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while ed forchion remains mired in legal troubles and no closer to seeing himself in front of the u.s. supreme court to argue his right to smoke marijuana, things don't look half bad for the new jersey weedman. he can now smoke all he wants and test his interpretation of federal laws without the fear of jail time.
following the nov. 12 sentencing hearing where he received a year of probation and a $150 fine for drug possession after organizing a series of marijuana smoke-outs at the liberty bell, forchion was worried. "pencil me in jail," he said, knowing he wouldn't have much luck passing court-ordered drug testing.
forchion's argument was simple. since he is rastafarian, smoking marijuana is a religious sacrament. as such, he was protected to do so on federal property thanks to the 1993 religious freedom act. the judge, however, didn’t see things the same way.
less than two months later, however, forchion seems to have caught a break. his motion for a stay of sentence (a plea to the district court to throw out his punishment while he goes through the appeal process) was granted by u.s. district judge stewart dalzell earlier this month.
forchion authored the motion, which cites freedoms provided by the first amendment, attacks u.s. magistrate court judge arnold rapoport (he sentenced forchion and co-defendant patrick duffy), and says he should be exempt from drug testing altogether. in short, the charges and probation conditions represent an unconstitutional religious persecution, maintains forchion.
in his jan. 7 order, dalzell wrote, "because staying forchion's sentence will not endanger the public or seriously undermine any important public interest, the risk of irreparable injury to forchion from being subjected to potentially invalid restraints on his liberty requires us to stay his sentence."
for forchin, this is a massive relief. though he didn't test positive for marijuana once during his probation, he said there was no way he was going to stop smoking the "sacrament."
"it moves my case to court," says forchion. "i don't fight it from a jail cell."
the appeals court is likely to rule within two months. until then, forchion knows what he'll be doing.
rock on, nj weedman.
city paper
