THERAPEUTIC DRUG DENIED

On June 14, California author and medical marijuana patient Peter
McWilliams died. A sufferer of both cancer and AIDS, McWilliams had used
marijuana to ease the nausea created by the medications he was taking.
Without the pot, he was not capable of holding down food nor medicine.

McWilliams was a bestselling author and a prisoner in the war on drugs. He
had been awaiting sentencing in federal court on charges stemming from his
support of medical marijuana. He had been denied the use of marijuana by
the judge, George S. King. Not only was this very sick man denied the use
of truly life-saving medication, he was forced to undergo frequent
urinalysis to make sure no illegal herb was consumed. His mother's home had
been mortgaged to pay his bail. His failure to take or pass a drug screen
would have put him in jail for violating the conditions of his release and
cost his mother her home.

McWilliams had been denied the right to use the suffering caused by his
cancer and AIDS and California's Proposition 215 (medical marijuana) in his
defense in federal court. Judge King, federal prosecutors, President
Clinton and others are responsible for his death.

Is pig-headed obstinacy effective governing? Is the denial of use of
life-saving medication by a prisoner of war not a violation of the Geneva
Convention?

McWilliams died after choking on his own vomit - vomiting that could have
been prevented had he been allowed the use of the one thing that allowed
his other medicines to be effective: marijuana.

And, of course, there was not a word of his passing to be found in the
pages of The Register-Guard.