A New Jersey man and former M.D. pleaded guilty yesterday to possessing 58 marijuana plants in his Chatham home. Edwin Struve, 63, admitted that he began growing them in 1968 after a stint in the army, and that he was "not getting much done" because he was smoking "30 joints a day." We'd venture that Cheech himself would have trouble getting the paper at that rate.
Police found the plants after neighbors notified them of Struve's strange behavior and later smelled marijuana when paying a visit to his house. Struve's attorney claimed that his client therapeutically used cannabis to "relieve the effects of glaucoma and mild brain damage…suffered after being manually choked by police in Mississippi years ago." (Suuure, the old "strangled by cops in Mississppi" excuse.) Struve did admit he was "not getting much done."
Morris County prosecutors, perhaps in light of evidence that there's something to Struve's self-medication, have agreed to a deal that would release him on five years probation provided he takes medication and sees a therapist. Struve would be only the second person in the county to be offered such a deal; strange considering that we ended the War on Drugs long ago.
