Peaceful pothead Edward “NJ Weedman” Forchion is using his newly regained freedom to run for New Jersey General Assembly in the Nov. 6 election.
“I think I am popular in the city,” Forchion, 54, said Friday inside his newly reopened NJ Weedman’s Joint restaurant across from Trenton City Hall. “I have the best name recognition of the candidates.”
Indeed, Forchion’s name appears on the ballot as an independent candidate running against incumbent Democratic Assemblywoman Verlina Reynolds-Jackson, who was appointed to the seat earlier this year by a few hundred Democrats.
Forchion, who called himself “Political Prisoner #420,” sat in jail for 447 days before a trial jury found him not guilty of witness tampering on May 24. He had three additional cases pending in Mercer County Superior Court involving drugs and cyberbullying, but the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office lost interest in prosecuting him and dismissed some of his charges and remanded the remaining counts to Trenton Municipal Court in June.