'WEEDMAN' PROTESTS OUTSIDE COURTHOUSE

Ed "Weedman" Forchion, best known for lighting up a joint in the New Jersey
Senate chambers, protested outside the Burlington County courthouse
yesterday because he fears a judge won't let him visit his daughter unless
he renounces his religious beliefs.

Forchion, a Rastafarian, also fears being tossed back in jail for talking
to the press, a risk he said he is prepared to take in order to set the
record straight.

Although his religion advocates smoking marijuana, Forchion said he would
be thrown back in jail if he exercised the ritual.

"They won't let me see my daughter because I advocated legalizing
marijuana," said Forchion, who was released from his incarceration April 3
after serving 18 months at the Riverfront State Prison in Camden for
possession of 25 pounds of pot.

He said he hasn't smoked pot in 20 months.

Yesterday, Forchion passed out over 100 fliers at the courthouse. Only
three people, he said, openly disagreed with his message.

In addition to his allegations that the U.S. legal system discriminates
against Rastafarians, Forchion took the opportunity to launch invectives
against his ex-girlfriend, Linda Holden, the mother of his 6-year-old daughter.

Holden was "a scorned woman," he said.

"The way our relationship broke up ... I admit I blew it, I got caught. And
she has never gotten over it," he said. "Being Mr. Weedman got me. I've
done my time. I got out."

Forchion has been trying for six years to see his daughter, Ajanea
Forchion, who was 5 months old when he broke up with Holden.

He has been married for four years and lives with three other children,
including another 6-year-old.

"Rastafarians are being persecuted," he said. "We are no different than
Falun Gong; they have their kids taken, they are arrested, go to
re-education camps. We are forced to go to NA meetings, Narcotics Anonymous."

Rastafarianism is considered an illegal religion, he said, because of the
war on marijuana, an "an herb, grown by God, that's natural and beneficial.

"The Christians have something against me. The court system is run by
[Christians] ... They can't control what we believe."

Forchion said he is being forced to renounce his religious beliefs so he
can see his daughter.

"You can't take my kid from me for what I believe," he said.