|
POT,
PARENTAGE and POLITICS
 On
Oct. 17th, 1996 Ed Forchion filed a
petition with the Burlington County New Jersey Family court to enforce
his parental rights. He had recently split up with his girlfriend LINDA
HOLDEN who was the mother of his new born daughter Ajanea.
Linda gave Ed a ultimatium
to stay with her or never she his child again. The case grew ugly.
Linda made numerous “bogus” claims and ratted on Ed all in vengeful
spiteful nasty attempt to keep Ed from his own child. To Linda's delight on November 1997 Ed Forchion was charged with
conspiracy to possess with the intent to sell marijuana. Forchion pleaded not Guilty and claimed the law
itself was wrong. In an attempt to take a stand on the larger issues,
against these charges he pursued a defense which he called Open ADVOCATION OF JURY NULLIFICATION;
jury nullification... is a little-known argument contending that while
the accused may have committed the acts described, no law should
prohibit those acts, as those acts are inoffensive and the Jury has a
right to nullify the law instead of convicting the defendant. It was a
novel approach that garnered plenty of legal discussions and media
attention. On
April 20th,1998 Mr. Forchion formed the Legalize Marijuana Party and
proceeded to run for local and state offices as a way of bringing
attention to the “Legalization Cause” as well as presenting his case as
a case for the People/Jury to openly reject the law with a Jury
Nullification verdict. Mr Forchion made “media attention” one of his goals
and was pretty successful at gaining mainstream attention which then
was then diverted to his website: NJWEEDMAN.COM
– He even attempted to change his name to NJweedman
as a way of getting hits to his website. Where he openly advocated
legalizing marijuana! In March 1998 Forchion married Janice Bailey and proceed
to have two more kids with her. Mr. Forchion
continued to pursue his right to custody/visitation and care of his
other child Ajanea. While his media
attention was great for his Jury Nullification Defense it was used
against him in Family Court. Linda came to court with newspaper stories
of his “political statements on marijuana”. At no time previously had Ajanea’s mother objected to Mr. Forchion's use or advocacy of marijuana prior to
the breakdown of their relationship, and that breakdown was a result of
a disagreement over Mr. Forchion's
romantic relationship with Janice Bailey. In reality LINDA was nothing
more than a scorned women using the bigotry
and biasness of the Courts to keep his daughter from him. Linda
constantly argued to the Family court that a man with these idea’s and
thoughts and religion shouldn’t be allowed near her daughter. Linda
claimed she had become a born again Christian and didn’t want this
“heathen” to be around her daughter. The bigots on the bench agreed and
prevented him from seeing his daughter because of his “Political
expressions”. What-ever happened to the First amendment. In
Dec., 2000 Mr. Forchion went to prison for
one and one half years under a considerably reduced sentence from the
1997 charges. Released in April of 2002 he immediately sought
access to his daughter. Ajanea's
mother used the publicity surrounding the jury nullification
proceedings to convince the Family Law judge that still only supervised
visitation should be granted between Mr. Forchion
and his daughter. Mr. Forchion legally protested this ruling on the
Burlington County court house steps and began making first amendment
videos in the name of reforming both marijuana and family laws, that garnered more media attention.
Nothing about the videos were illegal. Yet,
his parole officer took issue with these actions and, although Mr. Forchion had complied with all the exhaustively
comprehensive terms of his tightly-supervised release including
drug testing, said parole officer Tim Bartlett remanded Ed back
into jail due to Ed's "advocacy of marijuana legalization," Bartlett
called it “advocating criminal activity”. Mr. Forchion was again jailed in August,
2002, and from there pro se, he filed a Writ of Habeus Corpus with the U.S. District Court of
the New Jersey. Forchion asked help
from the NAACP, NORML and the ACLU only the ACLU helped. The Federal
Court upheld his “Writ of Habeas Corpus” on the grounds of First
Amendment rights to freedom of speech and he was released by federal
mandate in January 24th, 2003.
Whereupon
he once again immediately sought visitation of his daughter. Once again
due to the even heightened publicity surrounding his release and open advocation of Legalization, he was again denied
visitation. Somehow even though the federal courts have said Mr. Forchion had the right to talk about marijuana,
the New Jersey family courts refused to allow him a relationship with
his daughter because of it. Mr. Forchion again ran for public offices including
Governor of New Jersey, Congress and U.S. Senate garnering thousands of votes in
each attempt. He wasn’t doing it because he actually thought he’d
win he did it as a protest of the marijuana laws and his personal
denial of his right to see his own daughter; because of his political views on
marijuana. He openly said he was running to “..give
the finger to the demo-publican party”. He became nationally known as a outspoken proponent for reforming the marijuana
laws. His legal battles attracted wide media and public attention, his
alter-ego NJweedman emerged as a
front-runner in the awakening of awareness of the spiritual/medicinal
uses of marijuana, and reform of parenting laws regarding lifestyle
choices. Yet, his
advocacy for the reform of marijuana laws played against him at every
turn in family court -- he has not even seen his now thirteen year old
daughter for nearly four years simply for advocating
“LEGALIZATION”. His requests for help from NORML, the ACLU and
the NAACP all fell on deaf ears.
Now in February 2009, the New Jersey State Senate voted in favor of such a
reformation, soon the Governor is expected to sign the bill paving the
way for medical marijuana's use in New Jersey. Mr. Forchion say’s intent is to pursue normalcy in
the form of a peaceful lifestyle in his birth state of New Jersey and a
relationship with his daugher Ajanea and is closely monitoring the current
situation. In other words NJWEEDMAN is coming back. He say’s he will open a Rastafarian ministry in
Camden NEW JERSEY where he will dispense marijuana to sick congregates
and non-christians who use it spiritually
as well. US - HUMAN RIGHTS VICTIM (NJweedman) from Edward Forchion on Vimeo. |
In
2007 Janice and Ed divorced amicably he even has total visitation with
his children with her and supports them like he is still married. In
2007 he fled the Burlington County NJ family court(s) arrest warrants
for him, to pot friendly California in a self imposed exile.
