This one is going to fall into the category of witnessing, so bear with me.
My views towards the War on Drugs tend to fall towards a Libertarian bend. I believe that War on Drugs is useless at best, counterproductive at worst. One of the worst aspects is that it confuses the genuine crime of physically harming another person with the completely understandable act of trying to preserve a life.
Medical marijuana laws have been passed in California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and (I think) Arizona. They provide for the necessity of using marijuana to treat nausea and nausea related illnesses. They aren’t intended to let people use pot indescriminantly, but - with varying degrees of success - let people with a genuine medical need use a prohibited substance to help them stay alive. When it comes to AIDS and cancer related nausea, the use of medical marijuana has been hailed by some as a life saver.
Peter McWilliams is one of those that has done some hailing. He’s a published writer of 30 books who was diagnosed with AIDS and non-Hodgekins lymphoma a few years ago. The cancer was cured with chemotherapy, and the AIDS was fought off with anti-viral medication. The trouble with these two treatments is that they provoke a level of nausea that sometimes makes it impossible to continue treatment. Peter McWilliams, on learning of the anti-nausea properties of pot, tried it and found that it helped. And he made some noise about it.
The trouble is, McWilliams may have made a little too much noise, or gone about doing it in the wrong way. He is extremely Libertarian in his views, and he published some articles that were critical of the federal government and its policies towards drugs. Well, critical is putting it lightly. He also funded another medical marijuana advocate’s research into different strains of cannabis with the idea that the advocate would write a book that McWilliams would publish.
The federal government stepped in with charges that he conspired to manufacture, possess, and distribute marijuana. He was arrested and put in jail on $250,000 bail. His mother and brother put up that bail in the form of their houses. What they couldn’t cover a friend did by putting up cash.
The courts ruled that the medical necessity of smoking marijuana to relieve his nausea - while completely legitimate - could not be used as a defense. The state law which allowed him to use marijuana could not be used either. Neither could the fact that the federal government currently funds a medical marijuana study for eight people.
As McWilliams never denied growing marijuana or intending to distribute it to other patients who needed it medicinally, he had no defense. In order to avoid a minimum sentence of 10 years in a federal penitientiary (the equivalent of a death sentence for someone with AIDS), McWilliams has plead guilty to a lesser charge of conspiring to commit an offense against the United States government.
The sentencing guidelines for that crime are 0 - 5 years. McWilliams is hoping that he can convince the judge to sentence him to electronic monitoring in his own home. To do that, he needs the voices of many others added to his own, so he’s put out an appeal.
Here’s my witnessing: Please, stop by his site at www.petertrial.com and read the history of this case. If you agree with his cause, write a letter on his behalf to the presiding judge. If ever there were a miscarriage of justice and an outright attempt to silence one of the most vocal critics of the federal government’s War on Drugs, this is it.
Thanks for listening. I’ll shut up now.
