HAMILTON — Monday afternoon in Hamilton’s Veterans Park, Don DeZarn lit up a joint to protest the nation’s drug laws; he also wants to represent New Jersey’s 14th district in the state Senate.

DeZarn pulled the joint, which he said was marijuana, out of his sock after speaking to reporters for 15 minutes on his views on drug laws, property taxes, school choice and open government.

He was aware of the illegality; in the press release announcing the bit of civil disobedience, he said “Yes, I will be firing one up in public. Hopefully you will be able to run a story on Tuesday titled ‘State Senate candidate arrested at press conference.’”

No police officers showed up, but DeZarn spoke about his views on the drug, which he thinks should be legalized and regulated in the same way that alcohol and cigarettes are.

“Who is this for? This is for all of my brothers and sisters who are being held prisoners of war by our government as a result of our war on drugs,” he said after taking his second hit.

DeZarn is running on the Libertarian Party ticket against Democratic Sen. Linda Greenstein and Republican Former Sen. Peter Inverso. Greenstein has held the seat since 2010. He said he came to his views on marijuana after seeing the way the government handled drug enforcement spending.

“It’s just something that I see as a tremendous waste of taxpayer money,” he said. “It’s complete insanity that we spend that type of money when there are far worse things out there. ... There isn’t really a good reason for it to be illegal in my mind.”

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