Christie this week reaffirmed his public commitment to making N.J. a national leader in fighting drug addiction. [photo] Governor Christie speaks about drug addiction at a Walgreens in East Brunswick on Dec. 22, 2016.(Photo: Nicholas Pugliese/STATE HOUSE BUREAU) Gov. Chris Christie on Thursday visited a Walgreens in East Brunswick to highlight initiatives the company is undertaking to promote the safe disposal of unused prescriptions drugs and expand access to a medicine that can reverse an opioid overdose. His final public appearance before Christmas came on the heels of a related event Wednesday evening where Christie and former Gov. Jim McGreevey led a candlelight vigil on the State House steps in memory of people who have died from or are struggling with addiction. [continues 642 words]
New Jersey will receive a $1.3 million grant to target the heroin trade and illegal prescription drug activity as law enforcement and legislators team up to lower rates of addiction and overdoses, Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. announced Thursday. [photo] A grant from the U.S. Justice Department would target the heroin trade and misuse of prescription drugs.(Photo: RECORD FILE PHOTO) New Jersey will receive a $1.3 million grant to target the heroin trade and illegal prescription drug activity as law enforcement and legislators team up to lower rates of addiction and overdoses, Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. announced Thursday. [continues 248 words]
[photo] Governor Chris Christie holds a baby boy facing perinatal addiction while the boy's grandmother looks on while he was touring the Jersey Shore Medical Center's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) in Neptune, N.J. on Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2016. The baby boy is 49 days old and suffers from withdrawal symptoms transferred from his mother who had addiction issues. (Photo: Tim Larsen/Governor's office) With changes to health care among the top priorities for President-elect Donald Trump when he takes office next month, New Jersey is likely to gain greater flexibility in Medicaid and possibly help drug users get access to treatment, Gov. Chris Christie said Wednesday. [continues 421 words]
One is a former nurse. Another used to be in law enforcement. There were a recruiter and a graphic designer. Bergen County Prosecutor Gurbir Grewal and Bergen County Sheriff Michael Saudino at the press conference on Thursday, Sept. 1, 2016. They were among 40 people arrested this week in an investigation led by the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office to combat the area's "staggering" heroin epidemic. This time, after arresting the alleged users for drug possession, detectives offered them help -- the chance to enter a five-day detox program run by Bergen County Regional Medical Center. Twelve people accepted. [continues 1881 words]
Sitting in a jail cell and preparing to spend as many as five years in state prison for two heroin possession charges, Matt Lopreiato found himself at a grim crossroads. "I destroyed my family inside and out. I felt like my life was over. No family, no friends," the 27-year-old Toms River man said. "I felt like I was alone and would be better off dead to be completely honest with you." The heroin addict went cold turkey and spent 43 days in Ocean County Jail. Then an offer arrived: go through addiction treatment, succeed and go free. [continues 899 words]
Paterson Police Director Jerry Speziale confirmed Saturday afternoon that city police are investigating a report that a 3-year-old tested positive for marijuana early Saturday morning. Speziale said that at 3 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 31, police were met by child protective services at St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center because "a 3-year-old had tested positive for marijuana." "It is an unfortunate situation," Speziale said. "We don't if it is because of contact or ingestion. We take these situations as serious." [continues 91 words]
Lacey Township Middle School is one of the first in the region to drug test middle school students. Here's why. LACEY -- Middle schoolers here are among the first in the region to take part in a random drug testing program that could shape the battle against drug abuse. Superintendent Craig Wigley said the program is ready to launch after New Year's, and he expects about 100 of the middle school's roughly 700 students to participate. Parents must enroll their seventh- and eighth-graders in order to take part in the voluntary program, under which students who fail a random drug test would be removed from sports and extracurricular activities for 10 days after the first offense, 45 days after the second offense, and longer for a third offense. [continues 451 words]
Heroin's deadly cousin, the synthetic opioid fentanyl, figured in 417 fatal drug overdoses in New Jersey in 2015, nearly three times the number of fentanyl-related deaths in the year before, according to new state figures. The findings from the Office of the State Medical Examiner confirm the fears of law enforcement and public health officials, who have been forecasting an ever-rising body count from opioid addiction. In 2014, the number of fentanyl-related deaths in New Jersey stood at 142. [continues 465 words]
TRENTON - Ed Forchion wants to film a reality show chronicling the impact of the country's so-called War on Drugs on his life. He has a couple titles in mind: "The War on NJ Weedman." Or perhaps even better, "Marijuana Martyr." Forchion pointed to prosecutors' desire in a drug case in Trenton that could land him in prison for years to protect the identity of a confidential informant who allegedly purchased weed from him several times at his downtown city business. [continues 814 words]
TRENTON - Wearing a tailored gray pinstripe suit and a ganja chain dangling from his neck, Trenton's well-known marijuana activist showed up more than 15 minutes late to court Tuesday for his arraignment where prosecutors formally extended a plea offer that could send him to prison for years. Ed "NJ Weedman" Forchion pleaded not guilty to 11 drug-related charges and was offered a 7-year plea to admit guilt to distributing drugs within 1,000 feet of the Daylight/Twilight School in Trenton. Forchion would have to spend three and a half years in prison, prosecutors said, because his past drug convictions make him an "extended-term" offender. [continues 777 words]
Federal officials remain in a haze when it comes to articulating a comprehensible policy on marijuana. Perhaps last week's ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals curtailing the feds from prosecuting legitimate growers and distributors will help clear the air. Half the nation's states, led by California, permit medicinal applications. Four states and the District of Columbia allow recreational use. In November, California could become the fifth. Yet the federal government still sees marijuana as a dangerous drug and dispensary operators as prosecution targets. [continues 359 words]
TRENTON - Ed Forchion once brought new meaning to the words "high culture." The down-with-earth marijuana activist last year opened his own restaurant, NJ Weedman's Joint, providing Trenton with a unique blend of cannabis and cuisine. Now, NJ Weedman is coming down from a bad high and looking for the courts to save his life and keep alive his once-bustling downtown Trenton businesses. Forchion and attorney Edward Heyburn have put the city on notice of their intent to sue over Forchion's "false arrest," which he says tarnished his reputation and cast a police-produced pall over his restaurant, smoke shop and pot temple, according to a tort claim notice obtained by The Trentonian. [continues 748 words]
TRENTON - Marijuana activist Ed Forchion gave a famous Los Angeles graffiti artist $300 cash, an ounce of weed and an expensive bong to paint a political statement on the side of his "Weedmobile" in 2008. The provocative portrait showed NJ Weedman blowing smoke into Uncle Sam's face. The van would later become a rolling billboard for Forchion's Trenton restaurant and pot temple, capturing in cartoonishly large candor his pro-marijuana views and disdain for New Jersey's "hypocritical" drug laws. [continues 930 words]
The Obama administration's decision to expand opportunities for scientific research of medical marijuana, while leaving cannabis classification under its longtime most-dangerous-drug status, strikes us as an important step, but hardly a solution. The decision is hopeful in that it signals an attempt to end the bureaucratic hurdles that prevent scientific study of the drug that so many advocates claim has curative powers. But leaving in place the stigma and legal problems that a Schedule I designation creates makes the administration's attempt to find some middle ground difficult to truly appreciate. [continues 380 words]
MILITARY VETERANS and New Jersey lawmakers are lobbying Gov. Christie with new vigor to approve a bipartisan bill that would allow marijuana use to treat posttraumatic stress disorder. In the past, the Christie administration had rebuffed requests to add the condition to the list of ailments that qualify for cannabis use. But Christie did not rule out signing the bill when asked about it two weeks ago at a news conference. "I'll read it," he said, softening a bit from his oft-repeated previous statements that he would veto any expansion of the six-year-old medical marijuana program. [continues 802 words]
TRENTON - Marijuana legalization activist Ed Forchion and his attorney took turns bashing police and prosecutors for alleged perjury and gamesmanship and demanded the resignation of the county's top law enforcement official during an impromptu news conference outside criminal court Thursday. Wearing a burgundy pinstripe suit, Forchion, known as NJ Weedman, took a hit from a bong and handed out jury nullification pamphlets following his first appearance in Mercer County Superior Court. He railed against the tactics of Trenton Police and Acting Mercer County Prosecutor Angelo Onofri and discussed how his attorney, Edward Heyburn, was at a disadvantage to argue his case in court without a crucial sworn affidavit of probable cause. [continues 854 words]
TRENTON - Facing an 11-count indictment on drug charges, Ed Forchion, aka NJ Weedman, is not breaking a sweat. In fact, the pro-marijuana activist has challenged acting Mercer County Prosecutor Angelo Onofri to take the lead on the case. "I'm ready for it," Forchion said Tuesday shortly after learning of the indictment. "I really hope that Prosecutor Onofri presents this case and takes this ass whooping himself." Onofri announced Tuesday in a press release that a grand jury returned the indictment charging the 52-year-old with numerous drug offenses stemming from a raid on April 27 at his restaurant and pot temple directly across from City Hall on East State Street. [continues 630 words]
The digital age is bringing new challenges to the Fourth Amendment. But a key decision last week bolsters this right. The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution is crucial to liberty because it protects the "right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures." The digital age is bringing new challenges to the Fourth Amendment. But a key decision last week bolsters this right. At issue are devices such as the StingRay by Harris Corp. that, in the company's description, among other things performs "dialed number and registration collection, mobile interrogation and target tracking and location" of cell phones. [continues 288 words]
TRENTON - In the sticky heat of his downtown restaurant, Ed "NJ Weedman" Forchion sat at a table and wiped the plastic cloth covering absentmindedly. He had three things on his mind - first his broken air conditioning, then the broken plumbing, then the cops. Money is tight at the Trenton staple, which is aptly named "Weedman's Joint." Months ago a series of police raids and activity at the combination restaurant and "pot temple" scared many of his customers away, Forchion said. [continues 967 words]
TRENTON - Trenton Police's Facebook status is nonexistent. The department removed its Facebook page sometime Thursday amid allegations that negativity hurled at the department, partially over the arrest of a lightning rod marijuana activist, was being scrubbed from its social media page. That led some activists - working in concert with Ed Forchion, also known as NJ Weedman - to paper the city with public records requests regarding the social media page. One is Steven Wronko, a Spotswood man who earned the national spotlight after being escorted out of Helmetta town hall by police while filing a records request about animal abuses at the borough's beleaguered animal shelter. [continues 819 words]
Inside New Jersey
