taken a beating in both the federal and state appeals courts. In Malhan vs Malhan, five parents filed a class action lawsuit in federal court alleging that the NJ family court system fails to provide adequate "due process" rights to parents in child custody proceedings. Surender Malhan, the father, lost his custody rights on a mere two hours' notice based on a bogus accusation from the mother without him having an opportunity to refute his estranged wife's allegations. [continues 1074 words]
I spent 25 years in the New Jersey State Police, 22 of them as a narcotics officer, and I support legalizing marijuana. I have seen firsthand that marijuana sold on the street can be adulterated with all kinds of additives including opium, PCP and formaldehyde. I have seen street dealers, some as young as 12, selling other drugs along with marijuana. Once, during a street operation in Hoboken, I witnessed a 16 year-old male sell drugs to a 10 year-old girl. Legalizing and regulating marijuana will put street dealers out of business and prevent many of these scenarios in the future. [end]
ANDOVER TOWNSHIP - "Hidden in Plain Sight" is the title of a free drug education summit for parents that the Andover Regional School District will host from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday in the Long Pond School gymnasium. As the program's name suggests, many of the signs of child and teen substance abuse - unbeknownst to parents - may be right under their noses without their even realizing it. "A lot of people think it's not in my backyard, but I think as educators, we have an obligation to educate parents on what is out there," said Long Pond School Principal Jon Sinclair. [continues 341 words]
Ok new year, new ideas, new pothead thoughts. This is my 24th "Passing the Joint" column and I want to bring something new to it beginning next week. My column is every Thursday, my new idea I want to try out is to be on the streets of Trenton every Thursday, talking to the people of Trenton about my Column that day. I want feed back. Another pothead idea I'll be executing, beginning Thursday Jan. 15 I will be hosting a Cannabis Consumer Chess Tournament 6-10 p.m. [continues 494 words]
Third Way and Anzalone Liszt Group conducted a poll from Sept. 25-29 indicating that 51 percent of people approve of marijuana being legalized. I am of the minority opinion based on three reasons: For certain people with addictive personalities, the use of marijuana can lead to hard drugs like heroin. My late brother started with marijuana and eventually became a heroine addict; Kids today face a "dumbing down" with the processes of creativity and critical thinking because of their attachment to the computer. Studies indicate that the use of marijuana reduces the brain's capacity; When in Vietnam, I had access to marijuana and other drugs and some soldiers used them as a form of escape. I'm fearful that people will use it as a way to function without thinking things through, another form of escape. Joseph Wardy RANDOLPH [end]
2014 was a weird year for me, and good riddance. I started out 2014 in the horrible Burlington County Jail and ended it as the writer of this weekly column for The Trentonian yeah, that's weird! My new year's resolution(s): to eat better and to open a religious temple in Trenton that provides marijuana to its congregants. I hope everyone has a happy new year, but we all know there will be a lot of unhappiness in 2015 as there is every year. Sorry to be a schleprock. My hope is marijuana legalization happens in 2015, but I'm not a dope. It won't, but we are winning the war on the herb. [continues 925 words]
You can read this and say I'm just a dumb stoner and a drug addict, but to be clear I'm far from stupid and I'm not addicted to anything. I don't do drugs; I only smoke "cannabis," which isn't addictive. I've known of the cure for addiction (ibogaine) since July 4, 1998, when I first met Dana Beal of the "cures-not-wars" organization at a legalize marijuana protest in Washington D.C. I admit when I first heard Dana rail on and on about ibogaine I was skeptical. My thoughts were, if there really were a cure for addictions it would be used empathetically across America to save lives. Over the years I learned differently. [continues 927 words]
The federal spending bill now pending before Congress includes a provision that bars the Justice Department from spending any money to undermine state medical marijuana laws. It also includes an amendment that prohibits the Drug Enforcement Administration from interfering with a federal law that allows industrial hemp research in states that have approved it. But for the District of Columbia and its effort to legalize marijuana, it's a different story, with Congress showing no shame or compunction in trying to upend local authority. The hypocrisy is stunning even by the standards of Capitol Hill. [continues 292 words]
I'm proud of the Ferguson protesters in most communities, people of color say nothing. A bunch of my white weed-smoking activist friends on Facebook are upset with me for talking about Ferguson and the national race issue it inspired. They're unfriending me in droves, and I myself have unfriended childhood friends. "Are you the reeferman or the raceman?" read one message. Our realities are so different, they are immune from my plight, which is why I see Ferguson as my fight too. [continues 768 words]
(AP) - New Jersey officials have given a fourth dispensary permission to start growing medical marijuana, so it could start offering it to patients in the spring. The Health Department issued the permit Friday to Breakwater Alternative Treatment Center in Cranbury Township, Middlesex County. New Jersey has had a law allowing medical marijuana for nearly five years, but drafting state regulations and opening dispensaries has been a slow process. The first one opened two years ago, and since then two others have joined. New Jersey picked six nonprofit groups to cultivate and sell marijuana. About 3,400 patients are registered with the program, and 364 physicians across the state are enrolled so they can recommend marijuana to patients. [end]
A case currently before the NJ Supreme Court (State v. Buckner) challenges the legality of judges age 70+ presiding over cases of life, death, and liberty. The onset of Alzheimer's disease and senility often strikes around 70. Nonetheless, there are dozens of septuagenarian judges sitting on the bench, arguably in contravention of the NJ Constitution. I, along with many defendants across the state, am watching this Buckner case with keen interest. Hopefully most of us will reach old age, but the older we get some things simply don't work as they did in our youth. I can say my sex life, my physical ability to play ball or run has been limited by my age, yet I am only 50. My mind is sharp (probably sharper than when I was 21), but I know from life experiences (watching my grandparents) that minds slow down with age. It happens to most people - including judges. Memories, complicated issues, and complex decision-making are greatly compromised by advanced age. [continues 728 words]
The next time you smoke a joint and pass it to your buddy on the couch, contemplate this: Criminal actions and thefts occur daily all over New Jersey, right in municipal courthouses. And the thieves and hooligans aren't the ones being put in handcuffs or fined. They're the ones in the black robes who have allied themselves in a criminal conspiracy with their cohorts in thievery the municipal court jester (prosecutor) and public pretenders (defenders) to bypass state law and usurp state funds for themselves. Using perjured testimony. [continues 965 words]
As a kid, other than the occasional mention of it in church I had never thought of suicide. That was the case until Freddie Prinze Sr, star of the 1970s sitcom Chico and the Man, did it on January 29, 1977, when I was in the seventh grade. At the time I thought it was fascinating and dwelled on it for months, but I knew better than to tell anyone. Just acknowledging you think about Suicide invites being locked up by the do-gooders. I thought of it a lot. At that time I thought of it as a far-off plan - to be accomplished when I was 50 and old. (Yeah at 14 50 seemed old). I thought it was dumb that Freddie would do it when he was just 22 and hadn't lived enough of life. I thought he was rich too, since he was on TV. [continues 717 words]
I really wanted to write about suicide this week, but I might be in the Burlington County jail for a few weeks. I hate those news articles that say "defendant" or "subject" wasn't available for comment - he was in jail. So this is my side of the story beforehand. The government, through its failed "War on Drugs," ruins the lives of millions of its citizens. Those convicted of marijuana possession are denied jobs, education benefits, and housing and welfare services. They are digitally marked with a criminal record. [continues 700 words]
This past weekend there was a marijuana legalization protest, "The Cannabis Conference," here in Trenton. Only a few Trenton residents showed up, which is sad considering this is a minority city and most of the arrests here are for marijuana possession. Usually I'd say if you don't stand up for yourself don't expect others to, but more than 200 suburbanite Caucasians did exactly that. They came out to protest a law that disproportionately affects you, my brothers. So now I say, keep your pants saggy and don't cry racism or unfairness from your porch bro's. Say nothing next time the man scoops you up and puts your blunt-smoking butt in the concrete plantation system for a while as chattel. [continues 743 words]
TRENTON - Several hundred people gathered in front of the New Jersey statehouse on Saturday to push for the legalization of marijuana. The event would be the second major gathering near the statehouse where the crowd would light up in defiance of the law. The last occurred in April on Easter. No arrests appear to have been made at the event which went off without much complication, despite one individual passing out around the beginning of the event. A relative told organizers that his brother suffers from anxiety and was overcome, he was transported to an area hospital by EMT's for evaluation. [continues 338 words]
I consider myself a peaceful, proud, patriotic pothead, and I've always been a civil disobedience aficionado. "F the law, smoke it anyway" has been my rallying cry for a couple of decades now. In my opinion this nation's War on Drugs is built upon a foundation of unjust laws that have infringed upon the freedoms of all Americans, especially people of color. I have come to understand that one of the most pivotal duties of a patriot is to question the government. [continues 793 words]
Jennie Stormes Said Her Son Has Life-Threatening and Frequent Seizures. She's Held Weekly Protests. A nurse who has staged weekly protests about New Jersey's troubled medical marijuana program is joining an exodus of families with ill children for Colorado. Courtesy of Jim Miller Jennie Stormes organized weekly protests against medical marijuana rules she says are too restrictive. Jennie Stormes of Hope, Warren County, said she planned to move in a few weeks because she is "tired of being angry and fighting against Gov. Christie" to convince him that her severely sick son cannot get the relief that cannabis might provide because of the state's numerous restrictions. [continues 581 words]
Inside New Jersey
