"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."

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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As we all know, Gov. Christie is back. No more gallivanting around the country with delusions of the presidency. He's back in time for Bridget Anne Kelly's Bridgegate trial (this April); he's back to get an ear full from the teachers' union, to deal with the pension system, and every Thursday he will once again be confronted by medical marijuana activists who for two years have staged a weekly vigil in front of the State House in support of medical marijuana.

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New Jersey's Fiscal Year 2017 budget should prioritize reversing our state's recent expansion of the failed "War on Drugs" and the intentional use of collective violence on drug using populations. Despite talking points of "reclaiming lives from addiction" and "reducing prison populations" the state has endured a 30 percent increase of drug possession arrests in the last few years.

The current proposed budget calls for $64 million to expand the Drug Court program, an additional $127 million to increase provider rates for substance use treatment and retrofitting Mid-State Prison as a monolithic treatment center.

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When it comes to political corruption, serious crime pays in the Ocean County, New Jersey Superior Court.

Case in point: Howard Birdsall of Birdsall Services Group, pleaded guilty to corporate misconduct and fraud charges, admitting to making countless illegal political donations to score high-value government contracts. Under the terms of his plea before Judge James Den Uyl, he will get a four year sentence, with likely immediate Intensive Supervision Parole release. Mr. Birdsall might never see a day in prison.

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I'm not happy Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is dead, but I'm glad we as a nation have the opportunity, if Republicans don't obstruct it, to get a non-Catholic replacement appointed to the bench. In previous columns I mentioned how we (minorities) in New Jersey suffer from having an all-white NJ Supreme Court, and the same is true of the U.S. Supreme Court: Religious freedom suffers wherever we have a lack of religious diversity.

The First Amendment prevents government from forbidding free exercise of religion, so government cannot regulate beliefs by foisting them or prohibiting them. Religious worship often entails performing physical acts such as consuming substances (e.g., bread and wine, marijuana, hoasca tea) or abstaining from substances or behaviors. Government could not ban performance of these acts in the context of religious procedure any more than it could ban the beliefs whence these actions originate.

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I am a retired New Jersey State Trooper with extensive experience working narcotics cases. Bob Percopo, in his Feb. 4 oped "Legalizing drugs makes no sense," called recent drug policy reforms hypocritical.

But our prohibitive strategy of the past half-century has done nothing to curb drug abuse while simultaneously making our streets more dangerous. When those who received commutations were behind bars, the drug market didn't slow down in the slightest. People were - - and still are - overdosing.

Contrary to Percopo's worries, legalizing marijuana is actually a great option for reducing the burden on the legal system and improving public safety while simultaneously reducing the severity of the opiate crisis. In states where medical marijuana is legal and regulated, opiate overdoses have decreased by 25 percent.

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Blaney called Jon's right to self-representation at his trial "shortsighted" and said his activism in the fight to have marijuana legalized in New Jersey was "misguided."

The term "flat-worlder" is often used in a derogatory sense to mean anyone who holds ridiculously antiquated views. There was a time when authorities and those who thought they knew best ridiculed and chastised people who said the world was a sphere. So flat-worlders are idiots who reject science.

But I've come up with a local Jersey word for those who, today in 2016, reject the science, truth, and facts about marijuana and instead believe the superstitions, distortions, government propaganda, and flat-out lies of yesteryear: Blaney.

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I'm passing a joint at The Joint and pondering while on pot. Through hazy eyes I watched FoxNews coverage of the armed takeover of a federal building in Oregon, feeling helpless.

I've decided to do something about it here in Trenton.

I think I'm going to take over the front steps of the Clarkson S. Fisher Federal Building and United States Courthouse located on the next block from The Joint on State Street. Ummm next week or the week after, hum, or when I get off this couch. (In my "Jay and Silent Bob" voice:) Dude... not in solidary with those fools in Oregon, but just the opposite.

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TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - Three of New Jersey's five medical marijuana dispensaries have had their business pages shut down by Facebook, cutting off what advocates call an integral place for customers to learn about which plant strains best treat their illness and where to find discounts.

Compassionate Sciences in Bellmawr, Garden State in Woodbridge, and Breakwater Treatment and Wellness in Cranbury had their pages shut down this week.

Facebook's advertising policy bans promotion of selling drugs - as well as tobacco and guns - and the medical marijuana pages weren't spared even though they have been legally allowed to operate in New Jersey since 2011.

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Is the Zonker community inclined to overindulge in the product it champions - namely, marijuana? Seems so. That could explain the yawning gaps in Zonker logic - the apparent burnt spots in the medial temporal lobes from the pothead community's misfiring synapses.

The Zonker community takes its name from Zonker Harris, the cannabis-addled character in the Doonesbury comic strip. Talking up marijuana, Zonker's namesakes illogically say that since alcohol is legal, marijuana should be too.

Alcohol fuels crime, domestic abuse, deteriorating health, bankruptcy and highway carnage, to name just a few. So, heck, why not legalize marijuana along with it?

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