December 17, 2009 – A judge reversed course today, allowing a man on trial for possession of 17 marijuana plants that he was growing during the summer of 2008 to testify about his medical condition.

Judge Robert Reed had earlier ruled that defendant John Ray Wilson could not present a defense based on this medical condition.

But then, after taking the stand in his own defense today, and after multiple conferences among the lawyers and the judge, Wilson was allowed to say “I told them(the arresting officers) I was not a drug dealer and I was using the marijuana for my MS(Multiple Sclerosis).”

Whatever the legal maneuvering defense attorney James Wronko did to get that admitted, it is critical for the medical marijuana movement, advocates said.

“I think it carried weight, even though it was one sentence. I’m sure the jury heard he had MS today,” said Chris Goldstein of the Coalition for Medical Marijuana in New Jersey.

But no followup was allowed. There was no chance to expand on Wilson’s claim of MS, and Judge Reed made clear there will not be as the trial goes to closing arguments on Thursday in the Somerset County Courthouse.

Wilson faces up to 20 years on the drug manufacturing charge, much to the frustration of medical marijuana advocates.

“These(laws) were intended for cocaine kingpins and heroin dealers, not for an MS patient growing 17 cannabis plants for his own personal use,” said the Coalition’s Miller.

It remains to be seen if Wilson’s reference to MS will have any influence with the jury. Police do say he never denied growing the marijuana when they came to his house on August 18th, 2008 after a National Guard helicopter spotted the plants from the air.

When they searched his home, they also found two sandwich bags of pot, along with another small bag of what turned out to be illegal, hallucinogenic mushrooms.

If Wilson is convicted, two sympathetic state senators want Governor Jon Corzine to pardon him before Corzine leaves office January 19th. Those two senators, Nicholas Scutari and Ray Lesniak, are also leading an effort in the lame duck legislature to pass a Medical Marijuana law before Republican Chris Christie takes office that day. Although Christie has said he supports Medical Marijuana, it is not clear he would approve the current version before the legislature.

Doses of cannabis might help multiple sclerosis (MS) patients subdue their body spasms and move about more easily, according to a new review of recent studies. However, the authors of the paper note, the patients’ apparent relief could also be a matter of perception.

After reviewing six trials that tested the effects of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) extracts on muscle spasms in a total of 481 MS patients, the authors found “evidence that combined THC and CBD extracts may provide therapeutic benefit.”

In five of the six double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trials the researchers analyzed, cannabis-taking patients reported decreases in their spasms. “The subjective experience of symptom reduction was generally found to be significant,” wrote the authors, based at the Global Neuroscience Initiative Foundation in Los Angeles. However, the authors conceded, “participants of both active and placebo trials may not be entirely blind to their treatment status, and this may affect subjective analysis.”

So despite the promising patient reports, MS patients might not get a green light for this treatment just yet. “Objective measures of spasticity failed to provide significant changes,” the authors concluded in the paper, published online Wednesday in the journal BMC Neurology.

Cannabinoids have, however, been shown to offer neuro-protective benefits for MS patients by quelling inflammation through regulation of microglial cells’ cytokine levels, and animal studies have revealed antispastic effects of the chemicals.

One MS patient in New Jersey has been using the drug to treat his symptoms. “It definitely helps for the pain,” John Ray Wilson told The Wall Street Journal on Monday. Wilson, however, is facing felony drug charges for growing pot plants because the state does not currently permit the use of medicinal marijuana. State lawmakers are close to changing that, which would make New Jersey residents—like those of more than a dozen other states—off limits to federal prosecution if they follow local medical marijuana laws (per a U.S. Deputy Attorney General announcement in October). Both the New Jersey Academy of Family Physicians and the New Jersey State Nurses Association have announced support for the bill, which outgoing Governor Jon Corzine has promised to sign if it passes, the Journal reported.

The obvious intoxicating side effects of THC treatment have been a concern for both regulators and researchers. The authors of the recent paper, however, noted that a mixture of THC and CBD can limit psychotropic effects. In any case, they found that for the MS patients in the studies at least, “side effects from combined extracts of THC and CBD were generally well tolerated.” Source.