Marijuana Blog

Considering that symptoms ranging from trouble sleeping to slight appetite loss can be grounds for obtaining a medical marijuana prescription in Washington, William Kurtz's hereditary spastic paraplegia that left him wheelchair-bound should have been a shoe in for a weed 'script. Unfortunately, Kurtz forgot to actually get the prescription before he got caught with 42 pot plants in his house.

The Olympian reports Thursday that despite a spirited fight by Kurtz's lawyers to prove that the crippled man needed the pot for his medical condition, Thurston County Superior Court Judge Carol Murphy wasn't having it. She prevented the defense from presenting evidence like a doctor's note that said his condition was indeed pot worthy, because it wasn't obtained until after he got popped for the plants back in March.

She fined the 58-year-old Olympia man $4,000 and sentenced him to 20 days of home confinement.

Prosecutors had no evidence that Kurtz was growing the weed for anything other than smoking it himself. And Washington state law allows prescriptions to be written for conditions including "multiple sclerosis and other spasticity disorders."

Still, even if he had the prescription, the law also says that patients can only have up to 15 plants at a time, unless they can prove they need more. 

Kurtz's lawyers appear to be confident that their "he could have had a license, he just never got around to it" defense will exonerate him upon appeal.

No word if they'll let Kurtz avoid paying them their legal fees until after he wins as well.

(Source: seattleweekly.com)