http://www.trentonian.com/opinion/20140806/njweedmans-passing-the-joint-new-jerseys-marijuana-activist-goes-mainstream Over 1.7 million people have read my material on my website, NJweedman.com. But now I'm mainstream – a columnist for The Trentonian. I expect there to be some amount of consternation and criticism directed at me and the editors of The Trentonian for giving me this platform to make my voice heard. So bring it on. Of all the newspapers in New Jersey, The Trentonian has been the most receptive to my cause, and so it makes sense it would be the publication to enable me to reach out to the public like this. For that I'm grateful and yes, I lit up an “illegal†phattie and ate a THC-infused brownie banned by Governor Christie to celebrate. Today, I want to introduce and explain myself to the readership. I want you to understand where I'm coming from and where I'll be going with this “Cannabis Column.†I'm not only a marijuana activist – I'm a black man. I've dealt with the racist aspect of this government-declared war firsthand, and I speak out about it. Background: Little has changed between what I say now and what I said back in 1999 when The Trentonian's Jeff Edelstein first wrote about me. The government's claims of marijuana's harms and dangers are a clear and blatant lie. This lie has been used to imprison millions, mostly those with dark complexions. To me, the drug laws have always been racially driven and enforced no differently than the Jim Crow laws that were enacted after the Civil War. Whites who get arrested are simply collateral damage. I consider this a righteous cause, and to borrow a quote from Malcolm X, it's “By any means necessary.†I've brought discussion to this issue with my methods. Over the years I've initiated plenty of tactics and antics to get media attention and government reaction. Example: Smoking a joint in the State House in front of the entire State Assembly. Like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I also believe in peaceful civil disobedience. (I can't wait to hear the feedback from the black Bible-thumpers about that comment.) I believe cannabis is one of the safest therapeutic substances on the planet and our nation's drugs laws in general - and our marijuana laws specifically - are racist and have been used to fill the prison-industrial complex with brown faces by design. It's no mistake we're nearly four times more likely than whites to be arrested for marijuana, according to an ACLU study. To those who say, “Why don't you just shut up and move out west? Why do you want to write and stir the pot even more? Why even be in New Jersey?†I say I did - in 2007 I moved to Los Angeles and yelled at New Jersey lawmakers from afar. But the DEA raided my legal marijuana business in December of 2011 - at the behest, I believe, of the Christie administration and the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office – putting me out of business, destroying my Hollywood life, and prompting me to come home to New Jersey and renew my fight. Over the years I've confronted our racist drug war with limited resources and tried to raise awareness and support for this cause. Getting to write this column is my greatest activist accomplishment. I'm extremely happy and grateful to The Trentonian for giving me a legitimate mainstream media voice. Expect me to use this column to continue speaking out. Sent from my iPad using Grasscity Forum
keep shining your light. And I think I've seen you in an Adam Kokesh video in a weed related protest in front of the white house or am I wrong?
Your experiences with the DEA brings up a point I have made in these forums before. Until you legalize at the federal level whatever is done in the states is pointless. Especially now that we have our legalized footholds out west, which serves as a see its no big deal and its better to end probation example. To continue the fight at the state level it would be like landing at Omaha, Sword, Gold, Juno, and Utah beaches at Normandy and marching straight to berlin without securing your foothold the enemy can cut you off. All it will take is the wrong president like bush and boom a crack down in Washington state and Colorado, and other states that have MMJ laws. So if you wanted to do a protest of lighting up in front of law makers as a form of protest don't bother in a state specifically New Jersey who has governor for the moment who is committed to keeping MJ illegal. No my brother in hemp, go forth and toke it up in front of the capital or white house, and don't forget to inhale.