'WEEDMAN' PROTESTS CHILD VISITATION RULING

Pot Advocate Can Only See His Daughter Once A Week

Just weeks out of state prison, marijuana advocate Ed "njweedman'' Forchion
was back on the public protest circuit yesterday. Forchion picketed the
Burlington County courts complex in Mount Holly and the New Jersey
Statehouse in Trenton to draw attention to a judge's recent decision that
restricts his visits with his 6-year-old daughter.

Forchion, a Pemberton Township resident, is a follower of the Rastafari
religion and maintains that marijuana is needed for its rituals. A Superior
Court judge assigned to the family division in Mount Holly, however, has
limited him to only one supervised visit with his daughter each week
because Forchion openly calls for the legalization of marijuana.

"I guess the only way I can see my daughter is to become a Christian and
start parroting the lies of the government about marijuana,'' Forchion
wrote in a four-page leaflet he handed out during his protests.

Meanwhile, a judge assigned to the Superior Court's family division in
Camden awarded Forchion custody of his 16-year-old daughter last month,
according to court documents.

Forchion, a former candidate for the Burlington County Board of Freeholders
and U.S. Congress, is a veteran of public protests. He's smoked marijuana
at the Liberty Bell monument in Philadelphia, inside the Statehouse and
outside the Burlington County courts complex.

His protests yesterday were not as dramatic. Forchion carried a sign
calling for "freedom of speech and freedom of religion,'' and
quietly discussed the issue with passersby. He did not, however, speak to
reporters because he said his state probation program prevents him from
discussing marijuana legalization with the media.

Forchion's legal troubles stem primarily from a 1997 charge that he tried
to help his brother and another man pick up 40 pounds of marijuana shipped
from a supplier in Arizona via Federal Express to a Camden County
industrial park. Forchion pleaded guilty during his trial in October 2000.
He was sentenced to 10 years in prison in December 2000, but was released
last month after serving 16 months. Forchion is now enrolled in a probation
program that forces him to undergo regular urine testing.