NO BUTS ABOUT IT, DRUG HYSTERIA BURNED A GOOD MAN

Four years ago, having decided to take a chance and pursue a longtime dream,
I was seized with self-doubts and fear.

I overcame those fears after I blundered into "Do It! Lets Get Off Our
Buts," a book co-authored by John-Roger and Peter McWilliams.

The title comes from the human tendency to let the word "but" get in the way
of our dreams. "I want to start a business, but ...", "I've always wanted to
study architecture, but ..."

Reading the book, I discovered those self-doubts and fears were normal for
anyone about to step out of his life's box and do something exciting.

The book taught how to convert those fears into positive energy and made a
huge difference in my decision to pursue the dream, which became a
life-changing adventure.

It was not until later that I discovered Peter McWilliams, author and owner
of a small publishing company, was a dangerous terrorist.

Two years after "Do It!" hit the shelves, McWilliams published a little book
called "Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do: The Absurdity of Consensual
Crimes in Our Free Country." This made him a bad guy to the Federal Drug
Administration, whose agents later told him the book had been found on the
shelves of every drug dealer they had ever busted.

He compounded the crime by giving a book advance to the author of "How to
Grow Medical Marijuana," who used some of the money to grow medical
marijuana.

Then, having contracted AIDS and a related cancer, McWilliams began to grow
marijuana for his own use and for others who needed marijuana for medical
purposes.

The drug relieves nausea, which became important for extending McWilliams'
life because AIDS drugs made him so nauseated he could not keep them down
without help.

This all happened in California, where in 1996 with Proposition 215, voters
said it was OK to take marijuana if a doctor ruled it was medically
necessary.

But - there's that word again - the federal government has determined it
knows better than voters and so has continued to prosecute Californians who
were naive enough to think their votes meant something.

In December 1997, polite drug agents raided McWilliams' home and business.

One agent told his staff, "You guys had better start looking for new jobs.
The government will own this place in six months." Within three months, the
whole staff had quit and the publishing company closed.

A few months later, McWilliams was arrested. One condition of bail was he
could not use the marijuana that kept him from vomiting his medicine.

In November, U.S. District Judge George King ruled that during the trial,
McWilliams' attorneys could not mention Proposition 215, could not mention
that he has AIDS, and could not mention that marijuana has any medical use
whatsoever.

Left with no defense, McWilliams pleaded guilty to a lesser charge.

King scheduled sentencing for May and then postponed it until August.

On June 14, McWilliams' disease spared King the embarrassment of sentencing
a dying man to prison for trying to stay alive. McWilliams was 50.

On Thursday, several area restaurants plan to donate 25 percent of their
proceeds to AIDS research. I plan to meet some friends at one of those
places and - indulging in the only recreational drug that interests me,
which is legal - propose a toast to the memory of Peter McWilliams.

I fear writing this column puts me on the blacklist of dedicated and
well-meaning anti-drug warriors who sincerely believe condoning medicinal
marijuana or industrial hemp will lead to great evils.

But - I owe his memory that much.