BURLINGTON -- Public ridicule was once the norm for Ed Forchion.

When the “N.J. Weedman” was arrested after smoking a joint in a state Assembly meeting, he was ridiculed. And when Forchion tried to legally change his name to “NJWeedman.com,” it was written off as a publicity stunt.

After nearly 20 years of activism, New Jersey’s best-known marijuana activist — at the very least, its loudest — hasn’t changed, even as attitudes toward marijuana have shifted.

New Jersey has created a regulated, albeit struggling, medical marijuana program, and last year Colorado and Washington legalized recreational marijuana for residents over 21, with restrictions similar to the sale and consumption of alcohol. Last week the U.S. Department of Justice said it will not challenge the new laws.

Forchion, it seems, now has public opinion on his side.

“Before, we had to rely on D.A.R.E. officers and the whole government spiel about saying ‘No’ to drugs,” Forchion said in an interview last month. “We were in the minority before, but we’re in the majority now.”

Over time Forchion has become a more passive activist. Most recently living in Sicklerville, he attends legalization rallies and festivals, where he’s treated like a minor celebrity, but the days of civil disobedience are behind him.

“I don’t do protests anymore,” Forchion said. “I attend them, but I don’t engage. They wiped me out.”

The N.J. Weedman of today simply doesn’t want to go to jail again.

Instead, Forchion has turned his attention to helping other smokers fight criminal charges by promoting the idea of jury nullification, in which defendants convince juries to reframe a drug case by casting suspicion on the drug laws themselves.

“Jury nullification is how to break the war on drugs, or the war on marijuana at least,” Forchion said. “You have to take it to trial and argue that the law’s wrong, not you. Public opinion is there. I could walk into a church and talk about marijuana and people would agree with me.”

Forchion said the strategy worked in his 2000 trial, when he was arrested for transporting a “big shipment” of marijuana from Arizona to New Jersey.

“You can call me a drug dealer but, technically, I was a smuggler,” Forchion said.

While preparing for the trial, Forchion embraced the N.J. Weedman nickname as a way to ingratiate himself with the jury. During his testimony, one juror cried and others nodded, shook their heads and smiled, he said.

Still, when the opportunity for a plea deal came along with a three- to six-month prison term, Forchion jumped at the chance.

“I always regretted that deal. Sometimes they say I was trying to pollute the jury, but I was just trying to inform them of my positions and my thoughts,” Forchion said. “I really wanted the jury to say, ‘Not guilty.’”

The judge allowed Forchion to poll the jury and the results are burned into his brain:

Five jurors would have declared him not guilty. The jury would have been hung.

“They were leaning towards me, and my plan for jury nullification was working,” Forchion said. “But the prosecutors offered me a bribe, and I took it. I was mad for 10 years.”

N.J. BROKE MAN

In 2001, Forchion was diagnosed with a rare illness when doctors found giant-cell tumors in his knees and shoulders. The tumors are non-cancerous but can turn malignant if left untreated. Lacking health insurance, Forchion says he cannot afford to have the tumors removed and has chosen to mitigate the severe pain with marijuana.

He moved to California in 2007 and registered as a medical marijuana patient, eventually opening his own marijuana dispensary shops.

“It’s good for stress relief, anxiety, pain relief. There’s a study that just came out that said marijuana is one of the greatest therapeutic substances on the planet. And we’ve outlawed it,” Forchion said. “The harms that are done by the marijuana laws to society far outweigh the benefits of marijuana. Legalizing it is righting a wrong.”

In 2010, while back in New Jersey visiting family in his home state, Forchion was arrested and charged with possession and intent to distribute marijuana. During a motor vehicle stop in Evesham, a police officer allegedly found $2,000 in cash and two joints on him.

He was acquitted of the distribution charge in 2012 but convicted of a lower-level possession charge. He was sentenced to nine months in prison, but failed to report to the probation office and was arrested at Philadelphia International Airport shortly before boarding a plane to California, where he was scheduled for a cancer treatment.

“If marijuana was legal, I’d be a very successful dude and what happened to me would be some sort of court corruption,” Forchion said. “But it’s the politics of pot. Someone didn’t like the fact that I won.”

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency shut down his shops in California soon after the arrests and his dreams of finding a celebrity patron to sponsor his legal battles — Forchion mentioned Willie Nelson, the folk signer and longtime marijuana activist — have yet to come to fruition.

His finances are bleak — “I’m so broke right now,” he said — and his only income comes in the form of donations from supporters around the globe, he said. Forchion attributed his fan base to his years of embracing his nickname.

“People all over the country, when you ask them about New Jersey they know Chris Christie and N.J. Weedman,” Forchion said. “My name has helped me with the cause. Everybody knows N.J. Weedman.”

The day after he was interviewed, Forchion flew to California for a medical appointment, unsure how he would be able to afford a return ticket.

Forchion estimated he could earn $10,000 or $15,000 in a very short period of time if he began dealing marijuana, but said he is reluctant because of the risk of another arrest.

New Jersey “would love to put me in a cage,” he said. “I’m getting older. I’m not trying to fight that game. When you’re 25, you think you’re invincible. I had my arrests. I know I’m not invincible. I know I can be beat.”

“What would happen if I got arrested? I’d be front page news: ‘(Expletive) Weedman gets busted again!’” Forchion said.

THE PERENNIAL CANDIDATE

For many, the name N.J. Weedman might be most recognizable from the inside of the voting booth.

He has run for various public offices every year since 1998. He is the sole candidate from the “Legalize Marijuana Party,” running this year for a spot on the Burlington County freeholder board.

He said his election efforts could help bolster his defense in a courtroom, giving him another way to appeal to any potential jurors who may have to cast a verdict on him one day.

“This is my way of fighting back and giving the middle finger to Democrats and Republicans, to the whole system,” he said.

Forchion goes through the motions like any other independent candidate, filing forms and gathering signatures from supporters, but he’s so uninterested in winning that he doesn’t even know the names of his opponents.

“I’d be happy to just play spoiler, to make sure they take the cannabis-consuming community seriously as a voting bloc, as someone they need to cater to and talk to,” Forchion said. “If I had money, I could make a good run but, since I don’t, I’m very comfortable just being a protest candidate,”

But does the N.J. Weedman believe he has a shot in this election?

"Man, I'm not that high," he said.



Contact Mike Davis at (609) 989-5708 or mdavis@njtimes.com.

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