The Weedman strikes again

This time, his antigovernment attitude - not his drug habit - may send him
back to jail.

The Weedman is Ed Forchion, a dreadlocked Rastafarian asthmatic former
truck driver from Burlington County who believes he has the religious and
medical rights to puff pot.

He also happens to think the nation's drug laws stink, destroy families,
and unjustly clog up the court system.

Forchion has become something of a celebrity activist in these parts,
lighting up joints outside Independence Hall and inside the New Jersey
Statehouse to lure reporters and force police to arrest him.

He has petitioned the courts to legally change his name to NJWeedman.com in
an effort to draw more eyeballs to his pro-pot Web site.

Forchion probably should have faded into obscurity last year after
finishing a short prison sentence for possessing 40 pounds of pot.

He couldn't. He wouldn't, even with a wife and kids to support.

Instead, the Weedman continued his crusade, railing against a new state law
that requires a wider class of convicts and parolees to submit DNA to a
criminal database.

Forchion says the law amounts to after-the-fact punishment and an invasion
of privacy.

So he filed a federal lawsuit challenging its constitutionality.

And when he was assigned a date to fork over his own DNA, he ignored it.

By his own count, the Weedman has nine active legal cases.

All have something to do with pot and the pothead's contention that weed -
and the Weedman - have been unfairly vilified.

He claims he tracks them all in his head and on his computer, but with so
many fires to fight, the details can escape him.

Take the Battle of Cherry Hill.

The Weedman contends he was sitting in his car outside a Dunkin' Donuts
when cops, acting on a report of a suspicious person, searched the vehicle
and found a stash in the ashtray.

He told me the case would be heard today. But it turned out he had a court
date last week - and missed it.

Yesterday, the Weedman had no such trouble, arriving at the Camden County
Hall of Justice more than an hour before his DNA case hearing.

During the weekend, he learned a grand jury had indicted him for refusing
to submit his DNA.

Overnight, his act of civil disobedience became criminal contempt.

Overnight, a family man cherishing his freedom found himself facing 18
months behind bars.

If convicted, he could do time in state prison and wind up with a
protracted parole that would force him to give up the ganja for years.

"I guess this is another one of those times my family's thinking: 'You did
it to yourself,' " he said. "But I really didn't expect this."

Outside the courthouse, the Weedman handed out news releases while a buddy
marched around carrying a sign reading, "Say no to DNA."

Given the Weedman's regular appearances inside, many of the lawyers leaving
for lunch instantly recognized him.

"I've been coming here for seven years," the Weedman explained.

In the hall outside his courtroom, the Weedman shared his strategy.

He can't be guilty of criminal contempt for refusing to give his DNA, he
said, because he had already filed his federal suit challenging the law.

Wrongo, said Assistant Prosecutor John Wynne, after police took the Weedman
away to fingerprint him and file arrest papers.

"You get a court order, you have to obey it," Wynne said. "He should know
this."

Naturally, the Weedman pleaded not guilty.

Luckily, he was released on his own recognizance so he could go home to his
family and his job.

Thankfully, he'll have a real lawyer when the case resumes next month.

"I guess," he admitted, "this is above my jailhouse lawyering skills."

A self-aware stoner with the presence of mind to know he's out of his league?

What would the drug czars say?


By Monica Yant Kinney
Philadelphia Inquirer Columnist
1/12/04