MARIJUANA MAVEN ACCEPTS PLEA AGREEMENT 'FOR MY KIDS'

After refusing several plea offers that he said would compromise his
principles, a South Jersey advocate for legalizing marijuana agreed
yesterday to a lesser charge.

In exchange for a light sentence and one more chance to address the jurors,
he admitted to introducing two parties to a $20,000 cannabis deal. Yesterday
would have been the second day of his trial.

"I did it for my kids," Edward Forchion said of the plea agreement as he
left Camden County Superior Court yesterday. "But I still believe what I
believe."

Forchion, 36, of Browns Mills, is a candidate for the U.S. House and the
Burlington County Board of Freeholders on the Legalize Marijuana ticket.

He was brought to trial on charges of conspiring to distribute more than 25
pounds of cannabis - specifically, 40 pounds of marijuana from an Arizona
deal. Had he been convicted, Forchion faced up to 20 years in prison.

Instead, he pleaded guilty to possession with the intent to distribute and
conspiracy to distribute more than five pounds of marijuana, both
second-degree offenses, and could spend as little as six months in prison.

Once released, he could be tested for drugs at any time, said his legal
adviser, Jaime Kaigh. Forchion acted as his own attorney during the
proceedings.

Forchion said he had a difficult time accepting the plea and did not make a
final decision until arriving at the Camden County Hall of Justice yesterday
morning.

A Rastafarian, he said he smoked marijuana for religious reasons, to relieve
back pain, and to help him deal with chronic depression. Since the
mid-1990s, Forchion, a former cross-country truck driver, has been an
outspoken advocate of legalizing marijuana, and he acknowledges that he has
done some outlandish things in an attempt to get his point across.

He has been cited for lighting marijuana cigarettes in the legislature's
chambers and the office of U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews. He told the jury during
his opening statement Tuesday afternoon that he had smoked marijuana before
coming to court that morning and had smoked again during the lunch break.

Forchion acknowledged in court yesterday that he had introduced his brother,
Russell, to a marijuana supplier in Arizona and had flown to Tucson on
behalf of his brother in October 1997 to seal the sale of the marijuana.

The shipment was delivered to the Bellmawr Industrial Park via Federal
Express.

Shortly after picking up the marijuana, Russell Forchion was arrested as he
drove away from the laboratories, authorities said. His brother, who was
driving behind him, was also arrested.

A third man, Eric Poole, who signed for the package, was convicted of a
lesser crime. Russell Forchion, who had agreed to testify for the
prosecution, served about five months in prison before being placed on
intensive supervisory parole.

Edward Forchion is free on $65,000 bail until his sentencing on Dec. 1.

Before the proceedings began Tuesday, Assistant Prosecutor John Wynne
offered Forchion a deal in which he would have spent 33 months in jail. On
Tuesday night, Wynne called Kaigh and offered Forchion a sentence in which
he might have to serve only six months in prison and then be placed on
intensive supervisory parole.

Wynne said he thought the sentence was just, considering that Forchion had a
lesser role in the conspiracy than his brother.

Forchion's defense strategy was to persuade the jury to invoke its power of
nullification, by which a jury can set aside the law out of sympathy for a
defendant. He pursued that strategy even though two Superior Court judges
had affirmed the prosecutor's argument that the concept of nullification,
although available for a jury's use, should not be advertised.

In his opening statement, Forchion still talked to the jury about the power.
To the surprise of him and Judge Stephen W. Thompson, Wynne did not object.

Wynne said yesterday that he had not objected because "it wasn't hurting me.
I think he was hurting himself."

Forchion also pleaded guilty to possession of a stolen item, a two-barrel
shotgun, in an unrelated Ocean County case, and he pleaded guilty to theft
for swiping a $500 bet he lost off a table at the Trump Taj Mahal Casino
Resort in Atlantic City. Both of those indictments date from 1996, and the
sentences will be consolidated with the drug charges.

In a departure from typical court proceedings, Thompson allowed Forchion to
address the jury after he entered the guilty plea and ask the 13 citizens if
they saw any merit in his argument that the government's marijuana laws were
wrong.

"It is highly unusual, but everything about this case has been unusual,"
Thompson said.

Several jury members told Forchion that they felt for him and understood his
cause. One juror even encouraged Forchion to continue fighting for his cause
when he is released from prison. But the jurors also said that they did not
understand how his belief that marijuana should be legalized related to the
charges he was facing.

"There is a right and a wrong way to do things," one juror said.