ACTIVIST MCWILLIAMS PLEADS GUILTY TO FELONY POT CHARGE

He Agrees To Stop Smoking Marijuana

Medical marijuana activist Steve McWilliams pleaded guilty yesterday to a
felony pot charge, resolving one of a growing number of cases that have
come to symbolize the U.S. government's conflict with California over
Proposition 215.

McWilliams, 48, admitted in San Diego federal court to growing the 25
marijuana plants that drug enforcement agents seized from his front yard in
September.

"I take complete responsibility for my actions," he told a federal judge.
"I plead guilty."

McWilliams' case highlighted the clash between Proposition 215, which
allows ill people in California to grow marijuana, and federal drug laws
that ban pot cultivation. His guilty plea came just days after the San
Diego City Council voted 6-3 to approve guidelines that allow ill people
with their doctor's approval to keep as much as one pound of marijuana to
ease their symptoms.

The guidelines were approved over the objections of Mayor Dick Murphy and
Police Chief David Bejarano after a seven-hour public hearing.

Immediately after McWilliams' court appearance, the top drug enforcement
agent in San Diego said the guilty plea shows that people will continue to
be punished for violating federal law despite the conflicting state law.

Michael Vigil, the special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement
Administration's San Diego office, said the case "sends a very strong
message to those individuals who feel that they have a safe haven under
Proposition 215. They're going to have to come to grips with the fact that
there is no safe haven."

In a written statement, U.S. Attorney Carol Lam echoed the DEA, saying the
plea "underscores the fact that marijuana is not recognized as a medicine
under federal law and it cannot legally be grown, used or possessed
anywhere in the United States."

McWilliams, who started smoking pot to relieve pain from injuries he
sustained in a 1986 car crash, read a different message from his case.

"Authorities want to strike fear in the hearts of ordinary people by going
after activists like me," he said.

McWilliams, a former member of the task force that pushed for the city's
guidelines, is known for having smoked pot on the steps of City Hall.

But as one condition of his release after his arrest, McWilliams agreed to
stop smoking pot. He is now taking Marinol, a pill designed to simulate the
analgesic properties of marijuana, and is undergoing regular drug testing.

Vigil would not comment on whether his agency wants McWilliams to serve
time in prison. Prosecutors also declined to say what kind of sentence they
will recommend.

But based on the number of plants he admitted to growing, McWilliams is
likely to receive no more than six months in prison. His attorney, David
Zugman, said he will ask for probation.

As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors agreed to drop a separate felony
count against him.

If McWilliams had gone to trial and had been convicted of the two felony
charges, he would have faced five to 40 years in prison.

The plea agreement also allows him to ask the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals to hear his legal challenge to medical marijuana prosecutions.
Usually when a defendant agrees to plead guilty, the government requires
that all appeals be dropped. But in an unusual concession to the defense,
federal prosecutors will allow McWilliams to continue his appeal.

Even if McWilliams doesn't serve prison time, he is likely to be placed on
supervised probation for up to three years.

The outcome in McWilliams' case contrasts with the results of another
federal case against an Oakland medical marijuana activist.

Edward Rosenthal went to trial and was convicted by a jury last week of pot
growing charges. He now faces up to 85 years in prison.

McWilliams will learn his fate at his April 28 sentencing hearing before
U.S. District Judge James Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald occasionally travels from his court in Alaska to help San Diego
federal judges with their court docket. He was part of a unanimous 1975
Alaska Supreme Court ruling that concluded marijuana was such a relatively
harmless substance that the state had no business penalizing adults who
wanted to possess it in private.

In 1990, Alaskans voted to re-criminalize pot. Two years ago, however, they
voted to legalize medical marijuana.