FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: BREAKING NEWS!!!
Peter McWilliams Denied AIDS Medication For Four Days!!!
Arraignment On Federal Medical Marijuana
Charges Monday At 8:30 AM, Los Angeles.
JULY 27, 1998 / LOS ANGELES, CA: Writer-Publisher Peter McWilliams is being denied
his AIDS medication while in Federal custody. McWilliams was arrested at his home
at 6:00 AM on July 23, 1998 by seven DEA agents for Federal medical marijuana violations.
McWilliams has not had his AIDS medication since.
“At the Bail Hearing, the Prosecutor, Fernando Aenlle-Rocha, assured the judge I
would receive my AIDS medication.” said McWilliams on Sunday still in Federal Custody.
“I have not.”
McWilliams was diagnosed with AIDS and Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, a result of the AIDS,
in March, 1996. He has been taking the combination therapy of two anti-viral and
one Protease Inhibitors since that time. Medical experts warn that noncompliance
with the six-times-a-day treatment could lead to fatal mutations of the AIDS virus
not treatable by medicine.
McWilliams will be arraigned on nine federal counts, all involving medical marijuana
on Monday, July 27th, 1998 at 8:30 AM before Judge George King.
“Of the three vital components of the combination therapy, I have never been given
one of them.” said McWilliams in a phone interview from the Federal Metropolitan
Detention Center in Los Angeles. “My doctor and every medical report I have read
repeatedly stresses the importance of not missing so much as a single dose. I have
taken my AIDS medication faithfully for 2 and 1/2 years. Now, there is a four day
gap in that life-saving treatment.”
McWilliams has been a vocal advocate of medical marijuana, an outspoken critic of
the Federal policies jailing sick people for treating their illnesses, especially
since the passage of California’s Proposition 215 in 1996.
“The Federal Government has arrested me to silence me.” said McWilliams. “But must
it attempt to murder me as well?”
McWilliams has appeared on CNN, ABC News, TIME, CBS Radio Network, MSNBC, and dozens
of other media advocating medical marijuana. He is the publisher of The Medical Marijuana
Magazine online. McWilliams intends to detail his lack of promised medical treatment
to Judge King at his Monday arraignment.
