NJ MS Patient Will Remain in Prison During Appeal of Pot Conviction
By Mike Meno
The New Jersey man who was sentenced to five years in prison last month for growing marijuana plants to treat his multiple sclerosis will now remain jailed while he appeals his conviction.
John Wilson has maintained that he grew marijuana for personal use only to treat his illness. Throughout most of his trial, a judge prevented Wilson from mentioning his condition, even after New Jersey became the 14th state in the nation to pass a medical marijuana law. On Friday, that same judge—State Superior Court Judge Robert Reed—ruled that Wilson cannot go free on bail until his appeal is decided.
Two state senators are asking New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to pardon Wilson, calling the decision to bring charges against the 37-year-old “cruel, unusual and unnecessary."
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Boy can you tell Don knows nothing about pulling a crop,
"John Wilson, 37, who was sentenced to five years in prison last week for growing 17 marijuana plants and psilocybin mushrooms in his backyard."
http://gothamist.com/2010/03/25/jailed_marijuana_grower_with_ms_get.php
This site gives .75 to 1.25 pounds per plant:
http://www.cedro-uva.org/lib/harrison.cannabis .04.html
Apparently, poor John needed on the order of 20 pounds of marijuana for his MS. I don't know about New Jersey, but most places that's WAY beyond distribution weight . And, of course, that still doesn't explain the mushrooms.
Bye-bye John. If you can't do the time, don't do the crime .
John Wilson had a total of 17 marijuana plants but only one plant had therapeutically useful buds on it. (I saw the state police photos .) That plant might have produced about a pound of bud, but when it was dried for use, the weight would have been considerably less. But tell me, if you weighed over 250 pounds, and had to produce enough medicine in an outdoor garden in New Jersey to last you all year, how many plants would you grow? Remember, your MS had already produced severe pain, weakness, and near blindness in one eye. How many plants would you grow? John grew 17.
Five years is practically a death sentence for John Wilson. I guarantee, if he does the full five years, they will be carrying him out of prison . He won't walk out.
What an outrage--depriving a sick man of his medicine, and making him suffer in prison, because he tried to grow some plants to treat his illness.
These laws are sick.
I don't really know about the single psilocybin mushroom that John had. Perhaps John figured if the federal government was willing to lie about the medical benefits of marijuana, they may well be lying about mushrooms too. John had no health insurance . He was also allowing live bees to sting him as part of his therapy for MS. Maybe you think he should be locked up for that, too.