Pubdate: Thu, 05 Mar 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 DOUBLING DOWN, #LEGALIZENJ 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." I went on to say: "I'm 100% down with them ideologically, let's see if they are truly united. Will NJUMR support, promote, and appear at our 3/21 and 4/20 events planned for Trenton by the 'Victims of NJ Cannabis Prohibition,' who weren't invited into their Coalition?" I received quite a bit of feedback from readers and the #legalizenj marijuana movement. Contrarian in the Trentonian Back Talk section called me Weepman and said, "Its Weedman's party and he'll cry if he wants to. I'm looking for an address to send a case of tissues. Maybe he should start fighting against legalization, just to piss the others off." LOL never, instead I invited them to our event. I also asked State Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, Trenton Mayor Jackson via deputy mayor Bobbitt, and Judi Franco on air host FM to attend, warning them all to just not stand to my left because I pass the dutchie to the left. Vanessa Marie director of The East Coast Cannabis Coalition, a group of unfunded activists and cannabis-law victims, immediately fired off a letter welcoming NJUMR to the legalization fight and asking the funded NJUMR to join us on 3/21 at the NJ Spring Smoke-Out event (specifically if they could provide a speaker and list this event on their website). So far still no response from NJUMR. The NJ Spring Smoke-Out is a permitted cannabis civil disobedience protest that's been planned for months. NJ is still in the grip of drug war madness; you can't win wars with defense alone, so this is an offensive move. New York Cannabis Alliance Director Rob Robinson director asked to speak, long-time NYC marijuana activist Aaron "Pieman" Kay and others began promoting online and pledged solidarity. Bob Wistak of Decarcerate the Garden State www. DecarcerateNJ.org, Phillynorml, and the Delaware chapter of NORML reached out to join our protest. Philly comedy troupe The Panic Hour, led by N.A. Poe, are coming. Music-promotion group Jersey Supports Jersey pledged weed-friendly musical entertainment for the event. Meanwhile Evan Nison, the Executive Director of NORML NJ who was invited to the NJUMR Press Conference, said he wasn't coming to either the 3/21 or 4/20 event: "I'm not attending these smoke-outs because I don't think they're effective. It doesn't have anything to do with where I'm going to be." (NOTE: He will be celebrating 4/20 in Denver where they already have legalization and the 4/20 event in Denver is a party.) Ironically, two weeks ago Nison stood next to Rev. Smith of the NAACP at the press conference; I wonder what Rev. Smith would say about Nison's comment on the "effectiveness" of civil disobedience. I know he doesn't need a lesson on Rosa Parks or Martin Luther King Jr.'s tactics of peaceful civil disobedience that were used to end segregation. I believe we need such tactics here in NJ to end our pot prohibition. Long before marijuana became legal in Colorado, Washington, and the District of Columbia, there were street protests and civil disobedience events that created the activists groups that pushed for those successful legalization initiatives to the general public. I've gone to those events over the years, I know they are effective. My Facebook friend James Babb wrote: "These clowns are fighting for more state revenue, not freedom. What will the NJ government spend their new money on? Cops and prisons. Unless the goal is 100% eradication of all victimless crimes, the prisons will remain stuffed. They will continue to prey on the most vulnerable segments of society. Radical thinking and guerrilla tactics have brought us this far. Folks like NJWeedman.com took the arrows. Now that it's safe, it's no surprise that the 'compromisers' now want to jump in front of the parade. The ironic thing is this: Prohibition is on the ropes. It's going down. Everyone knows it. The time to compromise is when you are losing. This is the time to step up demands and be even more radical, not to bribe politicians with more loot for their criminal coffers." Mr. Jon-Henry Barr, President of the NJ State Municipal Prosecutors' Association, didn't respond to my open call-out last week, so I'm doubling down: "If the Prosecutors Association really wanted to legalize marijuana, they could just by refusing to prosecute those charged with marijuana offenses." If I were in your position, Mr. Barr, I'd call for a statewide vote of all municipal prosecutors to agree to end criminal prosecutions of all 2C:35 marijuana and paraphernalia charges in spite of Chris Christie's vow not to legalize on his watch. Ignore Christie, Mr. Barr - you don't need a law, you can do it! At that press conference two weeks ago it was said that 21,000 New Jerseyans are arrested each year for marijuana. This averages out to 404 persons a week. So 808 citizens were arrested since Mr. Barr, calling for legalization, said, "As a municipal prosecutor, I have had to waste countless taxpayer dollars and hours of police officers' time to prosecute New Jerseyans... The savings that will be realized will dwarf any drawbacks." Mr. Barr, as a prosecutor you have the ability to use prosecutorial discretion regarding which cases you prosecute. How many potheads did you prosecute in the last two weeks since you joined this Coalition? Locally, how many Trenton citizens did the local Trenton municipal prosecutor, Nakia T. White, prosecute for marijuana in the last two weeks? Mr. Barr, please don't be a hypocrite please exercise prosecutorial nullification and stop prosecuting potheads. It's not enough to just announce you're on the right side of inevitability stop prosecuting citizens! Fact: During last century's alcohol prohibition there were jurisdictions where prosecutors refused to prosecute alcohol charges. The NJSMPA could just as easily refuse to prosecute marijuana offenses today if it really wanted to, Mr. Barr. Back to what I was going to blow smoke about. If I were President Obama, I'd respond to the Israeli Prime Minister's arrogant political meddling in our negotiations with Iran by recognizing Palestine as a State as defined by the 1967 borders in compliance with UN resolution #242, which called for: (1) Withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied; (2) Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force. This was done by all parties except Israel. Israel refused and the USA never attempted to force them to comply. In fact, on September 1, 1982, President Ronald Reagan said: "The United States will not support the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, and we will not support annexation or permanent control by Israel." But in reality, that's what has happened in Palestine. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom