PETER MCWILLIAMS DIES AT 50; AN AUTHOR OF SELF-HELP BOOKS

Peter McWilliams, a best-selling author of self-help books who fought for
the medicinal use of marijuana, died June 14 at his home in Los Angeles. He
was 50 and had AIDS and AIDS-related non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Mr. McWilliams caught the crest of the wave of the personal-computer
revolution with his highly successful "The Word Processing Book: A Short
Course in Computer Literacy" (Prelude Press, 1982). But he gained attention
in recent years by advocating, in print and in court, the legalization of
marijuana.
His book "Ain't Nobody's Business if You Do: The Absurdity of Consensual
Crimes in a Free Society" (Prelude Press, 1993), which made his case for
drug legalization, became a libertarian manifesto. And his arrest in 1997
for growing marijuana became a test of judicial tolerance in California.
At his death, Mr. McWilliams was waiting to be sentenced in federal court
after being convicted of having conspired to possess, manufacture and sell
marijuana. He and co-defendant, Todd McCormick, were accused of growing more
than 4,000 marijuana plants.

They pleaded guilty to the charge last year after United States
District Judge George H. King ruled that they could not use
California's medical marijuana initiative, Proposition 215, as a
defense, or even tell the jury of the initiative's existence and their
own medical conditions (Mr. McCormick has fused vertabrae from
childhood cancer treatment). Federal courts have declined to recognize
the initiative, approved by the state's voters in 1996.

Accused of financing the enterprise, Mr. McWilliams insisted that he
was growing the marijuana for cooperatives supplying the drug to
medical patients in California. Government prosecutors contended that
he was growing the plants for profit.

He said that being denied the drug left him nauseated most of the time
and without energy. At his last court appearance, he sat slumped in
his wheelchair. He was given a diagnosis of lymphoma in 1996. He said
that he had not smoked marijuana for years but that upon returning to
it he found that it eased the side effects of chemotherapy.

Peter Alexander McWilliams was born Aug. 5, 1949, in Detroit, the son
of Henry G. and Mary (Taormina) McWilliams. His father was a drugstore
supervisor and his mother worked occasionally in sales. He graduated
from Allen Park High School and attended Eastern Michigan University,
in Ypsilanti, and later studied under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at
Maharishi International University in Fairfield, Iowa.

At 17 he wrote his first book, "Come Love with Me and Be My Life," a
collection of romantic poems published by his own Versemonger Press.
Among the better known of the nearly 40 books that followed were
"Surviving the Loss of a Love" (Versemonger, 1971); "Life 101:
Everything We Wish We Had Learned about Life in School but Didn't"
(Prelude Press, 1990), one of several works he wrote with John-Roger,
the pen name of Roger Delano Hinkins, the head of the Church of the
Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness, and "Life 202: What to Do When
Your Guru Sues You" (Prelude, 1994), written after the author fell out
with John-Roger. Mr. McWilliams is survived by his mother, Mary
Fadden, and his brother, Michael, both of Allen Park, Mich.