TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - A marijuana advocate dubbed NJ Weedman has been arrested again on marijuana charges after law enforcement raided his restaurant and cannabis temple.
Ed Forchion was arrested Wednesday along with 10 other people after a raid of his business across the street from City Hall, officials said.
Forchion opened a restaurant, NJ Weedman's Joint, and an attached cannabis church last year. He sued Trenton police last month, saying they infringed on his religious rights by shutting down the cannabis temple for staying open too late.
Acting Mercer County prosecutor Angelo Onofri said Thursday that the narcotics task force had received information that Forchion was distributing marijuana and had received complaints from the community about "constant foot traffic in and out of the establishment at all hours."
Police say they found more than 1,100 grams of marijuana, 32 grams of edible marijuana candy, more than a pound of marijuana butter and a jar with $85 in it that said "Nothing is free donate."
Recreational marijuana is illegal in New Jersey.
Forchion wasn't immediately available to comment Thursday. He said last month that many of his 600 congregants gathered in his temple late at night, some to smoke marijuana on a property that includes a large white cross festooned with ornamental marijuana leaves