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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I wanted to write about the fact that starting at 2:30 on Saturday afternoon, hundreds of victims of New Jersey's current criminal marijuana laws will march from the Trenton train station down State Street to the State House, where a large smoky "civil disobedience protest" will begin at 4:20 p.m.

But first I must cringe at President Obama's recent comments to VICE magazine. VICE is a youth-oriented media outlet that I enjoy even though I'm actually 50 and considered middle-aged now. (I can't believe I just conceded that I'm middle aged.)

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TRENTON - More than 100 people descended upon the New Jersey Statehouse to protest laws they feel are unjust.

The laws they're upset with? Marijuana laws. So far despite a medicinal program in the state of New Jersey, the crowd expressed their displeasure by coming together to exchange ideas and, to smoke.

For a little more than two-hours various speakers told the crowd about how far they had come, but how much is still left to fight for. While a portion of the attendees were supporting medicinal marijuana, nearly everyone was in support of full legalization of the substance. Distinguished speakers like former Philadelphia Police Captain Ray Lewis spoke of his time as a patrolman. Among issues Lewis encountered on his beat were a large number of domestic disputes, all of which were alcohol fueled, he said. Not one of the thousands of calls were fueled by marijuana, Lewis told the crowd. The former Captain is well known in the ranks of activists. He has spent time among the Occupy movement and more recently headed down to Ferguson, Mo., to protest peacefully.

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To the Editor:

Will there really be a need for a new five-county South Jersey regional jail 10 years from now?

The U.S., with only 4.4 percent of the world's total population, has 22 percent of its incarcerated population and over 50 percent of all American prisoners are non-violent offenders.

Why are so many people who are not a danger to the community behind bars?

The majority of them are victims of the "Drug War" that began under President Richard Nixon and intensified under President Ronald Reagan, and many were arrested only for using marijuana.

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Do you have a bucket list? My altered ego, "NJWEEDMAN," has a huge list. Topping his list for years has been taking a THC-positive pee on "just say no" Nancy & Ronald Reagan's graves. Checking this off has been held up by Nancy's continued life. Sure, NJWeedman admits that may be distasteful on many levels, but these drug war criminals deserve it. They ramped up President Nixon's racist drug war, putting millions behind bars-especially brown people-and making America the greatest police state on the planet - largely for a plant. America now imprisons more of its citizens than any other nation in the world by far, holding 25 percent of the world's prisoners while having only 5 percent of the world's population.

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In the Press' Feb. 19 editorial "Don't make N.J. mecca for stoners," which came out against legalizing marijuana, it's sad to see my hometown newspaper desperately clinging to the wrong side of history. The editorial gives five specious excuses for prohibition.

First, we can't legalize cannabis during an opioid epidemic. This is counter-intuitive. Legalizing pot would free up resources to combat opioid abuse.

Second is the risk of children inhaling second-hand smoke. I don't know who the writer's babysitter is, but I think most people know to put the drugs, guns and pornography away until the kids leave.

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I want to opine my two puffs' worth about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu coming before the Republicans of Congress and dictating to the U.S. what our foreign policy and our treaty negotiations with Iran should be. The Israeli Senate Ambassador aka Senator Lieberman is no longer in the Senate, so Netanyahu had to deliver his orders himself.

But first I want to double down on my comments in last week's column "Butthurt."

If you remember, I wrote that I was personally butthurt over not being invited to join the New Jersey United for Marijuana Reform (NJUMR), or even to attend the press conference announcing this new Coalition. I said, "In my opinion they started off wrong in the UNITING department because apparently they deliberately excluded some long-time green-collartype activists, the 'radical contingent' of the marijuana movement, and no victims groups or medical groups were invited."

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Amid all the uncertainties surrounding the legalization of marijuana in the District of Columbia, a few things are clear. Among them is that Congress has better things to do than meddle in the purely local affairs of the District. When it does interfere, it ends up making a mess of matters. Apparently, however, there are no bounds to the grandstanding of opportunistic politicians on Capitol Hill.

That District officials and employees have been threatened with jail, by no less than the chairman of a powerful congressional committee, for their goodfaith efforts to follow a voter mandate is utterly inexcusable. Such a spectacle - and the fact that the District is under congressional attack for undertaking virtually the same steps as its counterparts in Colorado, Washington and, most recently, Alaska - should bring home to the rest of the country the need to redress the historic injustice of the city's limited political powers.

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Late last Wednesday night I was asked if I was "going to the press conference tomorrow, aren't you part of the new coalition to legalize marijuana?" I said "no" because I didn't know what they were talking about, and I went on Facebook and was shocked to learn of this new group New Jersey United for Marijuana Reform (NJUMR). They held a Press Conference at 11 a.m. on Thursday 2/18.

Based on the video I watched, this new group is advocating Legalization in the Garden State and uniting activists. Well, in my opinion they started off wrong in the UNITING department because apparently they deliberately excluded some long-time green-collar-type activists, the "radical contingent" of the marijuana movement and no victims groups or medical groups were invited. Actions speak louder than words.

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While Opposition Looks Strong, a Coalition Hopes the State Will Be Next to Allow Recreational Sales.

This is bigger than Gov. Christie, and even Gov. Christie says the war on drugs has failed. ... I think he would be open to discussion about it. Richard Smith, president of the NAACP New Jersey State Conference

A coalition of civil liberties and anti-discrimination groups has joined with prosecutors, police, medical professionals, and political activists to launch a campaign to make New Jersey the next state in the nation to legalize marijuana.

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NEWARK (AP) - Marijuana should be legalized in New Jersey because existing laws waste police resources, unfairly target minorities and leave millions of dollars in potential tax revenue unrealized by relegating it to the black market, a coalition said Wednesday in announcing a public education initiative.

New Jersey United for Marijuana Reform wants to legalize marijuana for people over 21, tax it and regulate its distribution. Among the groups represented at Wednesday's news conference were the American Civil Liberties Union New Jersey, the NAACP State Conference of New Jersey and Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.

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I have a Stalker. I came close to writing about cyber stalkers in this week's column and had planned to write specifically about my stalker. But why promote his bad juju? I met him close to a year ago as part of my marijuana legalization activism. Now I realize he didn't want to know me, he wanted to be me, and he hates me now because he's not me. Last week I was forced to file terroristic threat and harassment charges against him after he repeatedly emailed me and posted these threats on his Facebook account. So I've changed my mind and don't plan on getting him any more notoriety, or stroking his manic delusions of grandeur by doing so.

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I went to see Selma on Monday, "Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. day." I smoked two joints on the way and after seeing it, I gave it a 420 on the NJWeedman movie scale. A 500 means it's right on the money, but a 420 is as close as you can get in my THC-enhanced movie evaluations. Other movies that I gave a 420 to were Half Baked, Soul Plane, Friday, How High, and of course Cheech & Chong's Next Movie.

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Everyone's talking about America's racial problems without mentioning the armor-plated Humvee in the room.

America's drug policy is the leading cause of the animosity between the police and the communities they're charged with protecting.

Everyone cheers the police when they arrest a burglar or arsonist, but it's hard to see how institutionalizing locals for weed does anything other than harm a community.

The police are not racist, the laws are. From its Jim Crow origins to the racially coded language of Nixon and Reagan to different sentencing for cocaine and crack, the war on drugs is, and has always been, a racist enterprise.

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Everyone's talking about America's racial problems without mentioning the armor-plated Humvee in the room.

America's drug policy is the leading cause of the animosity between the police and the communities they're charged with protecting.

Everyone cheers the police when they arrest a burglar or arsonist, but it's hard to see how institutionalizing locals for weed does anything other than harm a community.

The police are not racist, the laws are. From its Jim Crow origins to the racially coded language of Nixon and Reagan to different sentencing for cocaine and crack, the war on drugs is, and has always been, a racist enterprise.

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In the past year, to my great satisfaction, the NJ family court has taken a beating in both the federal and state appeals courts.

In Malhan vs Malhan, five parents filed a class action lawsuit in federal court alleging that the NJ family court system fails to provide adequate "due process" rights to parents in child custody proceedings. Surender Malhan, the father, lost his custody rights on a mere two hours' notice based on a bogus accusation from the mother without him having an opportunity to refute his estranged wife's allegations.

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I spent 25 years in the New Jersey State Police, 22 of them as a narcotics officer, and I support legalizing marijuana.

I have seen firsthand that marijuana sold on the street can be adulterated with all kinds of additives including opium, PCP and formaldehyde. I have seen street dealers, some as young as 12, selling other drugs along with marijuana. Once, during a street operation in Hoboken, I witnessed a 16 year-old male sell drugs to a 10 year-old girl.

Legalizing and regulating marijuana will put street dealers out of business and prevent many of these scenarios in the future.

[end]

ANDOVER TOWNSHIP - "Hidden in Plain Sight" is the title of a free drug education summit for parents that the Andover Regional School District will host from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday in the Long Pond School gymnasium.

As the program's name suggests, many of the signs of child and teen substance abuse - unbeknownst to parents - may be right under their noses without their even realizing it.

"A lot of people think it's not in my backyard, but I think as educators, we have an obligation to educate parents on what is out there," said Long Pond School Principal Jon Sinclair.

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Ok new year, new ideas, new pothead thoughts. This is my 24th "Passing the Joint" column and I want to bring something new to it beginning next week. My column is every Thursday, my new idea I want to try out is to be on the streets of Trenton every Thursday, talking to the people of Trenton about my Column that day. I want feed back.

Another pothead idea I'll be executing, beginning Thursday Jan. 15 I will be hosting a Cannabis Consumer Chess Tournament 6-10 p.m.

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Third Way and Anzalone Liszt Group conducted a poll from Sept. 25-29 indicating that 51 percent of people approve of marijuana being legalized. I am of the minority opinion based on three reasons:

For certain people with addictive personalities, the use of marijuana can lead to hard drugs like heroin. My late brother started with marijuana and eventually became a heroine addict;

Kids today face a "dumbing down" with the processes of creativity and critical thinking because of their attachment to the computer. Studies indicate that the use of marijuana reduces the brain's capacity;

When in Vietnam, I had access to marijuana and other drugs and some soldiers used them as a form of escape. I'm fearful that people will use it as a way to function without thinking things through, another form of escape.

Joseph Wardy

RANDOLPH

[end]

2014 was a weird year for me, and good riddance. I started out 2014 in the horrible Burlington County Jail and ended it as the writer of this weekly column for The Trentonian yeah, that's weird!

My new year's resolution(s): to eat better and to open a religious temple in Trenton that provides marijuana to its congregants.

I hope everyone has a happy new year, but we all know there will be a lot of unhappiness in 2015 as there is every year. Sorry to be a schleprock. My hope is marijuana legalization happens in 2015, but I'm not a dope. It won't, but we are winning the war on the herb.

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You can read this and say I'm just a dumb stoner and a drug addict, but to be clear I'm far from stupid and I'm not addicted to anything. I don't do drugs; I only smoke "cannabis," which isn't addictive. I've known of the cure for addiction (ibogaine) since July 4, 1998, when I first met Dana Beal of the "cures-not-wars" organization at a legalize marijuana protest in Washington D.C. I admit when I first heard Dana rail on and on about ibogaine I was skeptical. My thoughts were, if there really were a cure for addictions it would be used empathetically across America to save lives. Over the years I learned differently.

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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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