Edward Forchion, known as “NJ Weedman,” started smoking marijuana when he was 14.

He said he had asthma after trying to smoke cigarettes at 12 years of age.

“One day around my 14th birthday I was at my cousin’s house and his friends came over and they were all smoking weed and peer pressure got to me and I tried it,” Forchion said, and mimicked inhaling a joint. “I didn’t cough… I realized that this is different than tobacco. And then that pleasurable sensation happened and I’ve been smoking weed ever since.”

Forchion was the keynote speaker at a Community Cannabis Forum April 4 at the Mount Zion Baptist Church.