>Sender: >To: >X-Original-Message-ID: <027e01bf1e6f$66639a70$9acf69cf@pacbell.net> >From: "Peter McWilliams" >Subject: Boston Globe on me >Date: Sun, 24 Oct 1999 15:30:39 -0700 >X-Mozilla-Status: 9001 >X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 > > >Pubdate: Sat, 23 Oct 1999 >Source: Boston Globe (MA) >Copyright: 1999 Globe Newspaper Company. >Page: Front Page >Contact: letter@globe.com >Address: P.O. Box 2378, Boston, MA 02107-2378 >Feedback: http://extranet1.globe.com/LettersEditor/ >Website: http://www.boston.com/globe/ >Author: Lynda Gorov, Globe Staff >Cited: Peter McWilliams http://www.petertrial.com/ >http://www.mcwilliams.com/ > >US PROSECUTES CANCER PATIENT OVER MARIJUANA > >By now, vomiting is second nature to Peter McWilliams. He has no shame >about it. Sometimes he even sees the humor in it. > >McWilliams, 50, still laughs about the time he leaned over a trash can at a >political convention, lost his lunch in front of strangers, then casually >wiped his mouth with a cocktail napkin before continuing the conversation. >The other day, at his home high in the Hollywood Hills, he simply shrugged >when he returned from retching in the bathroom. > >''You get used to vomiting,'' he said. ''You get used to anything, I >suppose. But it's insane that anyone has to go through this.'' > >McWilliams, who has AIDS and cancer that is in remission, said he and his >doctor know the solution to his suffering: medical marijuana. He said he >knows from experience that it helps him keep down the powerful drugs he >needs to survive and the food he needs to keep up his strength. Without it, >the book publisher and best-selling author fears he will die. > >But for more than a year, McWilliams has been barred from smoking marijuana >while he awaits trial on a variety of marijuana-related charges. He says he >was growing it for his own consumption, and had not used it for more than >20 years until he became ill. Federal prosecutors charge that he was >conspiring to sell it along with his codefendants, all of them users of >medical marijuana. > >Either way, McWilliams's situation underscores the ongoing conflict between >the state and federal governments over the use of marijuana by patients >with AIDS, cancer, or chronic pain - despite some medical studies and much >anecdotal evidence showing its palliative benefits. > >California voters became the first to approve medical marijuana for >patients with a doctor's approval in November 1996 - the same year >McWilliams discovered a lump in his neck and learned he had non-Hodgkin's >lymphoma and AIDS. Washington followed last fall, and several states are >considering similar measures. But the federal government maintains that the >sale or distribution of marijuana remains illegal under all circumstances. > >''The laws against medical marijuana are crazy in the first place,'' said >state Senator John Vasconcellos, a Democrat who has led the charge to >legalize medical marijuana and keep it legal in California. ''But to say >that people who are dying of cancer and AIDS can't relieve their pain is >awful. By denying Peter McWilliams the right to smoke marijuana while he's >out on [$250,000] bail, they're denying him life.'' > >McWilliams's trial is still a month away. For now, he is mostly confined to >his home, relying on friends to bring him the milk he gulps by the glassful >and the honey-roasted peanuts he eats by the fistful because they do not >make him nauseated. > >Unable to work, McWilliams finds his Prelude Press bordering on bankruptcy. >Unable to walk even short distances, he uses a wheelchair for court >appearances. The other day, his face dripping sweat, he nodded off in the >hallway while inside the courtroom where his hearing was being postponed. > >Of the first time he smoked marijuana after chemotherapy, McWilliams said, >''I had this epiphany: 'Oh my God, this stuff really works.' Then I got >mad, furious, thinking about all the millions of cancer patients who this >could be helping.'' > >Repeatedly turned down by a federal judge who says he cannot authorize >someone to break the law, McWilliams now hopes a federal appellate court, >which recently ruled that seriously ill people should be allowed to use >medical marijuana, will give him access to the only drug that he has found >to keep his nausea under control. Other defendants in federal marijuana >cases are expected to mount similar appeals based on the US 9th Circuit >Court of Appeals decision. > >To federal prosecutors, however, McWilliams's case has nothing to do with >medical marijuana and everything to do with a drug ring, regardless of why >the defendants were growing the plants or who was using them. McWilliams is >accused of masterminding the plot, in part because of the $120,000 that >McWilliams says he paid codefendant Todd McCormick, a medical marijuana >patient and researcher, to write two books on the subject. If convicted, >they could face life in prison. > >''We all admit to what we've done,'' said McWilliams, who previously bought >marijuana on the black market or at the cannabis clubs that had sprung up >around California after the passage of the law known as Proposition 215. > >''We all grew marijuana; we all used marijuana,'' he continued. ''The 300 >plants I had were my own personal stash ... Todd was studying which strains >work best for which types of illnesses. I mean all his plants were >labeled.'' > >But federal prosecutors say that is no defense. In fact, they do not want >the defendants to be able to introduce a medical-necessity defense, discuss >the benefits of marijuana, or even mention Proposition 215 to jurors. Both >sides are scheduled to argue their positions next week before US District >Court Judge George King. > >''The way that I characterize this case is that it involves a conspiracy to >conduct a commercial marijuana-growing operation involving more than 6,000 >plants at four separate growing sites,'' said Thom Mrozek, spokesman for >the US Attorney's Office in Los Angeles, which is handling the case. ''It >doesn't matter where they were going to sell it. It doesn't matter if they >say, `I'm doing this to save my life.' It's illegal to manufacture or >cultivate marijuana under federal law.'' > >If prosecutors succeed in keeping those issues out of court, McWilliams's >attorney, Thomas Bollanco, said the defendants may as well head straight to >prison. Without medical necessity, they have no case. > >''We're going to be left unable to answer to the charges because we can >only answer with what's true, and what's true is that these guys were >motivated by their medical needs and Prop 215,'' said Bollanco, who >recently lost a federal jury trial in Sacramento in which the judge refused >to allow a medical necessity defense. > >Yet even on a state level, the answer to the medical marijuana debate >remains murky. Lacking clear-cut guidelines, law enforcement officials in >some jurisdictions actively pursue arrests, others tend to look the other >way. Last year, a task force including advocates and opponents worked to >craft a compromise. This year, the resulting bill was tabled. Faced with >federal opposition, California Governor Gray Davis has resisted giving it >his approval. > >But California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, unlike his predecessor, >appears to favor the voters' decision to allow the use of medical >marijuana, although he has called Prop 215 poorly written and open to too >much interpretation. This month, he urged US Attorney General Janet Reno to >let the appellate court ruling stand. > >Possibly turned off by the number of marijuana plants involved - or by >McWilliams' admitted eccentricities - few have rallied around his case and >some have turned against him. He insisted he is hurt but not angry or >surprised by his isolation. After his arrest, McWilliams spent almost a >month in jail until he could raise the money to post bail. > >''I am the representative of all the sick people and what they are doing to >me is only the worst case right now, but there will be others,'' McWilliams >said. ''I am living on borrowed time anyway. I owe this part of my life to >luck and modern medical science. But I can't imagine what the rest of it >will be like if they won't let me use medical marijuana.'' >__________________________________________________________________________ > > > >================================================================ > >This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to > the mailing list . >To unsubscribe, E-mail to: