On Oct 10th, 2012 NJWeedman goes on trial in Burlington County Superior Court, in Mt Holly New Jersey. This will re-commence the most important marijuana case in New Jersey history! 

Background - On April 1, 2010, Ed Forchion, aka NJWeedman made headlines. He was busted in New Jersey with a pound of cannabis in the trunk of his car. April Fool’s Day was playing itself out in full glory. The man, notorious for his run-ins with the New Jersey law, now a transplant living in California and dispensing medical marijuana legally on a daily basis, returns home to get….arrested! And so the saga continues for NJWeedman, America’s most prominent Black activist for the legalization of marijuana.

Ironically, as the owner of his own medical marijuana dispensary in Hollywood, CA now, his arrest was a coup of sorts for the New Jersey police. Indeed, it was an April Fool’s Day tale the media could not resist. Yet while Ed Forchion’s arrest in Mount Holly, NJ made front page news, his trial will be likely be heralded as marijuana’s own Roe vs. Wade case. Forchion plans to represent himself and utilize an open advocation of Jury Nullification as a defense to his charges. Since the New Jersey Constitution at Article 1 paragraph 6, allows a jury to judge the law as well as the facts in a case, Forchion wants the jury to recognize that the New Jersey marijuana laws are unjust and thereby acquit him.

This will be Forchion’s second bid to bring the issue of jury nullification to the forefront of the judicial system. A practicing Rastafarian, he faced up to 30 years in prison back in 2000 when he was arrested and charged with conspiracy and possession of over 40 pounds of marijuana. He acted as his own defense counsel then, with a defense of religion, medical and open avocation of jury nullification. The issue of jury nullification so rattled the courts back then that he was offered a plea bargain, which he took, on the third day of trial avoiding a possible long prison sentence. To this date, he regrets that decision. He envisions this case as another opportunity to bring jury nullification back to the forefront.

NJWeedman again plans to utilize jury nullification  to fight to not only have his charges dropped, but he also plans to file a lawsuit against the state to overturn the state’s medical marijuana law. Forchion believes the New Jersey law is unconstitutional for allowing terminally ill people to possess marijuana while state criminal law prohibits anyone else from possessing pot.

“The state should not be able to have two legal descriptions of the same substance,” Forchion states. “How can the state be allowed to have it both ways? Arresting some people on criminal laws that describe marijuana as having no medical value and also allowing others to use marijuana for medical use under another law the recognizes it's medical value! Isn't that a violation of the 14th amendments right to equal protection of the law says Forchion between puffs of sticky icky.

Forchion's defense raises hackles in the legal establishment, but it's based on the time honored doctrine. "Jury nullification of law," as it is sometimes called, is a traditional American right defended by the Founding Fathers. Those Patriots intended the jury to serve as one of the tests a law must pass before it assumes enough popular authority to be enforced. Thus the Constitution provides five separate tribunals with veto power �" representatives, senate, executive, judges and JURY �" that each enactment of law must pass before it gains the authority to punish those who choose to violate it.

“There is a reefer revolution going on in this country and it can’t be denied. 15 states now recognize the medicinal value of this sacred herb on some level. Including New Jersey. By purporting the issue of jury nullification, I’m just looking for one juror to examine the New Jersey marijuana laws and recognize the contradictions in it. Not guilty is the verdict I’m hoping for but a hung jury is a victory too,” cites Forchion. “I’m openly going to challenge my jury to render a verdict in spite of the law. The law is wrong, based on lies and false facts. I wish to tell my jurors the truth about marijuana. I want to tell the jury that this law I’m charged with violating is wrong not I.”

NJWeedman is a cult figure in the marijuana legalization community. He achieved media notoriety when he was front of the entire New Jersey State Assembly in 2000, then gained national attention when he fired it up at Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, PA during the republican national convention there. Upon fleeing the tyrants of the New Jersey court system in 2008, relocating to Los Angeles a few years ago in what he calls a self-imposed political asylum - or exile, he opened his own legal medical marijuana dispensary, The Liberty Bell Temple. The dispensary was located at 5641 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, CA and represented the basic concepts of democracy and faith.

Forchion until this arrest had claimed he was no longer a weed activist and instead insisted he was a weed capitalist. Now ironically he has been forced by this arrest to once again be the WEED ACTIVIST that got him famous, NJweedman Super-hero to the Potheads. 

Forchion is continually fueling his advocacy for the medical marijuana movement. His ‘pot parties’ are now legendary in Hollywood and he stirred controversy with his "Obama One Year in Office" party celebration. His NJWeedman video series, filmed from the shop and seen on his website http://www.njweedman.com/ and at http://www.youtube.com/user/NewJerseyWEEDMAN, commands a following of viewers from around the world. He regularly updated his footage with vivid coverage of the happenings in his shop, including specials on the vast varietals of medicinal marijuana he is was able to serve up legally, daily to his patients.

The media attention and positive depictions irked NJ state officials who requested the Federal DEA to do something about this unrepentant William Penn wannabe. To the chagrin of state officials, NJWEEDMAN survived the raid of his temple, pleaded with his supporters to get him from California back to jersey for trial. (ROADAMENTARY) He made it to trial and got the hung jury he predicted he'd get! He won! 

Then in a shocking example of poor losership the state decides to retry NJweedman. Throwing shit on his plans to restart his California life.  

NJweedman goes back to California and his Cancer treatments and re-starts Liberty Bell Temple as US Collective but must return -

The trial is set for Oct 10