The NJ Weedmobile is no more. Is this legal stealing?

It became almost iconic in the Garden State. The van depicting NJ Weedman Ed Forchion blowing smoke at Uncle Sam. That van is no more. It was seized during a raid back in April and now we learn it's been sent to the crusher.

New Jersey has some of the strictest civil forfeiture laws in the country and Weedman says it is simply legal stealing.

The Institute for Justice thinktank gave New Jersey a D- for our forfeiture laws, especially noting that here the authorities are allowed to seize and keep people's property in the absence of a criminal conviction. Its report claims $72 million in forfeitures by county prosecutors in a five-year period.

Weedman bought the van, a 1986 Ford E-150, from a guy in California for $1,400. He added crazy, colorful murals of marijuana messages and the words "God grown" by paying a famous L.A. graffiti artist $300. That's when he began his cross-country trip to New Jersey to start a new life and the rest is Jersey history.

As is the Weedmobile, history.

Weedman called in to the show today at 3:30 and shed some more light on what was going on. He told Deminski and Doyle that he believes the police went about this the way they did out of spite. He was never informed that he was allowed to retrieve the van, therefore leaving it abandoned so they could destroy it.

— Jeff Deminski

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