The state Motor Vehicle Commission’s regional center on South Stockton Street in downtown Trenton is about two blocks from NJ Weedman’s Joint.
People on their way to or from the center often stop off at the joint, owner and longtime weed activist Ed “NJ Weedman” Forchion says.
Sometimes it’s for pot, sometimes for the chicken wings.
“I’m a destination place for so many people - I’m like Disney for potheads,” Forchion said.
People interested in marijuana already come to Trenton, which is why Forchion says he’s stumped as to why the Trenton City Council’s ordinance on legal weed, as it currently is written, will leave out the Capital City’s downtown.
The council introduced an ordinance earlier this month, after changes, that sets forth five dispensaries - down from 10 - and in three city zones. The downtown shopping areas are not included. Council members who introduced the ordinance did not respond to a request for comment Friday on its stipulations.
The council could vote for the ordinance on its second reading, on Thursday Aug. 19. New Jersey municipalities have until Aug. 21 to pass local laws setting forth when marijuana businesses can operate, and collect surcharge taxes. If they do not, they must abide by wider state rules.
“The City Council is engaged in buffoonery if they think eliminating dispensaries from downtown is something good,” said Forchion. “It’s an absolute mistake.”
Not only is the city potentially cutting off outside dollars, Forchion says most of his employees are city residents, and other dispensaries would likely employ locally too.
“Trenton is an economically distressed city. Why would they not want this business coming to city?” Forchion asked.
Others have questioned it too, like the mayor, Reed Gusciora, who supported the 10 dispensaries and also wants the downtown included. Forchion said the mayor supports him, too.
Forchion, blunt as ever, said he wants to be legal in his weed sales, and is working toward it, but if not: “I will not stop.”
“If anybody is going to have a place (to sell weed) downtown, it’s going to be me,” he said.
Forchion said he’s pretty skilled from his legal issues in the past, which range from scores of arrests from motor-vehicle stops to the Trenton police and Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office raiding the joint in 2016 and charging Forchion with several drug-dealing felonies.
He was jailed for a year and took the case to trial, twice, and won acquittals in 2017 and 2018. Days after triumphantly walking out of the county jail, and firing up a joint on the way home, the prosecutor’s office dismissed some remaining minor violations he faced, citing changing views of marijuana.
“The authorities failed miserably, and I am the last man standing,” he said.
He is ready for another fight, one he hopes will not happen.
“I will be fighting it like I fight everything else, with lawyers, civil disobedience - there are no plans in my mind to shut down,” he said.
The lawyer assisting Forchion with his legal sales efforts, Sam Redlich, was more matter-of-fact. He said Forchion will apply for local or state licenses to continue to operation from his location. And if the council passes the ordinance, Forchion will apply for a zoning variance.
But he also questioned the non-downtown ordinance, saying there’s “no rational basis” for such a block. It’s not just Forchion, but if Trenton excludes other businesses from downtown districts, they shut down a pipeline of business, and feeder businesses as well.
“This is not the first time they legalized weed in the U.S.,” Redlich said. The state voted for it, the mayor supports it, and, it makes no sense for social equity.
“This would really affect the people who have been affected by the war on drugs,” Redlich said.
Forchion could also license his name and have his weed sold by other businesses. “Ed’s going to win in the end,” Redlich said. “There are 565 towns in New Jersey and Trenton seems to be a dramatic one.”
Mayor Reed Gusciora said yes, he supports Forchion overall. And he would support him being in cannabis sales, “the legal way.”
He’s been to the joint, and said he’s been ordering sandwiches from the joint since before he was elected mayor. “The food is always fresh,” he said.
Forchion, the mayor said, has been part of the marijuana conversation for years, especially with the social equity discussion on legalized cannabis, and the concern that some people could end up “on the short end of the stick” if corporate cannabis businesses move in and get licenses over local businesses.
“He does have a lot of legal experience in this,” the mayor said of Forchion.
Gusciora said Forchion has been at City Hall for a meeting about marijuana too, but the mayor said he’s just one of many people he’s met with over the issue. He’s also been to Baltimore and Florida to visit cannabis businesses to educate himself on the issue.
As for the ordinance, Councilman Jerell Blakeley said he’ll try to change it with amendments before a final vote. In a multi-paragraph Facebook post, he wrote:
“Rather than allowing legal cannabis businesses to function in Downtown Trenton, a business district where the illegal drug trade not only exists but has flourished for decades, the presented ordinance...steers legal cannabis businesses to a handful of isolated industrial zones with little foot traffic. Rather than embracing legal cannabis, this rotten maneuver puts legal cannabis firmly outside of Trenton’s economic mainstream..”
The ordinance “gives lip service to social equity,” the councilman wrote.
“Cities like Trenton that have borne the brunt of the War of Drugs have a major opportunity to repair much of the damage done by that insidious war by embracing progressive and common sense local ordinances to maximize the economic benefits and ensure social equity of the legal cannabis business sector,” Blakeley wrote.
“I am deeply concerned that the proposed ordinance would ensure that the amazing benefits of legal cannabis businesses will bypass Trenton.”
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Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com.
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