Pubdate: Sat, 02 Dec 2000
Source: Inquirer (PA)
Copyright: 2000 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc.
Contact:  400 N. Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19101
Website: http://inq.philly.com/content/inquirer/home/
Forum: http://interactive.phillynews.com/talk-show/
Author: Aamer Madhani, Inquirer Suburban Staff

MARIJUANA ADVOCATE IS SENTENCED TO PRISON

The highly unusual drug case involving marijuana-legalization
advocate Edward Forchion came to a conclusion yesterday as he was
sentenced to prison for his part in brokering a drug deal for his brother.

With Forchion's wife, Janice, and two of his young children in the
courtroom, Camden County Superior Court Judge Stephen W. Thompson
sentenced Forchion to a 10-year prison term. Forchion will be eligible
for parole in slightly less than two years, and he could apply for
intensive supervisory parole in six months.

"I don't smoke marijuana," Janice Forchion said after the trial. "But
I don't understand why they let murderers, rapists and pedophiles off
so quickly and put away marijuana smokers."

If Forchion, of Browns Mills, pursues the supervisory parole option,
he could be tested at any time under the program.

Forchion - who has been cited for lighting marijuana joints in the
chambers of the New Jersey Legislature and the office of U.S. Rep. Rob
Andrews (D., N.J.) - says he remains an unapologetic marijuana smoker.

A Rastafarian, Forchion has said he smokes marijuana for religious
reasons, to relieve physical ailments, and to soothe chronic
depression. Since the mid-1990s, Forchion, a former cross-country
truck driver, has been an outspoken advocate of legalizing marijuana.

In November, he ran unsuccessfully for the Burlington County Board of
Chosen Freeholders and a U.S. House seat under the Legalize Marijuana
Party.

Assistant Prosecutor John Wynne Jr. said the Prosecutor's Office would
not contest Forchion's application for the parole.

When he entered a guilty plea in September, Forchion acknowledged that
he introduced his brother, Russell, to a marijuana supplier in Arizona
and had flown to Tucson on behalf of his brother in October 1997 to
seal the sale of about 40 pounds of marijuana.

The shipment was delivered to the Bellmawr Industrial Park by Federal
Express.

Shortly after picking up the marijuana, Russell Forchion was arrested
as he drove away from the park, authorities said. Edward Forchion, who
was driving behind him, was also arrested.

A third man, Eric Poole, who signed for the package, was convicted of
a lesser crime. Russell Forchion testified for the prosecution, and
served about five months in prison before being placed on intensive
supervisory parole.

In his September trial, Edward Forchion served as his own attorney. In
his opening statement, he criticized what he said were unjust
marijuana laws and asked jurors to invoke jury nullification, in which
a jury can set aside the law it believes that the law is unjust. Jury
nullification cannot be advertised to a jury under New Jersey law, but
Wynne did not object during the proceeding.

The trial ended when Wynne offered Forchion what both said was a good
deal - potentially spending as little as six months in prison.

But before the sentencing yesterday, the judge heard a motion from
Forchion to withdraw his guilty plea. Forchion said that he did not
get a proper trial, because the Public Defender's Office refused to
pay for expert witnesses to testify on his behalf. He said he wanted a
new trial.

Wynne successfully countered that if Forchion were given a new trial,
the first trial would have been essentially a practice run, something
that every attorney would like but that collides with the integrity of
the system.

The judge denied Forchion's motion to withdraw.

"In the middle of the trial, you elected to plead guilty, sir,"
Thompson said.

Forchion said that he pondered not showing up in court yesterday. Last
week, he called news organizations in South Jersey to say he had fled
to Canada and was seeking asylum at the Cuban Embassy there.

By Wednesday, he sent e-mails to the media that he would appear for
his sentencing.

"I didn't want [my wife] to lose the house," said Forchion, referring
to the home she put up to post his $65,000 bail.

Thompson said he believed Forchion was sincere in his advocacy for
reform of marijuana laws. But he noted that Forchion did break the
law.

"Your beliefs at this juncture are misguided," Thompson said.
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