{"id":3976,"date":"2017-05-04T02:28:53","date_gmt":"2017-05-04T06:28:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/?p=3976"},"modified":"2017-05-04T02:29:32","modified_gmt":"2017-05-04T06:29:32","slug":"couple-wants-medical-marijuana-legalized-on-seaside-heights-boardwalk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/2017\/05\/couple-wants-medical-marijuana-legalized-on-seaside-heights-boardwalk\/","title":{"rendered":"Couple in Viral Video Wants Medical Marijuana Legalized on Seaside Heights Boardwalk"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_3977\" style=\"width: 602px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/grimes.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-0\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"Edward &quot;Lefty&quot; Grimes addresses the Seaside Heights council (right). His friend was smoking medical marijuana on the boardwalk last weekend (left). (Grimes Photo: Daniel Nee)\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3977\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3977\" src=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/grimes.jpg\" alt=\"Edward &quot;Lefty&quot; Grimes addresses the Seaside Heights council (right). His friend was smoking medical marijuana on the boardwalk last weekend (left). (Grimes Photo: Daniel Nee)\" width=\"592\" height=\"479\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/grimes.jpg 592w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/grimes-300x243.jpg 300w, https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/grimes-519x420.jpg 519w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 592px) 100vw, 592px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3977\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Edward &#8220;Lefty&#8221; Grimes addresses the Seaside Heights council (right). His friend was smoking medical marijuana on the boardwalk last weekend (left). (Grimes Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>A couple who posted&nbsp;a video showing Seaside Heights police officers asking them to leave the boardwalk area to smoke medical marijuana told borough officials at a council meeting Wednesday that the substance should, indeed, be allowed along the oceanfront.<\/p>\n<p>Edward &#8220;Lefty&#8221; Grimes, one of the men in the video, adorned a t-shirt with a marijuana leaf on the front and the slogan, &#8220;Don&#8217;t Shoot, I&#8217;m Running Away,&#8221; on the back, took out a bag of medical marijuana before the council members and asked why his friend, who he said suffers from multiple sclerosis, was asked to leave&nbsp;the boardwalk after lighting up a joint at the MS Walk over the weekend.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Flefty.grimes%2Fvideos%2Fvb.100000663454480%2F1547740151924752%2F%3Ftype%3D3&#038;show_text=0&#038;width=400\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" style=\"border:none;overflow:hidden\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowTransparency=\"true\" allowFullScreen=\"true\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Neither Grimes nor his friend, Michele&nbsp;Burrows, were arrested or charged in the incident, in which code enforcement officers called police, who determined that medical marijuana was not allowed in a designated smoking area on the boardwalk.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It\u2019s not the police\u2019s fault, they\u2019re doing what they can,&#8221; Grimes admitted. &#8220;They said they didn\u2019t know where you could use your medical cannabis, but we couldn\u2019t use it on the boardwalk.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The vide showed police officers asking the couple to use their marijuana in a private area, since it was not allowed on the boardwalk.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If she falls down and has a seizure, where do we drag her body to?&#8221; Grimes asked council members. &#8220;It\u2019s about having compassion for sick people.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Borough Attorney Jean Cipriani said the state&#8217;s medical marijuana law, known as the Compassionate Use of Marijuana Act, or CUMA, sets guidelines for the use of the substance that includes a passage which prohibits its use in any &#8220;park, beach or recreation center.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The boardwalk is, in its entirety, a recreation center,&#8221; said Cipriani. &#8220;Borough code states the entire oceanfront and land owned by the municipality upon the oceanfront is in a recreational zone.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Grimes said in a similar incident in Atlantic City, he was told the boardwalk was considered a park.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Without the marijuana, I would not be able to walk your boardwalk,&#8221; Burrows, an MS patient, later said. &#8220;I give you guys business and I love the boardwalk, but without the cannabis, I can\u2019t even walk there.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Cipriani said officials understood the couple&#8217;s position, and may look into future policies that would more clearly set forth where medical marijuana could be used in town.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is really the first time this issue has come before council, and you\u2019ve certainly presented it in a strong way, and it will be considered,&#8221; said Cipriani. &#8220;It\u2019s really a new issue for us.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"fcbkbttn_buttons_block\" id=\"fcbkbttn_left\"><div class=\"fb-share-button fcbkbttn_large_button \" data-href=\"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/2017\/05\/couple-wants-medical-marijuana-legalized-on-seaside-heights-boardwalk\/\" data-type=\"button_count\" data-size=\"large\"><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A couple who posted&nbsp;a video showing Seaside Heights police officers asking them to leave the boardwalk area to smoke medical marijuana told borough officials at a council meeting Wednesday that the substance should, indeed, be allowed along the oceanfront. Edward &#8220;Lefty&#8221; Grimes, one of the men in the video, adorned a t-shirt with a marijuana [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3977,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[18,8,5],"tags":[1109,1108,36,20],"class_list":["post-3976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-police-fire-courts","category-seaside-heights","tag-marijuana","tag-medical-marijuana","tag-seaside-heights-boardwalk","tag-seaside-heights-nj-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/grimes.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgsn9q-128","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}