Need some advice on an ugly rootbound mess!

Hey all,
Got a couple of plants from a buddy a month ago and i'm not sure what to do regarding a problem i'm having. He had never grown before, and vegged a couple clones in the same rubbermaid with nothing seperating the roots. I tried to fix this when I got them but it was such a mess so I just put them into a larger container, smoked a bowl and hoped for the best. Now i'm 5 weeks into flower and the root bound issue is catching up with me. Many leaves are dying daily and this once bushy plant is now very scrawny with puny ass buds! I've lost so many leaves in the last 48 hours.

On to the question:
What to do, what to do?
Stick with the "hope for the best" attitude?
Start flushing and harvest early?
Suggestions????

I have a couple of Jack Herer seeds 2 weeks into veg that I really care about, these were just a practice run anyways. Was hoping to veg for another couple of weeks while the others finished but I have no issues with changing that plan.
Any help would be awesome!

so you had one big plant, took some clones off it, and then planted them in the same pot as the big plant?

Actually while we were looking for a place to plant our outdoor plants on my buddies property, we discovered that somebody was nice enough to plant about 40 clones for us. He took 2 and was growing them in his house until his girl started freaking out......thats when I inherited this rootbound mess.