For some, Ed Forchion is a nuisance -- a pot-smoking fringe activist who has been busted numerous times by a slew of law enforcement agencies. He has a way of getting into the face of the establishment.

But the man who is better known as NJ Weedman has raised some serious legal questions that are percolating up to the highest court in the land.

At issue are questions of freedom of religion and the constitutionality of New Jersey's marijuana laws.

The 51-year-old Forchion has a long history of challenging marijuana laws. He's been arrested for publicly lighting up joints at the Statehouse in Trenton, the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia and in the Trenton City Council Chamber.

Most recently, Forchion was taken into custody on April 27 when a swarm of police officers in tactical gear raided his less than a year old Trenton restaurant, called NJ Weedman's Joint, and his newly established "cannabis church" on the same East State Street block.

Authorities said the raids stemmed from a two-month investigation following complaints from "multiple sources" that he was selling marijuana out of his establishments.

But Forchion sees it as simple police harassment.

"I'm building up a nice little community of peaceful potheads," Forchion said.

As he does in so many of these situations, Forchion is challenging his arrest in court. He argues that by the raid on his cannabis-friendly Liberty Bell Temple is a violation of his religious freedoms.

He's also fighting his 2010 arrest and conviction in Burlington County on marijuana possession charges. It is this case which Forchion's lawyer, John Vincent Saykanic, has brought to the U.S. Supreme Court for consideration.

Saykanic concedes that the chances of the high court accepting the case are slim.

"It's a long shot," Saykanic told NJ.com. "And like I've said in the past, long shots do come in."

Indeed, it's highly unlikely that the Supreme Court would give Forchion's case any legal weight by agreeing to hear it. But the knotty legal issues he is raising will need to be untangled, perhaps in a more sober case.

Forchion's filing with the Supreme Court makes 10 legal arguments, ranging from his belief that marijuana laws are discriminatory to African-Americans, to marijuana as a religious sacrament for Rastafarians, as well as arguments about medical marijuana.

Without a doubt, attitudes about marijuana use have changed dramatically in the past decade. Where once pot possession for personal use could result in serious jail time, it now is more often treated as a summary offense akin to a parking ticket.

New Jersey and 23 other states and the District of Columbia now have laws legalizing marijuana in some form while the federal government considers the possession, sale, cultivation and transportation of cannabis to be illegal.

As attitudes and laws regarding pot change, the courts will have to keep up with the changing culture. Forchion is merely a reflection of that change.

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