| CHANNEL 3 TV coverage of Liberty Bell Smoke-out
http://kyw.dvnc.net/videohtml/news080200e.htm
Black Candidate 'Lights Up' for Liberty
By: Linn Washington, Jr.
NNPA News Wire
http://www.BlackPressUSA.com
8/4/00 10:08:44 AM - PHILADELPHIA (NNPA) -- New Jersey Congressional
candidate Edward Forchion stood in front of the Liberty Bell in downtown
Philadelphia on the third day of the Republican National Convention with
a bullhorn in one hand and a marijuana joint in the other as city and federal
police watched.
Forchion, an African-American, lit the joint and took a puff, sparking
a 'smoke-out' as others joining his demonstration for the legalization
of marijuana began lighting various sized marijuana joints, sending streams
of the illegal substance drifting into the afternoon sky above the Liberty
Bell Pavilion.
While many in the small 'smoke-out' crowd of two dozen were there to
get high in defiance of authority, Forchion had another purpose. Forchion
choose the Liberty Bell specifically as a place to get arrested so he can
take is legalization campaign into federal court and challenge the law.
He has three cases currently pending in New Jersey State courts for smoking
in state capital and a county court house.
"Politics is the only reason marijuana is illegal in America. Politicians
are afraid to admit they made a mistake in outlawing it because there is
no proof of the professed dangers. Marijuana is legal in Holland," said
Forchion who failed in his bid for arrest when police just watched without
enforcing the law.
Although Forchion's position seems kooky on the surface, there is compelling
yet little known proof on his side. For example, Republican President Richard
Nixon's Marijuana Commission reported in 1972 that the substance does not
cause the proclaimed medical and criminal problems. Nixon ignored his commission's
recommendation to decriminalize marijuana.
"I believe George W. Bush has smoked marijuana and inhaled," Forchion
said referencing President Clinton's admission of smoking marijuana but
not inhaling. "Bush admits he partied and that is a code word for smoking."
Forchion admits, "getting high" on occasion but says his main use of
marijuana is medical and spiritual. He suffers from chronic back from a
spinal injury two years ago and says marijuana helps him more than prescription
pain medicines without any side effects.
Forchion garnered 3,000 votes in a bid for the New Jersey State Legislature
a few years ago. He says supporters from that race have contributed to
his bid for NJ's 1st Congressional District race. These contributions enabled
him to run commercials on MTV and CNN aired on New Jersey cable TV stations
during the week of the Republican Convention.
When police failed to arrest Forchion, he admitted that he didn't know
how to end the 'smoke-out' because he anticipated an arrest.
"We stood here, we smoked marijuana and we did not get arrested. I guess
we have a right to regulate our own bodies without government interference,"
said Forchion who ironically took his demonstrators to Philadelphia's main
police station were hundreds of others were demanding release of jail protestors.
Ed's Legalize Marijuana Party website is located at: http://www.njweedman.com
Other Ed Forchion news stories - http://www.njweedman.com/new_stories.htm
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Pittsburg Gazette - Candidate say's, "he'll inhale at the Liberty Bell
!"
http://www.post-gazette.com/election2000/20000802roddy2.asp
Convention Diary: Where there is smoke, there is the Shadow Convention
Wednesday, August 02, 2000
By Dennis Roddy, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
PHILADELPHIA -- In a decision that has put police and pizza delivery
men equally on alert, members of the Legalize Marijuana Party intend to
gather today at the Liberty Bell, light up a liberty bowl, and rally behind
their candidate for Congress, who, happily, has made bail.
Plans for today's rally were announced by Edward "NJWeedman" Forchion,
who hopes to unseat incumbent Democrat Robert Andrews in New Jersey's First
Congressional District. He also hopes to be acquitted on charges stemming
from the seizure of 40 pounds of top-grade cannabis last year, but he preferred
to focus on politics yesterday and, already sounding like a congressman,
declined to answer some questions on the advice of his attorney.
Forchion was among 1,200 people who attended yesterday's second day
of the "Shadow Convention" at the University of Pennsylvania, across town
from the equally exotic but more expensive Republican Convention.
The brainchild of a coalition of groups distressed that their issues
-- poverty, campaign reform and drug laws -- weren't being discussed this
year, the Shadow Convention organized itself and became an almost obligatory
stop for mainstream politicians eager to show that they truly care about
being photographed alongside young people with backpacks.
Wedged between the opening day and the day devoted for discussion of
the widening gap between rich and poor, the session on ending the drug
war and decriminalizing dope became a tricky venue for speakers. Jesse
Jackson, a favorite lounge act among liberals, gave a deeply inspiring
speech about nothing in particular, then led the crowd in a chant that
sounded what should have been a discordant note.
"I am somebody," Jackson chanted.
"I am somebody," the crowd chanted back.
So far, so good.
"Down with dope," Jackson chanted.
"Down with dope," the crowd chanted back.
"Up with hope," Jackson rhymed.
"Up with hope," the crowd rhymed back.
But the damage was done. Operating on reflex, Jackson had badmouthed
dope and inadvertently revealed the ideological chasm between people who
are at the Shadow Convention because it is fashionable, and those who are
there because the police wouldn't think to look for them on a university
campus.
I noticed the young woman sitting beside me, with a sign saying "Zero
Tolerance Makes Zero Sense." Wasn't she there to advocate against criminal
anti-drug laws, I asked her.
"Yeah, that's what it is today."
Well, why was she joining in a "down with dope" chant?
"I don't want to be quoted," she sneered and turned away. It was then
that I noticed a careful manicure, perfect hair and a diamond engagement
ring large enough to block a drain. It's a safe bet this kid has never
had her mouth around a bong.
Attendees for whom "Zig-Zag" does not mean a change in directions were
more forthcoming.
"I think it's hard for these ministers to make that turnaround," said
a bearded, wizened convention-goer named Laurie Cameron. I asked Cameron
what organization he represented.
"I'm not with any group. I'm just an old pot head," he explained.
Forchion, the congressional candidate of the cannabis bloc, was handing
out campaign literature in the hallway between sessions. He stood near
stacks of prefabricated convention signs reading "Educate, Don't Incarcerate,"
"Drug Abuse Is Bad/The Drug War Is Worse," and the fetchingly blunt, "Keep
Your Laws Out of My Urine."
"This'll be the third race I was in," Forchion said. He ran for congress
once before. "I didn't come in last, either. I got about 3,000 votes,"
he said. He got the same number of votes when he ran for the New Jersey
assembly.
If Forchion can only find all these people, somewhere in the marshlands
of New Jersey, there is at least one grand old party waiting to happen.
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