POT ADVOCATE RELOCATES TO CALIFORNIA

Weedman, aka Ed Forchion, has left New Jersey for Southern California
and a job selling marijuana for medical purposes.

"I feel like I left the police state and found freedom here," the former
Browns Mills
resident and longtime advocate for legalized marijuana said Monday
from outside the medical marijuana club where he said he works. "This
is like a reward for being a fighter."

Forchion, 41, launched his drive to legalize marijuana in New Jersey in
1997 after he was
arrested and charged with possession of the drug with intent to distribute.

Since then he has: Spent 17 months in Riverfront State Prison on the
distribution conviction and another five months in
Burlington County Jail for making pro-marijuana commercials after he was
paroled. Run for Congress, the state Legislature, the
Burlington County freeholder board and governor as the candidate of the
Legalize Marijuana Party. Staged numerous demonstrations to call attention
to his cause, including one "light up" on the floor of the General Assembly
and another by the Liberty Bell.

It was a battle over child custody, not marijuana, that precipitated his
move to California, he said Monday. "That was the straw that broke the
camel's back," he said. "The Burlington County Family Court took away my
parental rights. "Instead of judging me as a dad, they judged me on what I
talk about," he said.

Never one to duck an issue, Forchion isn't worried his notoriety as a
marijuana advocate could lead to
trouble in his new job. California legalized medical marijuana in 1996,
but the measure has been challenged in court, and some see it as a thinly
disguised move to make the drug available generally. He's working at a
club with about 500 members, he said, in Woodland Hills, a short drive from
Hollywood. Members come with recommendations from their physicians that
they use marijuana, not prescriptions.

Forchion said he hopes to bring his wife and three other children to
California by this summer. He'll miss the people in New Jersey, he
said. "But not the bail payments."