PETER MCWILLIAMS, MEDICAL MARIJUANA ADVOCATE, DIES

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Bestselling self-help book author and medical
marijuana advocate Peter McWilliams has died at his Los Angeles home
as he was awaiting sentencing on federal charges of growing the drug
for sale, friends said Friday. He was 50.

McWilliams, author of "How to Survive the Loss of Love" and the "Life
101" series of self-help books, was found dead in his bathroom on
Wednesday, the friends said. No cause of death was listed but he
suffered from AIDS and Hodgkin's lymphoma. He was scheduled for
sentencing on Aug. 15 and faced five years in federal prison.

The wheelchair-bound McWilliams, who admitted cultivating marijuana
for sale in a 1999 plea agreement with federal prosecutors, gave a
nationally televised speech at the 1998 Libertarian National Convention.

"Peter McWilliams was a true hero who fought and ultimately gave his
life for what he believed in: The right to heal oneself without
government interference," said California Libertarian party chairman
Mark Hinkle said.

"His loss opens a gaping hole in the fabric of liberty, but his memory
will live on not only in the hearts of grateful Libertarians but also
in the lives of countless patients who will take up the crusade for
health freedom."

McWilliams and his co-defendant, 29-year-old Todd McCormick, pleaded
guilty after a judge ruled that they could not use medical necessity
as a defense at trial.

Prosecutors said that the two men were growing the drug for profit and
said McWilliams once said he hoped to become the Bill Gates of
marijuana growing.

McCormick, who was arrested in 1997 after drug agents found more than
4,000 marijuana plants growing at his rented home in the exclusive Los
Angeles enclave of Bel-Air, was sentenced in March to five years in
federal prison. The house was not far from the residence of former
President Ronald Reagan.

According to a biography on his Web site, McWilliams began his career
as an author at the age of 17, writing a series of poetry books that
he self-published, eventually selling four million copies.

He went on to publish the best-selling "Surviving the Loss of Love" in
1971, followed by "The Personal Computer Book" and a series of
self-help books titled "Life 101."