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Ed “NJ Weedman” Forchion triumphantly walked out of Mercer County’s jail last May, riding a high fueled by a significant legal win.
A jury acquitted him of a witness-tampering charge that grew out of his marijuana-dealing cases, which were pending.
About a week later, he got more good news: the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office announced it was dismissing or downgrading to municipal court the felony cases against him. New Jersey, the prosecutor’s office said then, was undergoing a shift in the attitude to marijuana, and the office was getting on that bus. And Forchion had spent over a year in jail, and prosecutors took that into consideration too.
In essence, he won.
The Weedman was free with a new governor who pledged to legalize marijuana quickly, and a little later a new mayor in Trenton who was ‘unequivocally’ in favor of recreational marijuana legalization. Forchion openly fired up joints in public, once even in front of the Statehouse, where he got a whiff of the change: a state trooper declined to arrest him, turning away from the bait.
And he had big plans to reopen NJ Weedman’s Joint in downtown Trenton and become a player in what he dreamed of and protested for nearly two decades: legal weed.
But the end of 2018 and this year has been a drag for the man once known as the state’s biggest marijuana activist.
He did reopen the Joint - his partner Debi Madaio kept the rent current while he was jailed - but it’s not been the return to glory he hoped. He’s behind on rent and facing eviction. He was in landlord-tenant court Friday morning in Trenton and won a three-month reprieve, he said.
And while New Jersey has not actually legalized marijuana, the topic is a considerable political and social issue.
But Forchion is not part of it. It’s a discussion and legal wrangling taking place among politicians, lobbyists and consultants in the New Jersey Statehouse and Gov. Phil Murphy’s office.
(Forchion did testify in front of a legislative committee this past fall, but it received little media attention. And he’s been critical of the process, saying it’s not doing enough for minorities.)
Debi Madaio and Ed Forchion outside NJ Weedman's Joint on East State Street in Trenton, across from Trenton City Hall in the background. The mural is a work in progress. (Michael Mancuso | NJ Advance Media)Michael Mancuso | NJ Advance Med
Moreover, Forchion has little money to get into the game; lenders friendly to marijuana businesses will not deal with him, and it all stems from the city of Trenton targeting him when he opened his business nearly four years ago, he says.
"Right now I feel left out,” Forchion said Friday, after court and back in the Joint. “I was the biggest mouth about this for over 15 years.”
He can be self-critical, he said. He’s been blustery, antagonizing, and, “I’ve done a lot of things to get publicity.” he admits. And he can whine.
And even though he’s been arrested, convicted of past crimes, and has taunted police, “My arguments (about marijuana legalization) have been on point, and I am not the village idiot people think I am.”
He’s kept up with the marijuana legalization process, and suspects a 2000 felony marijuana conviction will likely lock him out of becoming a dispensary, and the medical marijuana business as well. He set up Weedman’s Joint for such a possible progression.
And his 'cannabis church’ adjacent to the restaurant would have been an ideal lounge. Still could, if he can remain in business.
“I feel stabbed in the back,” he said. “All these years in the fight and I cannot be a part of it,” he said.
He puts much of that blame on the city of Trenton and its police, who he has argued organized a campaign of extra-heavy, targeted enforcement that led to the felony raid on his place, and ultimately, the loss of his reputation.
Before his 2016 arrest, the big one, when police and prosecutors raided the joint, Weedman’s Joint, open about a year, had a good run, he said. It was profitable.
Now, he cannot get a good showing. “People who want to be in the (marijuana) movement have been scared away from me. They saw me in jail. They saw cops coming here. People here got tickets from the police.”
Forchion, who has a civil lawsuit pending against the city, said it’s what he banking on these days - a settlement from that action.
“The city, they changed the narrative on me,” he said. He just wanted to be a peaceful pothead, not a police problem.
None of the actions against Forchion occurred under Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora, who took office last summer. But through a spokesman, he declined to discuss the Weedman’s woes.
Ed Forchion in his business on Feb. 15, 2019. (Michael Mancuso | NJ Advance Media)Michael Mancuso | NJ Advance Med
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Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@kevintshea. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
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