IS MARIJUANA LAW IN U.S. WRONG? LET A JURY DECIDE

I know about "jury nullification" because of a field trip to Philadelphia
that my parents took our family on in July 1976. I asked my mother, "Who's
that statue on top of City Hall anyway?" She said William Penn. But when I
asked who he was, she told me to look him up.

Earlier that year, my parents had bought us the Encyclopaedia Britannica, so
I read about Penn and the trial of his life, which eventually led to the
First Amendment. It was a very appropriate project; America's Bicentennial
celebration was going full-blast.

Penn, a Quaker, was charged with illegally teaching a religion other than
the king's official religion as taught by the Church of England.

He pleaded with his jurors that it was his right as a human being to believe
in whatever he wanted.

The jury knew that was against the king's law, but it acquitted Penn, and
its members suffered for their decision. The jurors were tortured, even
denied food and water for days; still they refused to change their minds.

Eventually the jurors were released, and the concept of "jury nullification"
- -- a jury's making a decision that appears to ignore the law -- was born.

I remembered William Penn when I was arrested on Nov. 24, 1997. I knew as I
sat in the Bellmawr police station, charged with a ridiculous crime, that I
was going to openly advocate to my jury that it nullify the law. The law is
wrong; no one should be imprisoned for possessing marijuana.

The marijuana laws, or for that matter the whole "War on Drugs," are a
violation of our Bill of Rights. I have never complied with the marijuana
laws; compliance is acceptance.

I have always regarded the laws as too intrusive. Who gave the State of New
Jersey, the federal government or their stooge police agencies the authority
to regulate what a citizen can put in his body?

As a Rastafarian believer, I espouse the benefits of marijuana; thus I, too,
am now going to face a jury because of my religious views -- just like
William Penn.

Although I have always taken this view, it wasn't until I became involved in
the legalize-medical-marijuana movement that I decided to advocate breaking
an unjust law.

I've had people tell me that the only reason I'm squealing so loudly is
because I was caught. So what? Do you think Betty Ford cared about having a
drug treatment center before she got addicted to legal drugs that are far
more harmful than marijuana?

Jury nullification is a constitutionally acceptable function of a jury, but
you can bet the prosecutors in Camden County who want to send me to prison
don't want the jury to know that. The prosecutors don't want the jury to
know its rights, but that's common for government workers. Whether they are
Internal Revenue Service agents, Environmental Protection Agency
functionaries or workers in some other government agency, they believe that
only what the government says is law is law. Yet the government is supposed
to be ruled by the people.

I'm Rastafarian. My religion recognizes the benefits of marijuana; it is a
sacrament in our faith, so the marijuana laws violate my right to religious
freedom.

The Bill of Rights says Congress shall not make a law respecting an
establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. Yet that
is exactly what marijuana laws do to all whose religions regard marijuana as
a sacrament.

Why are Native Americans allowed to use peyote? Because of their First
Amendment rights. Yet I'm denied my right to smoke marijuana, which is far
less addictive or dangerous than peyote. In 1997, Gov. Whitman signed a law
making the intent to distribute 25 or more pounds of marijuana a
first-degree crime. I, as an open advocate of marijuana legalization, was
one of the first individuals arrested under this law. This is the perfect
avenue for jury nullification.

Last year, I ran for Congress and the Camden County Board of Chosen
Freeholders under the Legalize Marijuana Party banner as a way to reach my
potential jurors.

This year, I'm again on the ballot, for state Assembly in the Eighth
District. I will espouse the concept of jury nullification as well as
marijuana legalization as ways to end the War on Us.

Edward Forchion, a former long-haul truck driver, writes from Chesilhurst.
His email address is njweedman@jersey.net