I don't understand why...

So a guy with Multiple Sclerosis in New Jersey was just sentenced to 5 years for growing his own marijuana plants for pain relief. He couldn't afford the medicine that was less effective.

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Yes, New Jersey has passed the medical marijuana act, but it doesn't take effect until the end of the year. And I know that he committed a crime and it makes perfect sense to lock someone up with MS at the cost of $50,000 per year and the state will pay for his medicines that are too expensive. Fine, if the state of New Jersey decides this is the right thing to do, who am I to argue with them.

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But here is my question in whole thing.

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The article says that the guy couldn't mention why he was growing it at trial - or even that he had MS. Why?

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I mean if you can use self-defense as a reason in court for killing someone why can't you use self-defense as a reason for growing pot? The MS was definately causing him harm and he had a reasonable fear that it would lead to worse harm.

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As for the alternatives, phfttt....Mark was given marinol - which is a pill form of Marijuana's active ingredients, but it was worthless. For him, he couldn't digest food. So, duh, he couldn't keep the pill down or if it stayed down couldn't keep it in him long enough to do any good. That is why Marijuana worked when smoked . It didn't have to be digested. The alternative was IV feedings twice a day at a cost of over $2400 per day versus a little pot.

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Again, I am not arguing the law, but I don't understand why the circumstances couldn't be noted. They were definitely relevant to why he was growing. PS - they did not find him guilty of having a factory, only of growing pot - but more than 10 plants. I guess the minimum sentence there is 5 years.

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It is a huge cost to the state of New Jersey I think.