Robert Edward Forchion Jr | |
|---|---|
 Ed Forchion, also known as NJ Weedman, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, 2019 | |
| Born | Robert Edward Forchion Jr (1964-07-23)July 23, 1964 (age 61) Sicklerville, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Other names | NJ Weedman |
| Occupations | Activist, actor, writer, restaurateur |
| Known for | Cannabis rights activism |
| Political party | Legalize Marijuana Party |
Edward Forchion (bornRobert Edward Forchion Jr., July 23, 1964), also known asNJWeedman, is an AmericanRastafaricannabis rights andfree speech activist,perennial candidate, actor, writer, andrestaurateur.[1] He is the founder of theLegalize Marijuana Party. In 2020 he legally changed his name to NJ Weedman.[2]
A resident ofNew Jersey andCalifornia, he is a registeredmedical cannabis user. He has been arrested and convicted for some of his activities and has mounted various legal defenses and challenges tolaws regarding cannabis.
After his last arrest the state of New Jersey filed a motion on March 7, 2017, forpretrial detention to incarcerate Forchion until trial. Forchion held ahunger strike for nearly two weeks while being held without bail, calling himself a political prisoner.[3][4][5]The trial began October 26, 2017.[6] On November 8, the jury found him not guilty of one charge of second-degreewitness tampering, and was hung on another charge in the third degree.[7] In January 2018, he was again denied bail, pending a re-trial.[8] His appeal to being denied bail and being released was denied in February 2018.[9] In May 2018, in the second trial, he was acquitted by a jury on charges of witness tampering.[10] He had spent 447 days in jail.[11]
Following the legalization ofcannabis in New Jersey in 2021, Forchion began openly selling marijuana from an unlicensed store across from the city hall in Trenton. He has said he will not close his store.[12]
Later in 2021, Forchion began weed-friendly ventures in Florida.[13][14]
Forchion was born inCamden, New Jersey, in 1964[1] and grew up in theSicklerville section ofWinslow Township, New Jersey.[15] He is a resident ofBrowns Mills inPemberton Township,New Jersey. Forchion graduated fromEdgewood Regional High School in 1982 and attendedClaflin College (1983–1984).[16] He was a member of theNew Jersey National Guard (1982–1984) andUnited States Marine Corps (1986). He was a member of the U.S Army 1987-1990 as Edward Forchion. Forchion also owned and operated a trucking business - Forchion Trucking.
Forchion is aRastafarian and has been using cannabis since he was a teen, in 2001 he was diagnosed with tumors in his knees and shoulders, which later become cancerous.[1] He is a registeredmedical cannabis user in California.[17] Forchion is a father of five children and is twice divorced.[18]
On August 25, 2005, while he was campaigning for Governor of New Jersey, Forchion’s home inPemberton Township was vandalized during the night by someone who spray-painted a 6-foot cross together with the words “Get Jesus.” Burlington County police investigated the incident, calling it ahate crime because Forchion is aperson of color. But Forchion told reporters that he thought he had been targeted because of his Rastafari religious beliefs, not because he isAfrican American.[19]
Forchion uses themoniker NJWeedman.[1] He has attempted to have hisname legally changed to NJWeedman.com (hisdomain name), but was denied, first by the courts in New Jersey in 2004 and in another case in California in 2011, which cited, among other things,comity with New Jersey's ruling.[20][21]
On October 17 of 2022, a Mercer County, NJ judge approved his petition to change his name. NJWeedman.com expects his close friends and family will still call him "Ed," but he intends to otherwise make full use of his new name.[22]
Forchion has been arrested several times and has mounted many legal challenges to his arrest and trials.[1]
Forchion was arrested for "intent to distribute" on November 24, 1997, inBellmawr, New Jersey.[23][24] Forchion accepted a plea bargain for a 10-year state prison sentence in September 2000. In April 2002 he was released and admitted to New Jersey's intensive parole supervision program. State authorities claimed he violated terms of probation by filming several public service announcements advocating changes to New Jersey's drug laws and Forchion was held in jail. A federal judge later held that expulsion from the program and additional incarceration violated his free speech protections.[1]
In 2007 Forchion and his second wife Janice divorced and he moved to Los Angeles and successfully opened several marijuana dispensaries (Liberty Bell Temple I, Liberty Bell Temple II and the United States Collective - USC.
In 2010 Forchion was arrested inMount Holly, New Jersey, after a traffic stop. He was charged with possession with intent to distribute and convicted of possession and sentenced to two years probation and a $2,500 fine. However, the jury couldn't reach a verdict on intent to distribute. A separate trial was convened.[25] and Forchion urged the jury to employjury nullification to overturn an unjust law. The defense which proved effective and resulted in Forchion receiving a 12-0 verdict of acquittal.[26] Despite this victory, his conviction for possession led Forchion to later be convicted for violating the terms of probation, a sentence for which the judge jailed him for nine months, and for which he lost his appeal.[27][28][25] He was allowed out of custody intermittently to go to California for treatment of bone tumours (20 20-day periods of incarceration separated by 10-day periods of release). Forchion had a medical marijuana card from California and had argued that he was "convicted and sentenced to 270 days in jail only for bringing his legally prescribed medicine into the State of New Jersey."[29][30]
In 2012, federal agents in California raided his cannabis farm, confiscating the plants.[31][32] The case was eventually dismissed.[33]
Forchion was arrested April 15, 2013, inEvesham Township, New Jersey, for possession.[34] Forchion soon after published online his legal brief to the court (which contends that New Jersey laws on marijuana are contradictory) for use by others to fill-in and use in their own defense.[35]
Forchion was arrested on various charges inTrenton in 2016.[36] On March 3, 2017, Forchion was arrested and charged with second-degreewitness tampering and third-degree witness tampering.[37] He was ordered to beheld without bail;[38][39] his appeal for release was denied.[40][41] Forchion was placed in pre-trial detention at theMercer County Correction Center inHopewell, New Jersey.[42] Forchion began ahunger strike on June 12[43] and ending it June 27.[44] In July 2017, Forchion made a motion to review his detention saying that his attorney had misrepresented him and that material evidence would clarify that his intentions would not qualify as witness tampering.[45]
Forchion, in apetition for review has asked theNew Jersey Supreme Court for adiscretionary review stemming from his conviction. He asked; "Should the holding in State v. Tate, 102 N.J. 64 (1986), barring the necessity defense for possession of marijuana for medical purposes, be modified or overruled?", claiming that the ruling was outdated.[46]
On March 8, 2016, Forchion and his lawyers filed a Petition forWrit of Certiorari to theU.S. Supreme Court (US Supreme Court Docket – 15–8533) with ten questions for review regarding race and religion as it relates to cannabis.[47][48] The court declined.[49]
Forchion established theNew Jersey Legalize Marijuana Party in 1998. In 2004, Forchion ran as aU.S. Marijuana Party candidate; In 2018 he ran as anindependent candidate under the banner “Repeal Bail Reform;” In 2020 he ran as an independent candidate with no slogan; In 2021 Forchion ran under the slogan “HomeGrow 4All,” and in 2024 Weedman was aLegal Marijuana Now Party primary nominee, in addition to running as a Legalize Marijuana candidate in the following elections:
Forchion has opened two temples, named Liberty Bell Temple II and Liberty Bell Temple III, which have been connected to adjacent restaurant lounges.[60][61] The names were inspired by theLiberty Bell inPhiladelphia. In 1993, when the U.S. Congress passed the (42 U.S.C. § 2000bb(a)) Religious Freedom and Restoration Act which allows for the religious use of marijuana on federal grounds during the course of a religious ceremony, Forchion initiated "smoke outs" or "smoke downs" at the national monument.
The restaurant NJWeedman's Joint inTrenton, New Jersey, opened in 2015.[62][63][64] and in 2016 was raided by local police and Forchion was arrested. The matter is subject of further litigation.[65][66][67] In February 2018, a judge dismissed 13 of 22 tickets for various violations, saying they were dispensed incorrectly.[68]
The restaurant reopened in May 2017 and was renamed "Weedbukx".[69]Starbucks informed Forchion and his partner that the logo for the new cafe was similar to theirs.[70][71]
The restaurant re-opened after Forchion's release in 2018, and is known as the Joint.[72]
Since the legalization of cannabis in 2021, the restaurant has openly operated as ablack market cannabis dispensary.[12] On 9/11/2020 he opened NJWeedman's Dispensary next to NJWeedman's Joint Restaurant 318-322 East State street. In Oct 2023Trenton City passed a resolution officially accepting NJWeedman's Dispensary as legal.
In September 2020, during one of his political campaigns for New Jersey public office and the legalization of marijuana on the ballot, Forchion started his potcast, Get On The Cannabus, onSpotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube. The podcast interviews marijuana entrepreneurs and raffles off free cannabis products in what is known as the Reefer Raffle. When the podcast began, Forchion sold weed illegally on camera in protest of the unjust cannabis laws in New Jersey and America, in what he called "Selling Weed Like He's White." After multiple episodes, marijuana was legalized in New Jersey and NJ Weedman's Joint became the location of the first unofficial New Jersey Recreational Dispensary on January 1, 2021. The podcast is produced by Jordan Fried ofLNH Studios and William "Gmunk" Saunders ofHamilton Radio and is guest hosted by the various budtenders at NJ Weedman's Joint.[73]
In the spring of 2021 NJWeedman opened a420 friendly nightclub in Miami (the wynnwood art district) called THE JOINT of MIAMI. A few months later hegave it to his son "KING".
Forchion wrotePublic Enemy #420, published in 2010,[74] andPolitics of Pot, Jersey Style: The persecution prosecution of NJweedman in 2014.[75] He has written forThe Trentonian.[76] Forchion has appeared in various television programs and documentaries including a filming version ofThe Emperor Wears No Clothes (2009),How Weed Won the West byKevin Booth (2010),1000 Ways to Die: Fatal Distractions (2010),Supreme Court of Comedy:Tony Rock vs.Harland Williams (2010) andMillion Mask Movement byVinu Joseph (2016). He has spoken for various podcasts and radio programs.[77][78]
The pair cited the case of Pemberton Township native Ed Forchion, better known as NJWeedman, who has been held in Mercer County jail since March while awaiting trial for charges of witness tampering. He is currently engaged in a hunger strike to protest his inability to post bail. During Sunday's town hall, Chapman said he recently spoke to Forchion via phone in jail and considered him to be a political prisoner. "The guy is in jail for nothing and he's being held like Al Capone," he said. "This is a politically held prisoner under the new New Jersey bail law."
Marijuana activist Ed Forchion says his family woke up yesterday morning to find someone had spray-painted a 6-foot cross on the side of his house with the words "Get Jesus." Police are investigating the incident as an apparent hate crime. Forchion, who once tried to have his name changed to NJ Weedman, said his wife and children discovered the cross and message at 7 a.m. on the garage door of their Hanover Boulevard home. First Assistant Burlington County Prosecutor Ray Milavsky said police are investigating the incident as a bias crime, which is defined as one in which a victim is targeted because of race, religion, sexual orientation or national origin. Forchion, who is black, said he does not view the cross as a racial threat. Instead, he said he sees it as a protest against his religion. Forchion is a follower of Rastafarianism, a religious movement that arose in Jamaica in the 1950s. Followers use marijuana as a sacrament.
