DEFENSE TACTIC UP IN SMOKE

Despite warnings from state officials not to speak to the press, the
Weedman will not go quietly.

On April 3 Ed Forchion--aka the New Jersey Weedman, a marijuana
legalization advocate who made headlines by lighting up at the Liberty Bell
and on the floor of the New Jersey State Assembly, among other public
places--was released from Bayside State Prison in Leesberg, N.J. Forchion
won early release from a 10-year drug-trafficking sentence as part of the
state's Intensive Supervisory Parole program.

Despite his release, Forchion refuses to give up the fight to put New
Jersey's drug laws on trial using a legal technique called jury
nullification, which allows jurors to refuse to convict if they believe the
law in question is unfair or unconstitutional.

Forchion's saga began five years ago when he was arrested for receiving a
Federal Express shipment containing 40 pounds of marijuana. Facing a
20-year prison sentence, Forchion became a high-profile advocate for
legalizing pot, risking additional prison time while awaiting trial by
lighting up in public places in what he calls acts of civil disobedience.

The Camden County Public Defender's Office disavowed the case after
refusing to invoke the jury nullification defense--telling Forchion it was
illegal for an attorney in New Jersey to inform a jury of its right to
question the state's drug laws. Forchion defended himself and eventually
accepted a plea bargain that would combine all the pending charges against
him: the '97 FedEx bust as well as assorted arrests for possession while
awaiting trial.

In December 2000, just before reporting to prison, Forchion filed an appeal
asking for a retrial and made a formal request to the courts for the
transcripts of his trial and pre-trial hearings. Forchion claims the
transcripts were withheld until April 1, 2002--two days before his release
from prison.

He is now awaiting word from the Third Circuit Federal Court of
Appeals (Docket No.- 01-3171) about his retrial, and if he gets it, he
says he will again try to put the state's marijuana laws on trial through
jury nullification.

"The whole trial was a mockery," he says. "My constitutional rights were
withheld because I was talking about marijuana. I want to try and enlighten
as many people as possible about jury nullification--it's a powerful
we-the-people weapon. The war on drugs is being waged against the people of
this country, and this is how we fight back."