Pubdate: Thu, 26 Feb 2015 Source: Trentonian, The (NJ) Copyright: 2015 The Trentonian Contact: http://www.trentonian.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1006 Author: Edward Forchion, NJWeedman.com For The Trentonian THE BUTTHURT IS HIGH OVER BEING SNUBBED BY NEW COALITION 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. I admit I was personally butthurt to learn I was excluded. Apparently my image and in-your-face activism is seen as a negative by a leader of this new intellectual coalition. I guess this coalition prefers different paths to the same destination and isn't really about uniting. Actions to me mean more than words at a press conference. A couple decades ago I tried to join several other groups (NORML, MPP) that claimed to be fighting for legalization only to find their glass ceilings were impregnable, forcing me to be solo a unfunded one-man gang. Because of that exclusion I'm now known nationwide as the NJWeedman, a guy who's 100% down with legalization and has gone toe-to-toe against the State of NJ for a couple decades - alone. Now this new alphabet organization forms NJUMR and I wasn't invited so yeah, I'm butthurt. Members of this new coalition include LEAP, ACLU-New Jersey, NAACP State Conference of New Jersey, and the New Jersey Prosecutors Association. At this press conference the new coalition argued that legalizing marijuana would increase taxes to the state and free up resources for police departments and prosecutors. I 100% agree! LEAP: Law Enforcement Against Prohibition - great way to clean your karma! For clarity: I love the ACLU. In 2002 the ACLU did help me win my free speech case, where I was jailed for making pro-marijuana ads, and they did help me win my DNA refusal case in 2004. But since I wasn't invited or included in this Coalition I'll say this in my Column: Udi Ofer, there is a major case before the NJ Appeals Court, #A-004052; if this appeal is successful, it could de facto legalize marijuana in NJ. You were asked to enjoin or file an amicus brief. So far no response, so again, actions speak louder than words. I'm still waiting on your action. "It is time to take marijuana out of our parks and off of our street corners and put it behind the counter," ACLU Executive Director Udi Ofer said during the conference. "It is time to stop turning otherwise law-abiding citizens into criminals." I agree 100%. But only if legalization means the true victims of prohibition would also be allowed to work behind those counters. Currently no one with a marijuana arrest can work in the NJ medical marijuana program, and I feel these intellectual types won't care to include us in future legislation regarding the billion-dollar legalized marijuana industry that will form. It's a fact that some of us have been disproportionately victimized by the racist prohibition, and now as legalization approaches we find we are barred from inclusion in this new billion-dollar industry based on our acknowledged past discriminatory pot arrests. The coalition said the arrests disproportionately target black residents. "The war on marijuana has failed, and this failure [has] had a devastating impact on black families," NAACP-NJ President Richard Smith said at the conference. "We will work to ensure that a portion of the revenue generated [by the legalization of marijuana]...will be reinvested into our communities that have been most impacted by the enforcement." I 100% agree. To Mr. Smith: it's about time finally. I'm glad you're on the legalization bandwagon. Please argue against re-victimizing us by legislative exclusion and fight for a weed laws victim affirmative action. NJUMR cited statistics that NJ police officers arrest about 21,000 marijuana-using citizens and argued that the time spent processing these potheads could be focused on other "more serious" crimes. I 100% agree. "As a municipal prosecutor, I have had to waste countless taxpayer dollars and hours of police officers' time to prosecute New Jerseyans," said JonHenry Barr, the President of the N.J. Municipal Prosecutors Association. "The savings that will be realized will dwarf any drawbacks." I 100% agree, but, Mr. Bar, this is my message to you. To me this dog-and-pony show of a press conference seemed to be a bunch of words with no action. If I were there I would've said this: "If the Prosecutors Association really wanted to legalize marijuana, they could just by refusing to prosecute those charged with marijuana offenses." I'm serious, I would to call a spade a spade maybe that's why I wasn't invited. If I were in JonHenry Barr's position I'd call a statewide vote for all municipal prosecutors to agree to end criminal prosecutions of all 2C:35 marijuana and paraphernalia charges. Action: You see, prosecutors have the ability to use prosecutorial discretion regarding which cases they prosecute, and it's a fact during the alcohol prohibition of the last century there were jurisdictions where prosecutors refused to prosecute alcohol charges. The NJ Prosecutors Association could just as easily refuse to prosecute marijuana offenses today if they really wanted to, Mr. Barr. Now I'm 100% down with "NJUMR" ideologically. I think we have the same goal of legalization, but once again the intellectual suit-and-tie types are exposed by their elitist mentally of erroneous selfrighteous superiority and weren't inclusive of the everyday "green collar type pothead" I represent. The true victims of cannabis prohibition weren't represented by this coalition, and when Ari Rosemarin of the ACLU was handed a flier advertising a March 21st protest being held in Trenton by "The NJ victims of cannabis prohibition" he balled it up and had negative opinions. To this I say that was action - prude. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom