In response to the July 2 letter "Monmouth and Ocean County hospitals to pay for Narcan," the partnership between Monmouth and Ocean County law enforcement and local health care systems furnishing police officers with naloxone (Narcan) is commendable.

It is essential that emergency personnel are prepared to respond effectively in opioid overdose emergencies, and the initiative equipping police and EMTs with this life-saving medication is invaluable. Any mention of that program's utility and success, however, also should include a reminder that New Jersey's Overdose Prevention Act encourages anyone who may be in a position to help in an overdose to carry naloxone.

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Important stoner alert: huge marijuana protest at LOVE PARK, Philadelphia 7/10, @ 4 p.m. SMOKE DOWN PROHIBITION https:// www.facebook.com/ events/469747533199955 .

I usually say joint, but lately I haven't been Passing the Joint much because I've been taking bong rips - oops, Chalice inspirations. I have several Chalices, which are my sacramental bongs. Don't laugh; some use cannabis religiously, so if you're using a bong - oops, Chalice for religious purposes, shouldn't it be protected by the First Amendment? I think so.

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This week our infamous governor, Chris Christie, made headlines again with the announcement of his presidential campaign, following the release of polls showing an all time low approval rating by NJ residents. He's also ranked 11th, last place, among all the Republican candidates. Among the many crazy policies he has proposed is his stance on weed. He recently stated that he would go after legal cannabis states if elected president.

With the public support for cannabis growing, and the number of states with legal recreational and medicinal cannabis growing, does Christie really seriously believe the majority of Americans will support a candidate with prohibition campaign?

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HAMILTON - Six months after a local schoolteacher resigned following allegations of drug abuse and volatile behavior, the Hamilton Township Board of Education has adopted a comprehensive substance abuse policy that promises "appropriate discipline" against any educator who comes to work tipsy, drunk or drugged up.

"We cannot have teachers come into the schools inebriated or out of control," Hamilton's school board president Tony Celentano said Tuesday in an interview with The Trentonian.

The Trentonian reported in January the explosive allegations surrounding former Crockett Middle School teacher Joseph Mahon, who resigned from his teaching position last December after then Superintendent James Parla pushed for tenure charges and administrative hearings.

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The State of New Jersey is funding several reforms in the name of abandoning the failed "war on drugs." These reforms include forcing Drug Court (DC), funding re-entry services and retrofitting jails as treatment centers. There is only one problem; these reforms actually fund the "war on drugs."

The key tenet of the "war on drugs" is criminalizing people who use drugs and stripping rights from them via arrest, incarceration and institutionalization. These "reforms" are all post-arrest, post-incarceration, and leave failed drug criminalization in tact.

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I had a great Father's Day with four of my five children. My one child, Ajanea, doesn't communicate with me. Her mind was poisoned by her scorned mother, who refused to allow me to bond with my daughter for 15 years. The Burlington County Family Court judges helped her with this by preventing me from having a relationship with my daughter because I publicly spoke THE TRUTH about marijuana. Free speech didn't exist in family court for me, and it ruined my relationship with my daughter. I hear I'm a grandfather, too, but I don't know thanks to Judge Bell and her bigoted co-judges. I don't hate too many things, but I'll tell anyone who'll listen: I hate the Burlington County Family Court judges, especially Judge Maria S. Bell. If you think Blackmen get the short end of stick in the criminal system, take a look at family court.

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TRENTON - Ed Forchion's new restaurant and sanctuary on East State Street will open its doors for business Monday morning.

"I went from Burlington County Jail to State Street," Forchion said. "I'm stressing so much, I'm pulling my dreads out."

NJ Weedman's Joint, located directly across the street from City Hall, will open at 7 a.m. Monday, and will serve affordable, healthy food. The menu will not offer any pork or beef, and will feature items such as sushi, pasta, fish, chicken, roasted vegetable platters, healthy soups, fruit platters, fresh sandwich wraps and more. There will also be a vegetarian menu, Forchion said, and the restaurant will offer natural energy drinks such as fruit smoothies, breakfast shakes and blended juices.

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I'm going to cause a rip in Trenton. No not a bong rip, I take those all the time I'm talking about a rip (Religious Interruption in Procedures). We live in America and despite the claim that we have religious freedom in America we don't. The very prohibition issued by the founding fathers in the Bill of Rights was: "the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion" We commonly call this our Right to Religious Freedom, the first amendment.

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I'm writing to advocate for marijuana legalization, to stop hunting and jailing people based on disproved ideas and myths, to stop making police officers enemies to our children and to stop pouring billions of dollars down a bottomless hole.

In 1972, a study commissioned by the Nixon administration found that marijuana is relatively harmless. The study was scrapped because the facts did not provide the desired result.

Personally, I never found pot all that appealing. In the last 50 years since high school, I've known a few people who don't smoke, but I can't think of anyone who believes in punishment for those who do. I used to worry about my kids being caught up in this cops-and-robbers stuff. But like many, I did nothing, as if it was an accepted part of life. But soon I'll have the same concerns for my grandchildren, and I find that a bit hard to take.

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The primaries are done, now the two major parties can begin the sham campaign they claim are the free elections. You see the two parties make all the rules and many of those rules are created to deny independents and third parties fair access to the general election in November.

Last year as my readers know the Demo-Pukicans (as I call them) combined to deny me access to the US Congressional ballot in the 3rd district. This year as I gathered signatures to run for state assembly here in the 15th I read the fine election print and discovered the Demo-Pukicans made it so you must reside in the state district for one year, it's not the same in federal elections.

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State vs Forchion.

Memorial day - the difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day is on Memorial Day it's a remembrance of those who died in battle. Veterans Day is for those who served. Memorial day is not supposed to be a happy holiday.

Flags on Memorial Day should be half-staff (until noon*). On this Memorial Day I noticed a few that were forgotten up all day or not lowered in the AM. Oops

I hate being told to shut up or not being allowed to speak for myself. I had a stunner this week, I had assumed since I represented myself at trial that here in the appeal I would as well. I had planned to speak, instead I was told to put that in motion form - so I did.

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TRENTON - Marijuana activist and Trentonian columnist Ed Forchion has leased two adjoining East State Street properties and will soon open a restaurant and spiritual sanctuary.

"I'm obviously catering to the cannabis consuming community in the area, but I also I want to tap into the artsy crowd here in Trenton," Forchion said.

The properties, located directly across the street from City Hall, will be named NJ Weedman's Joint and Liberty Bell Temple III. The business is scheduled to open June 15, but on Monday afternoon about a dozen people were gathered at the restaurant as a chef cooked turkey burgers and Forchion explained his vision. The restaurant portion of the business will open at 6 a.m. on weekdays and serve affordable, healthy food, Forchion said. The menu will not offer any pork or beef, and will feature items such as sushi, pasta, fish, chicken, roasted vegetable platters, healthy soups, fruit platters, fresh sandwich wraps and more. There will also be a vegetarian menu, Forchion said, and the restaurant will offer natural energy drinks such as fruit smoothies, breakfast shakes and blended juices.

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I woke up today feeling extremely good (more on that in next week's major announcement). While that may not be news to some it is to those close to me. I've been miserable for the last couple years; I admit, I fake happiness all the time. I exhibit cheesy smiles, fraudulent greetings, and I hold back on foul thoughts. I'm not happy with what happened with my life. It just isn't where I thought it would be, my relationships with my kids aren't where I thought they would be maybe I've been too obsessed with destroying the MJ laws, but they destroyed me first: I attribute most of my misery to the asinine marijuana laws and the idiotic enforcement of them, which everyone also knows I've fallen victim to a few times but I have everyday issues that affect my persona to the core as well. In my Nov. 6, 2014, column I even wrote "Suicide Is Not a Crazy Option."

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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.)

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I am a peaceful, proud, patriotic pothead. As such, I relish the rights afforded to all Americans by the Bill of Rights, especially the First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and political expression. As a patriot I feel it's my duty to express my opinion on things my government does, whether it's popular or not. This is what I've always believed as I openly spoke out against our nation's war on drugs.

Because of Mike Huckabee's presidential announcement, this column is dedicated to exercising my free speech rights again by voicing my opposition to America's daily bombing of the Middle East's Muslim populations. Which we've done for decades now, in the name of the goodness Huckabee-like Americans think we dole out. This is the real reason some of them want to attack us or bomb us back as Osama bin Laden did - not because they're jealous of our freedoms, as that self-righteous idiot from Texas claimed.

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I've been coming to Trenton-the state capital-for 20 years to protest and to utilize state services, but I never lived in Trenton. Hopefully that will be changing ASAP: I'm looking for a little spot to call home. I've been living at my mom's house for the last year and a half since returning from California. But this past year I've mingled, smoked, and schmoozed with hundreds of Trentonians. I don't know what it is about TRENTON, but I'm loving it to the point I'm attempting to live and open a business here.

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I have a dilemma: Good Troopers

In these times of altercations recorded on cell phone cameras and Internet hashtag campaigns against police abuse, I have a different dilemma: I can't commend the good officers for fear of getting them in trouble. I'm now being treated very well by New Jersey police - and I can't really write about it because I don't want to screw them up. I want good cops to prosper and weed out (pun intended) the bad ones.

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The Christie has had a bad spell-last week he made headlines by calling marijuana legalization and herb taxes "Blood Money." It's set in stone that Gov. Chris Christie does not like marijuana and is one of those fools who really believes the Reefer Madness lies of the 1930s - no surprise there. He was confronted by a teacher and that encounter went viral, a state judge is questioning his pension plans, and his cronyism with the Wall Street bankers has been exposed as a nearly 1 billion dollar Cash Cow featured on the nationally televised show The Young Turks.

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On Monday Gov. Chris Christie was in Ewing taping the Ask the Governor show on NJ 101.5, I was feeling all butt happy at the success of the great Spring Smoke-out held last Saturday at the Statehouse. I wanted to call-in and ask The Gov, why is it that 400 citizens could smoke marijuana at the statehouse without arrest yet 22,000 others were arrested last year on the streets of New Jersey, but the screeners wouldn't let me.

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Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands, or commands of a government. "One has not only a legal, but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws." - Martin Luther King Jr.

The great Spring Smoke-out of 3/21 was a billed as the first of a series of planned civil disobedience protests here in New Jersey, designed to bring awareness and change to the plight of the victims of the Pot Prohibition Gov. Chris Christie and State Assemblywomen Mary Pat Angelini so steadfastly embrace.

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