TRENTON - Ed Forchion wants to film a reality show chronicling the impact of the country's so-called War on Drugs on his life. He has a couple titles in mind: "The War on NJ Weedman." Or perhaps even better, "Marijuana Martyr." Forchion pointed to prosecutors' desire in a drug case in Trenton that could land him in prison for years to protect the identity of a confidential informant who allegedly purchased weed from him several times at his downtown city business. [continues 814 words]
TRENTON - Wearing a tailored gray pinstripe suit and a ganja chain dangling from his neck, Trenton's well-known marijuana activist showed up more than 15 minutes late to court Tuesday for his arraignment where prosecutors formally extended a plea offer that could send him to prison for years. Ed "NJ Weedman" Forchion pleaded not guilty to 11 drug-related charges and was offered a 7-year plea to admit guilt to distributing drugs within 1,000 feet of the Daylight/Twilight School in Trenton. Forchion would have to spend three and a half years in prison, prosecutors said, because his past drug convictions make him an "extended-term" offender. [continues 777 words]
TRENTON - Ed Forchion once brought new meaning to the words "high culture." The down-with-earth marijuana activist last year opened his own restaurant, NJ Weedman's Joint, providing Trenton with a unique blend of cannabis and cuisine. Now, NJ Weedman is coming down from a bad high and looking for the courts to save his life and keep alive his once-bustling downtown Trenton businesses. Forchion and attorney Edward Heyburn have put the city on notice of their intent to sue over Forchion's "false arrest," which he says tarnished his reputation and cast a police-produced pall over his restaurant, smoke shop and pot temple, according to a tort claim notice obtained by The Trentonian. [continues 748 words]
TRENTON - Marijuana activist Ed Forchion gave a famous Los Angeles graffiti artist $300 cash, an ounce of weed and an expensive bong to paint a political statement on the side of his "Weedmobile" in 2008. The provocative portrait showed NJ Weedman blowing smoke into Uncle Sam's face. The van would later become a rolling billboard for Forchion's Trenton restaurant and pot temple, capturing in cartoonishly large candor his pro-marijuana views and disdain for New Jersey's "hypocritical" drug laws. [continues 930 words]
TRENTON - Marijuana legalization activist Ed Forchion and his attorney took turns bashing police and prosecutors for alleged perjury and gamesmanship and demanded the resignation of the county's top law enforcement official during an impromptu news conference outside criminal court Thursday. Wearing a burgundy pinstripe suit, Forchion, known as NJ Weedman, took a hit from a bong and handed out jury nullification pamphlets following his first appearance in Mercer County Superior Court. He railed against the tactics of Trenton Police and Acting Mercer County Prosecutor Angelo Onofri and discussed how his attorney, Edward Heyburn, was at a disadvantage to argue his case in court without a crucial sworn affidavit of probable cause. [continues 854 words]
TRENTON - Trenton Police's Facebook status is nonexistent. The department removed its Facebook page sometime Thursday amid allegations that negativity hurled at the department, partially over the arrest of a lightning rod marijuana activist, was being scrubbed from its social media page. That led some activists - working in concert with Ed Forchion, also known as NJ Weedman - to paper the city with public records requests regarding the social media page. One is Steven Wronko, a Spotswood man who earned the national spotlight after being escorted out of Helmetta town hall by police while filing a records request about animal abuses at the borough's beleaguered animal shelter. [continues 819 words]
TRENTON - New Jersey's famous marijuana activist has claimed responsibility for putting out pamphlets this week that encouraged prospective jurors in a murder trial to vote their conscience and "acquit, even when the evidence proves the defendant 'did it.'" Ed Forchion, better known as NJ Weedman, doesn't need another target on his back. But the marijuana legalization activist says he has been forced to act following a drug raid last month on his capital city business. "I'm getting ready to put on another William Penn trial," said Forchion, referring to the prominent Quaker and founder of Pennsylvania who was arrested in 1670 because his religious preaching ran contrary to the Church of England. [continues 641 words]
