NJ Medical Marijuana Patient Faces Seven Years in Prison

WHO: NJ medical marijuana patient and activist Ed Forchion (AKA NJWEEDMAN)

WHAT: Faces 7 years in prison for his use of marijuana

WHEN: October 18, 2011

WHERE: Superior Court of Burlington County, Mount Holly, NJ

WHY: Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act fails to recognize out-of-state ID cards

Medical marijuana patient Ed Forchion (AKA NJWEEDMAN) faces seven years in a New Jersey prison for his use of marijuana here. His trial opens Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2011 in Superior Court of Burlington County in Mount Holly, NJ. Forchion was arrested on April 1, 2010 when he was found by a State Trooper to be driving a rented 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 medical marijuana ID cards from out-of-state. It does not matter what condition Forchion suffers from. New Jersey’s Medicinal Marijuana Program is not even up and running despite going into effect one year ago this month. Forchion, a dual resident of New Jersey and California, runs a medical marijuana dispensary in Hollywood, called “Liberty Bell Temple.”

Forchion has a painful tumor growing out of a bone near his knee, which is the medical condition that qualifies him for marijuana use in California. Irvin Rosenfeld has a similar condition and the federal government has been supplying Rosenfeld with 300 marijuana joints every month for over 25 years. Rosenfeld claims in his book, “My Medicine” that marijuana, and marijuana alone, has kept him alive and a productive member of society. Rosenfeld is part of the federal government’s Investigational New Drug (IND) study. The IND study is not available to Forchion as this study has been closed to new applicants since 1992.

“It is an outrage that Forchion faces many years in prison for this, and that it does not even matter why he was using marijuana,” said Ken Wolski, RN, Executive Director of the Coalition for Medical Marijuana--New Jersey (CMMNJ). CMMNJ plans a demonstration to protest his prosecution outside the Superior Court of Burlington County, 49 Rancocas Rd., Mount Holly, NJ on Oct. 18, 2011 at 9 am.

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

219 Woodside Ave., Trenton, NJ 08618

609.394.2137 ohamkrw@aol.com