You Scratch my Back I’ll Scratch Your…

In what has to be the oddest defense I have ever heard of for pot use, a British man was shown leniency by the courts getting a six month deferral on this sentence to show good behaviour.

Gregor Spalding admitted to cultivating marijuana for consumption in his home. Spalding argued that he was growing the plant to ease chronic pain he has experienced over the past three years, that is not an uncommon defense, in fact it is probably the most common defense used by those caught with marijuana possession. Spalding’s doctor wrote a letter to the court confirming Spalding’s ailment, an itching condition known as pruritus, the doctor also told the courts that Spalding could very well have thought marijuana would ease his condition.

I know most of you are reading this saying “what’s so odd about that, it sounds like the typical defense”, and you’d be right. The difference in this case is his ailment, well more accurately where his pruritus, or extreme itchiness, was, Spalding suffered from extreme crotch itch. My sympathies lie with Mr. Spalding, who had the balls to stand up in court and say “I wouldn’t have grown pot if my crotch didn’t itch so damned much”.