“People all over the country, when you ask them about New Jersey, they know Chris Christie and NJ Weedman.”

So said NJ Weedman in an interview with Times staffer Mike Davis.

NJ Weedman, nee Edward Forchion, has made his name with decades of activism for legalizing the use of marijuana in the Garden State. His advocacy has included stints in the big house and stunts in the Statehouse where he once smoked a joint.

The governor may be a bit nonplussed by his inclusion in the exclusive circle of notoriety, as Forchion sees it. But the two men represent polar views on pot, and attitudes in New Jersey and elsewhere have been shifting in Forchion’s direction.

While Christie adamantly opposes decriminalizing pot, a majority of New Jersey voters say those caught with small amounts of marijuana should pay a fine but not go to prison, according to a recent poll commissioned by the Drug Policy Alliance.

Public opinion has caught up with NJ Weedman on a trail he’s blazed for a large part of his life. Ironically, now that a majority agrees with him, Forchion has become, as Davis put it, a more passive activist. While he still attends legalization rallies and festivals, where he’s treated like a minor celebrity, the days of civil disobedience are behind him.

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

Other states have decriminalized and even legalized pot, but New Jersey still considers possession a criminal offense that carries a penalty of up to a $1,000 fine and six months in jail. A conviction also results in a criminal record that can’t be expunged for at least five years.

More than 22,000 individuals were arrested for marijuana possession in New Jersey in 2010, at a cost of more than $125 million.

Not only does that represent a waste of law enforcement resources, it’s an unfair application of the law.

Thousands of well-to-do professionals throughout the state regularly imbibe, yet blacks are about three times more likely to be arrested on charges of possessing marijuana than whites. That’s despite the fact that usage rates are comparable among blacks and whites.

The Drug Policy Alliance poll found 61 percent of the 600 registered voters who responded support making possession of 2 ounces or less of marijuana a civil matter, like a speeding ticket.

Legislative efforts to decriminalize marijuana have stalled in New Jersey, we urge lawmakers to return to this issue in the next session and ease the penalties for personal use.

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