Ed Forchion aka NJ Weedman will face marijuana possession charges on May 1, 2012 inside a New Jersey courtroom. While he is the named defendant in the case, it is the NJ Weedman’s plan to put New Jersey on trial or more specifically its state drug laws. Through a little known legal process called Jury Nullification, Forchion hopes to convince jurors that they have the legal right to find any defendant innocent of laws that they believe are wrong and harmful to citizens. He gave an example about people who were facing charges for refusing to turn in runaway enslaved Africans in accordance with The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Some jurors refused to convict people indicted under the law for aiding enslaved Africans. Forchion also recently completed a road trip across America from his residence in California. He was visiting family in New Jersey where he has lived and run for numerous political offices while engaging in marijuana legalization efforts, that during a “traffic stop” he described as racial profiling, he was found in possession of about 1lb of marijuana that he uses to treat health ailments. Forchion is recognized in the state of California as a medical marijuana patient. Ironically, New Jersey approved medicinal marijuana legislation, which is now state law around the time of Forchion’s arrest.
