Ed "NJWeedman" Forchion faces a hearing about his immediate future on Tuesday, March 12, for probation violation.
Phillyburbs.com, who seems to follow Forchion's fortunes more closely than anyone else, reported that two weeks after his probation no-show the Weedman was tracked down, arrested and jailed without bail for failure to report for probation.
Libertarian News Examiner received a snail mail letter from Forchion from behind the bars at the Burlington County Jail in Mt. Holly, New Jersey after snaking its way through a friend and a forwarding service.
In it Forchion claims his current incarceration is the result of a "miscommunication."
The background on Forchion is this: After being arrested in April 2010 for possession with intent to distribute marijuana, convicted on the possession charge with a hung jury on the distribution charge in May 2012, and acquitted via jury nullification when retried on the distribution charge in October 2012, Forchion appeared for sentencing on the possession conviction on January 16, 2013 and was ordered to register for probation.
Forchion explained his distress in his own hand-printed ink-and-paper shorthand this way:
"On 1/16 I made an error – I had motioned for a stay of sentence – judge denied. I planned to file motion of reconsideration on 2/6 and didn't report to probation. Miscalculation on my part. – miscommunication but I wasn't fleeing and this jailing keeping me from medical attention is a violation of my human rights as well as my constitutional rights to medical attention."
The medication he refers to is his marijuana which he uses to treat painful cancerous bone tumors in his legs.
("OVERKILL!!! that can kill me" he writes in his letter.)
This is a valid legal point.
The "New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act" (pdf) opens with the statement, "The Legislature finds and declares that: Modern medical research has discovered a beneficial use for marijuana in treating or alleviating the pain or other symptoms associated with certain debilitating medical conditions, as found by the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine in March 1999."
"From the beginning of this case," Forchion tells Libertarian News Examiner, "it was a medical marijuana case but Prosecutor Luciano fought to keep it a criminal case, fighting to keep N.J. medical marijuana laws out."
Forchion then paraphrases the Supreme Court ruling that "Constitutional Rights don't end at prison walls."
Forchion faces another 18-month sentence at his hearing Tuesday for probation violation.
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