Cannabis is a healing herb to many people. Without the drug I personally know several people who would be dead -- they were suicidal from the headaches/seizures/pain they experienced before. Same with certain psychedelics and cluster headaches.

Ok, that's not the point I'm arguing at all. This is called a strawman argument. You are arguing about the efficacy of cannabis in regards to treatment of potential conditions. I never once brought that up. Please stop being a highschool philosophy star.

You take ibuprofen when you have a headache, right? I vaporize a pinch of cannabis for similar alleviating effects. Is that not medicine?

One is legal, one is not. That is the point I'm making. Your argument here, again, is specious and not at all what I was positing before.

He did not choose to be born into this country under these laws, so no, it's the exact same scenario.

He can move. He can even move to a state where he can smoke pot legally. He can also use legal recourse, of which there are many, for his issues. This is, once more, a dumb argument.

I don't think anyone is arguing against this. But when you (and many others in this thread) posit that he should have not broken the law in the first place, it makes me groan. The risk of jail is worth it to this man and many others because their lives would be that much worse without the drug.

It was worth it to him, and now he's suffering the consequences - so it ended up being his position and his freedom to choose that position that landed him in prison. "It makes me groan" when people don't understand the simple rule: Don't break the law if you're afraid of the repercussions. If you break the law and expect no punishment, then you're naive.