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.

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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.

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(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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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"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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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