First Florida jury acquits marijuana grower on medical need
A Broward County jury acquitted 50-year-old Jesse Teplicki on 2 March 2015 of manufacturing cannabis, accepting that the 46 plants he grew at his Hollywood home were medical necessity for his severe anorexia. He was reportedly the first Florida defendant to put a medical-need defence to a jury.
🇺🇸 Hollywood, Broward County, Florida · Florida, United States
Jesse Teplicki, 50, grew 46 marijuana plants at his Hollywood home and hid nothing when detectives arrived on a tip about two years before the trial, telling them the cannabis was medicine for the severe anorexia he had suffered since age nine.[1]He took the stand at trial and admitted smoking a marijuana cigarette that morning for nausea and suppressed appetite, saying pills did not work because he could not keep them down.[1][2]He told the court he grew so many plants at once only because he grows once a year.[2]
Manufacturing cannabis was a felony punishable by up to five years in prison, and Teplicki had rejected several plea offers while calling the plant medicine he needs to function.[1]Prosecutor Kathleen O’Brien attacked his medical history and the high plant count, saying he had no treatment plan and outdated records.[2]The jury of four women and two men deliberated less than an hour before acquitting him, the first medical-need acquittal by a Florida jury.[1]A tearful Teplicki told three jurors who stayed behind: “You saved my life.”[1]
Case data
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The Sun-Sentinel published a photograph of Teplicki outside the courtroom, but its direct image address could not be recovered, so it is not listed as media.
The opened sources do not say how Teplicki obtained cannabis after the acquittal, which changed no law.
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