FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Protest planned for NJ medical marijuana patient who faces seven years in prison

WHO:      NJ medical marijuanapatient and activist Ed Forchion (AKA Njweedman) 

WHAT:    Demonstration to protest the prosecution for his use of marijuana       

WHEN:   October 18, 2011, 9 AM

WHERE: Superior Court of Burlington County, Mount Holly, New Jersey

WHY:      We must give full faith and credit to the laws of other states, as well as to the diagnoses and treatment plans of licensed physicians from other states

Supporters plan to protest the prosecution of medical marijuana patient Ed Forchion (AKA Njweedman), who faces seven years in a New Jersey prison for his use of marijuana here.  The protest is planned for 9 am on Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2011 outside Superior Court of Burlington County, 49 Rancocas Rd., Mount Holly, NJ.  Jury selection for Forchion’s trial is scheduled to begin on Thursday, October 20, 2011.  Forchion was arrested last year when he was found by a State Trooper to be driving a car that allegedly had a pound of marijuana in it. 

Forchion is a card-carrying medical marijuana patient from California.  He has the legal right to purchase, use, possess and even cultivate marijuana in California, due to his medical condition.  But New Jersey’s restrictive medical marijuana law does not recognize ID cards from out-of-state.  New Jersey’s Medicinal Marijuana Program is not even up and running despite going into effect one year ago this month.  Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have laws protecting medical marijuana patients. 

Forchion describes in his book, “Public Enemy 420—The Tale of an African American Marijuana Activist,” (available on his website, http://home.njweedman.com/) his painful tumor growing out of a bone near his knee, which is a medical condition similar to that of Irvin Rosenfeld.  The federal government has been supplying Rosenfeld with 300 marijuana joints every month for the past 25 years for this condition, as part of the Investigational New Drug (IND) study.  The IND study is not available to Forchion as it has been closed to new applicants since 1992, after it was flooded with applications.   The IND study was a victim of its own success.       

Ken Wolski, RN, Executive Director of the Coalition for Medical Marijuana--New Jersey (CMMNJ), urges demonstrators to tell the judge that Ed Forchion is not guilty.  “He is a patient, using his medicine from out-of-state.  We must give full faith and credit to the laws of other states, as well as to the diagnoses and treatment plans of licensed physicians from other states,” Wolski said.

CMMNJ, a 501(c)(3) public charity, is a non-profit organization whose mission is to educate the public about the benefits of safe and legal access to medical marijuana.  For more info, contact:

Ken Wolski, RN, MPA
Executive Director
Coalition for Medical Marijuana--New Jersey, Inc.
www.cmmnj.org
[email protected]