MS Patient on Trial in New Jersey - a Caregiver's Perspective

by Jim Miller, Board of Advisors, Patients Out of Time

 John Wilson knew in advance that he wouldn't be able to mention at his trial that he has multiple sclerosis or that he used marijuana to treat it's symptoms. The first degree charge against him of maintaining a drug manufacturing facility, for growing 17 plants, could have landed him in prison for 20 years. Still, he wasn't allowed to even mention that he was sick in any way, lest the jury figure out that the marijuana he grew was to be used as medicine for him.

It reminded me of when I was on trial in DC Superior Court in 1999 for occupying congressman Bob Barr's Longworth office with my late wife Cheryl Miller and the rest of our "Commando Squad". I wasn't allowed to tell the jury that we did what we did in response to Barr's roadblocks to medical marijuana implementation in DC. When Ed Rosenthal's jury wasn't allowed to hear that he was commissioned by the city of Oakland to grow the marijuana he was found guilty of possessing, they held a press conference to express their outrage.

But John knew in advance that his jury would not hear any testsimony concerning his multiple sclerosis and medical marijuana, and CMMNJ and NORML NJ would not let that advantage go unused. We all know that it isn't a level playing field when it comes to securing medical marijuana rights for Americans. The key is to find where you can play, and then to show up. We had the right to show up before the potential jury pool would arrive for their December 14, 9:00 AM call to duty. We had the right to hold signs that said "John Wilson is a medical marijuana patient, not a criminal" and "Shhh...medical marijuana is a secret from John's jury", as well as "A jury can disregard an unjust law". There is only one way into Somerset County Courthouse, past the metal detector just inside the front door. By 8:20 AM potential jurors were lined up outside the door in groups of up to a dozen, while six of us faced them from about fifty feet away, silently holding our signs above our heads. We were all they had to look at, and look they did.

 Multiple sclerosis patient Chuck Kwiatkowski arrived with his father at 7:00 AM to ensure that nobody would get in without knowing that John has MS. The bulk of the potential jurors had a half dozen signs to read as they arrived. By 10:00 there were 38 people outside helping ensure that John would have as fair a trial as possible.

TV Coverage - WPVI - Philadelphia, PA - December 14, 2009

The second day we had a skeleton crew of six people there by 8:00 AM and felt that our job was done by 10:00 AM. The potential jurors were already inside, having again seen our signs on their way in, and I had a some work waiting for me an hour and a half away. The jury selection process was supposed to take at least three days if there was to be an effort to seat jurors who had not seen informational signs on their way in. It turned out that the prosecution didn't want to take that kind of time, and decided to opt for asking jurors if they felt that they could ignore the signs that they had already seen and render a verdict independent of what they had read. I was home for less than half an hour when I got the call. Jury selection was complete and John's trial would start at 1:30 PM. Most of his family and friends were not there, thinking the trial wouldn't start so soon. I returned along with Chuck and added the "unfair trial in progress" sign to the mix as we took turns going inside and coming back out to hold an appropriate sign. At that time it didn't look good. I was standing with John and his lawyer James Wronko during a break when Wronko brought up the possibility of not having John testify in his own defense, in light of the constraints. John sighed heavily and shut his eyes at the prospect.

Day three began the same as the first two for me. I arived at the courthouse at 7:50 AM to find Chuck already holding a sign, in case any of John's jurors came early on this fridgid morning. With temperatures in the teens and 20 plus mile per hour winds, having warm hands and holding a sign became mutually exclusive. It looked like the trial might even end before the day's end. I had lunch with John and his brother, mother, father, grandmother, and a couple of other friends that day. It was somber, but with an anticipation of the decision that John would in fact take the stand in his own defense after lunch.

There weren't many moves left to make. I was back outside the courtroom keeping the passing public informed of the proceedings when we got the word. John had actually been allowed to mention that he had MS during his testimony. It happened after lengthy sidebars, but John was allowed to address earlier testimony from one of the arresting officers who said that he didn't recall what John had told him during the arrest. John did recall though. That was when he told the officer that he had multiple sclerosis.

Now the jury knew what the signs were saying was true. They finally got to hear that John has MS after obvious lengthy prosecutorial dissent. Our signs were no longer necessary. Although I had to work the fourth and final day of the trial if I wanted to keep my job, Chuck tells me that he could hear the jury in the courtroom during deliberations. "Don't you realize how many people are sick"?! In the end, John's trial was about medical marijuana whether the prosecution liked it or not. John was found not guilty of the most serious charge, and the gubernatorial pardon of the first degree charge of maintaining a drug manufacturing facility, sought for John by two NJ state senators, is no longer necessary.

John Wilson's sentencing of the lesser charges that he admitted to in court can still get him 5 years in prison. CMMNJ will now turn our attention to getting MS patients as well as their family members to write to Judge Reed telling him not just how marijuana helps their symptoms of MS, but also how not having marijuana affects them. In a best case scenario that will be part of John's sentence. Multiple sclerosis will have a field day with him, assuming that drug testing will be part of his sentence and he won't be able to use marijuana until he is out of the system. Having watched my wife suffer with the pain and spasticity of MS when I couldn't get her marijuana I know how important it is for someone with MS to not go without it. I know how important it is to family members as well. Most of all I know how important it is that we do not let them fend for themselves. Stay tuned to CMMNJ.org to see what you can do to help.

Jim Miller, co-founder and president of CMMNJ
Board of Advisors, Patients Out of Time
Board of Advisors, NORML NJ

From the Archives:

Jim Miller addressed our Third Clinical Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics held in Charlottesville, VA in May of 2004, followed by Dr. Denis Petro, an expert in multiple sclerosis. Here are their complete presentations on video:

Multiple Sclerosis and Medical Cannabis, with Jim Miller -
Husband of MS patient Cheryl Miller, Jim tells their story of love, suffering and activism, from first learning of marijuana's efficacy to pressuring members of Congress. After Cheryl's passing, Jim and other MS patients formed the Multiple Sclerosis Patients Union - www.mspu.org

Multiple Sclerosis & Medical Cannabis, Denis Petro, MD -
Dr. Petro, Consulting Neurologist and drug researcher, looks at history of medical marijuana use in Multiple Sclerosis and spasticity, recent trials using Cannabinoids and Cannabis extracts to treat MS and prospects for approval in the U.S.