N.J. CANDIDATE AIMS TO SWAY JURORS, NOT VOTERS

Ed Forchion is running for two offices in November, but he doesn't
think he is going to win. In fact, he doesn't even want to win.

Ed Forchion of the Legalize Marijuana Party is using his campaign to
draw attention to his approaching drug trial.

Representing the Legalize Marijuana Party, he is running for an Eighth
District Assembly seat and a seat on the Camden County Board of
Freeholders because, he said, it is the best way to reach potential
jurors at his forthcoming trial in Camden County Superior Court.

The last two years of Forchion's life have been consumed by his trying
to convince people that he is not "just another black drug dealer."

"I view myself as a freedom fighter with the dedication of Martin
Luther King, the independence of Malcolm X," said Forchion, 35. "But I
will probably spend close to the amount of time in jail as did Nelson
Mandela unless Jury Nullification is used."

Forchion faces more than 20 years in prison and $300,000 in fines after
being arrested during a drug raid in Bellmawr on Nov. 24, 1997. He was
charged with, among other things, possession with the intent to
distribute more than 25 pounds of marijuana, which Gov. Whitman had
made a first-degree offense in August 1997.

Forchion, a former cross-country truck driver, said he had, in the
past, delivered marijuana to groups in Pennsylvania and New Jersey that
he said used the drug for medical purposes. He denies ever selling the
drug for profit.

On the day of his arrest, Forchion said, he knew a shipment of
marijuana was to come in and had a hunch that authorities had their eye
on the package. So he went to the drop-off point, he said, to see what
would happen.

The Prosecutor's Office said Forchion and his brother Russell, 30, were
arrested a short distance from the Bellmawr Industrial Park with 45
pounds of marijuana in their van. Another man, Eric Poole, 41, who
worked at the factory and who signed for the FedEx package containing
the marijuana, was arrested at the park.

Russell Forchion and Poole pleaded guilty to lesser offenses. Russell
was sentenced to seven years. Eric has plead guilty but has not been
sentenced yet! ?

Forchion pleaded not guilty and said he would like to mount a defense
based on jury nullification - under which jurors refuse to convict
because they believe the law that a person is accused of violating is
unconstitutional - and freedom of religion. (Forchion is a Rastafarian
and views marijuana as sacred in much the way that Christians, he said,
view "the grapes" used to make the sacrament of Holy Communion.)

Forchion has been appointed a private attorney because the Public
Defender's Office refused to prepare a defense for him on those grounds.

"Maybe it's because I'm so independent," he said. "How can the
government tell me what I can put in my body? I chose to use marijuana,
it's my body!"

Forchion, whose pretrial court date is scheduled for next Monday - the
day before Election Day - said he had not met his attorney.

"I should be allowed to say what I want to say in court," he said as he
snacked on a hot fudge sundae during an interview. He said he had
smoked a marijuana joint before entering the restaurant and still got a
craving for food when he was high, even though he said he had been
smoking marijuana since he was 15.

"I think I have a plan, if I could just find legal help," said
Forchion, who stands 6 feet tall, weighs about 240 pounds, and wears
dreadlocks and a long goatee. Forchion describes himself as a "nerd"
who likes to study the Constitution. He said he had lived in anonymity,
smoking marijuana every day, for years and would have continued to do
so if not for his arrest.

Aside from researching and preparing his defense, Forchion spends much
of his time maintaining his "Legalize Marijuana Party" Web site and
trying to draw attention to his cause by running for office. He does
not campaign much. He has virtually no money and few campaign workers,
but he said he sometimes handed out flyers and recently made a
commercial that he said would be carried on a local cable station
starting tomorrow.

Annette Castiglione-Degan and Riletta Cream, the two Democratic
freeholders running for re-election against Forchion and Republicans
Orlando L. Chandler and Joseph J. Rosenello, said Forchion had the
right to run for office, but they condemned him for preaching the
legalization of marijuana.

"It's outrageous to even say in a county that represents a city that we
know is infested with drug activity," Castiglione-Degan said.

"Certainly you can respect anyone's right to free speech - that goes
without saying - but do I respect his position? Absolutely not. As a
mother of teenagers, as a teacher of teenagers, as a citizen, as an
elected official - with any of the hats that I wear - I cannot accept
that position or understand it."

Forchion's wife, Janice, 38, the mother of two of his four children,
said that she was not a marijuana user but that she did not understand
"what the fuss is over weed that you can grow in your backyard."

She said authorities should "go after cocaine, crack and heroin. Those
are the drugs that kill people."

"If he goes to jail, who's the victim?" she asked. "My kids are. . . .
I don't think that's fair."

Forchion said he realized that some people think he is crazy, but he
called himself "a little eccentric." He said people used to consider
his hobbies - collecting guns, buying exotic fish and growing marijuana
- "neat," but now they view him differently. I'm now seen as this
radical person, when in fact I've always felt this way. I just was
never cornered by the Drug Warrior's before. I'm just fighting back.