Every one of these lives is an individual gift from God and has to be treated that way. Gov. Christie

NEWARK, N.J. - Gov. Christie joined with the pastor of a church here Tuesday to call for lessening the stigma of drug addiction, invoking a friend's death as he sought to frame the issue as a universal problem.

Addiction "can and does happen to anyone," Christie said, after treatment providers, family members, and recovering addicts shared their perspectives during a summit at the New Hope Baptist Church that also was led by Pastor Joe A. Carter.

[continues 649 words]

The Shaneen Allen case has made a lot of people look at New Jersey Gun laws, many are happy she's not going to trial.

Not me. I had hoped she would have. I previously wrote I thought a jury wouldn't convict her. Instead, thanks to the scrutiny the Ray Rice case brought to her case, the Atlantic County Prosecutors office begrudgingly accepted her into the (PTI) Pre-Trial Intervention program. I don't think this a victory; a victory would have been a "not guilty" verdict. She will soon plead "guilty" and lose her right to vote and own a gun. She will now experience what millions of other citizens (especially black citizens) suffer, "second amendment-less citizenship" for trying to protect herself.

[continues 617 words]

It's time the U.S. government changes the categorization of cannabis as having no medical value and allows doctors to prescribe it to patients for relief from cancer and many other diseases.

The U.S. Government's own website, http://cancer.gov, lists several "possible" uses for marijuana against cancer. These include the obvious such as pain relief, appetite stimulation and control of nausea and vomiting.

But the site also discusses the possibility that pot may hinder the growth of tumors, kill already existing tumors and even focus potent chemotherapy drugs to kill cancerous cells while preserving healthy tissue, as it has shown in testing on rats.

[continues 152 words]

"We standout in our corruption, New Jersey is unique" wrote Bob Ingles, author of "The Soprano State". His book details the "you-couldn't-make-this-up" true story of the corruption that has pervaded New Jersey politics, government and business for the past thirty years.

As U.S. Attorney, Chris Christie made his name on corruption - busting state officials, bullying his way through towns, legally hammering away with the full weight of the federal government. State officials cowered at the mere mention of his office.

[continues 663 words]

By design of the founders of America, U.S. citizens are the final arbiters of our nation's laws via our jury system. I don't think the founding fathers could have envisioned "America the free" becoming "America the prison country." I was jailed for saying that in 2002 - we have political prisoners in America too. The incarceration rate in America is the highest in the world: As of October 2013, it was 716 individuals per 100,000 citizens of the national population. The United States represents about 5 percent of the world's population, but it's a fact that it houses around 25 percent of the world's prisoners.

[continues 707 words]

Richard Lee, the California owner of Oaksterdam University, rented a conference room at Bally's casino in Atlantic City. It is a business that teaches people how to grow marijuana, and other aspects of the emerging legal marijuana business. Technically for classroom purposes they used basil instead of marijuana.

Ed Forchion, NJ Weedman, outside of the Saturday at Bally's Casino in Atlantic City.

As a former marijuana prisoner I had to go check this out for myself. So last weekend. I went to Bally's to have a look at who is paying a $1000 to learn how to grow weed, when there are numerous $30 books. I used Mel Franks Growers Guide deluxe 20 years ago to perfect my plants, and more recently used free YouTube videos to perfect hydroponic skills. I wasn't paying $1000 so I could only watch at the door as approximately 80 people, about 60 males, a few Hispanics, three black men, one black women and a couple of Asians came and went.

[continues 481 words]

Medical Use Gathers Momentum

ATLANTIC CITY - It was always just weed, grass or pot. No one ever called it marijuana when he was growing up in South Philly, and as far as Jeffrey Matteo knew, all it ever did was get you high, hungry and tired.

But decades later, as his mother, Josephine, fought and beat a round of lymphoma only to see it come back and ravage her some more, Matteo learned more about the plant and its medicinal powers. He persuaded his mother to try it, for the second time in her life, dipping a toothpick in hemp oil and putting it on her tongue, and it began to pry her and constant pain apart.

[continues 545 words]

PASSAIC - Two drug busts within the past year, one big and one small, have combined to deliver a somewhat muddled message to the people who live in public housing.

The first bust occurred last Thanksgiving, when federal, state and local police swooped down on the Alfred Speer Village housing complex and arrested more than 70 people in connection with buying and selling drugs on the property. Since then, 10 families have been evicted for being involved in the drug trade.

The second, smaller bust occurred Aug. 5, when local police arrested Darien Allen, the chairman of the Passaic Housing Authority, and charged him with dealing cocaine. Allen, who is also a Passaic school district employee, is to make his first appearance in Superior Court on Wednesday.

[continues 803 words]

Christie Is the Naked Emperor!

Sorry for putting that image in your heads.

"We the People" have won the war on marijuana, but some government officials refuse to quit. They continue to inflict arrests and destruction on the populace. Most of us already know: The government could never win its war on marijuana because "We the People" know the truth. Their laws are based on lies.

Opinion polls show most people don't believe the lies the government has been telling about marijuana for decades They think marijuana should be legal. An October 2013 national Gallup poll showed 58% of Americans believe marijuana should be legal. 101.5 FM recently asked its listeners if "marijuana should be legal." 64 percent said yes.

[continues 529 words]

I think it is just as foolish to smoke marijuana to get high as it is to drink alcohol to get drunk. But alcohol is legal and pot is not, and our jails are packed full of people who violated the pot laws. This doesn't make sense. As far as I can tell, the only ones who have benefited from our drug laws are the prison/legal industry, the drug pushers and the pharmaceutical companies.

So why is it that our elected leaders, including our governor and president, don't change these counterproductive laws that destroy people's lives, encourage massive corruption here and abroad and don't even work to stop drug use?

[continues 169 words]

Lighting Up the Docket Once Again.

History should decide, not the courts, whether Chris Goldstein and Don DeZarn - two New Jerseyans who each lit up a handrolled marijuana cigarette during a protest at Independence National Historical Park last year - belong in the same pantheon as Mohandas K. Gandhi, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Harvey Milk, and Allen Ginsberg, a federal judge said in a caustic written opinion issued this week.

In her 10-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Cynthia M. Rufe in Philadelphia rejected appeals filed by Goldstein, 38, of Willingboro, and DeZarn, 48, of East Windsor, who argued that identical two-year probationary terms and $3,000 fines imposed by a lower court were harsh and that they should not have been ordered to stay away from future marijuana protests at the park, which Goldstein had organized.

[continues 701 words]

She Protests Weekly for Changes in the State's Medical- Marijuana Program.

Two high-placed advisers to Gov. Christie recently met with a pediatric nurse who has been staging weekly rallies at the statehouse this summer to protest the rules in the medical-marijuana program that she says hurt the patients, including her severely ill 15- year- old son.

Jennie Stormes, of Hope, Warren County, has held demonstrations every Thursday since July 10, saying the restrictions make it difficult for her son, Jackson, a marijuana cardholder with epilepsy, to get the relief that cannabis can provide for his life-threatening and frequent seizures.

[continues 879 words]

Snoop Dogg says he smoked weed in the White House. Hey Snoop, can you donate some cash and cannabis to The Legalize Marijuana Party of NJ?

Acknowledgement of marijuana use is at an all-time high. But Snoop trumps everyone with location, location, location! He may not be the first, but he is bragging about smoking in the White House. According to Bill O'Reilly's website, 86% of Americans believe marijuana should be legal. Celebrities and politicians seem to be tripping over one another to point out that they smoke marijuana.

[continues 618 words]

Despite being lawfully permitted to carry the heroin antidote Narcan since late March, emergency medical technicians in Camden still are not equipped with the drug.

It's a startling reality that's caught the attention of law enforcement in the city.

"EMTs have expressed frustration to officers on overdose scenes of their lack of Narcan and the inability to save a person's life," a Camden County Police supervisor, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Courier-Post.

"It just doesn't make sense to either cops or EMTs when law enforcement has medicine and medical professionals don't."

[continues 1013 words]

FREEHOLD - Two dozen people are alive after overdosing on heroin two months after the first kits of the heroin overdose antidote Narcan were delivered to police departments across Monmouth County.

On Sunday, a 16-year-old Colts Neck girl and a 15-year-old Middletown girl received Narcan after police in their respective townships responded to reports of their heroin overdoses. The 15-year-old Middletown girl needed two doses to reverse the effects of her heroin overdose.

However, not every dose of Narcan, or naloxone, results with an overdose reversal, the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office said.

[continues 773 words]

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.

[continues 473 words]

Jackson police are praising a drug overdose antidote that they say has helped save the lives of several individuals in slightly more than one month.

"So far, every time our officers have used Narcan, it has been successful," Jackson Police Lt. Steven Laskiewicz said this week.

About a month ago, police officers used Narcan to save the life of a 38-year-old man. In a recent span of 10 days, officers revived three more people with the drug, which is delivered as a nasal spray.

[continues 394 words]

They Say Changes Could Better Help Sick Children. He Has Said His Worry Is Moving Toward Legalization.

New Jersey's medical-marijuana program is coming under fire from a group of parents, who are setting up orange traffic cones on a sidewalk in front of the Statehouse each week to make their point, simply and colorfully.

The program needs repairs, they say, and Gov. Christie is blocking changes that would help their severely ill children get treatment their doctors have recommended. The cones are intended as a visual reference to Bridgegate.

[continues 876 words]

I am delighted Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) has shown leadership alongside Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) by proposing an amendment to prohibit federal intervention against states with medical marijuana laws.

For 22 years, I have lived with multiple sclerosis, a highly debilitating disease. Rather than being fun and active with my granddaughters, I spend hours weakened with pain. Despite trying different medications, nothing has afforded me the relief I get from medical marijuana. It has renewed my quality of life, and I can alleviate my pain enough to be there for my family.

[continues 70 words]

"Reefer madness" has been taken to a new level of absurdity, and not by the people who use it.

In New Jersey, you can only smoke pot - no oil or edibles allowed. In New York, smoking pot is banned and only oil and edibles are allowed. In Colorado and Washington, anything goes, no matter what form.

This silliness would be laughable if not for the seriously ill people who truly need it.

Jon Marino, Cedar Grove

[end]