JUDGE DENIES AIDS PATIENT'S REQUEST FOR MARIJUANA

While sympathetic to his medical plight, a federal judge has denied
Peter McWilliams' request for permission to smoke pot while awaiting
trial on marijuana conspiracy charges. McWilliams, a writer and
publisher who has AIDS, says that he needs marijuana to keep from
vomiting the powerful antiviral drugs he must take each day. Last
year, a federal magistrate forbade him to smoke pot as a condition of
his bail, an order that McWilliams calls a virtual death decree. In a
written opinion released Tuesday, U.S. District Judge George H. King
refused to alter McWilliams' bail conditions. He said he is not
empowered to grant "what amounts to a license to violate federal law."
Despite California voters' passage of Proposition 215 legalizing the
medical use of marijuana, federal law still makes possession and
ingestion of marijuana a crime.

"We do not mean to express indifference to defendant's situation,"
King wrote, adding that he hopes McWilliams and his physician can come
up with another treatment program within the law.

McWilliams' lawyer, Thomas Ballanco, said he plans to appeal King's
ruling to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

McWilliams, who lives in Laurel Canyon, was indicted in July on nine
counts of conspiring to grow, possess and distribute marijuana. He is
a friend and supporter of medical marijuana advocate Todd McCormick,
who is awaiting trial on charges of growing 4,000 marijuana plants at
a rented BelAir home.