STEVEN MCWILLIAMS; ACTIVIST FOR MEDICAL POT

Friends say Steven McWilliams was tired. He was in pain. And he was
scared of possible jail time.

The combination may be the reason the medical marijuana activist took
his life Monday, they say.

He was 51.

"His health was deteriorating," said longtime friend David Bronner.
"And he was experiencing some lows. He was in pain, a lot of pain."

Still, his death surprised Bonner and others who knew Mr. McWilliams.
He was a fighter, they said, who was bold enough to smoke marijuana on
the steps of San Diego City Hall to call attention to its medicinal
benefits he so strongly believed in.

For years, he championed that use - a cause that got him in trouble
with the law.

Folks such as Mr. McWilliams were caught in the middle between a 1996
voter-approved state referendum that allowed the medicinal use of
marijuana and federal drug enforcers, who have arrested people for
growing it, regardless of how it's used. Federal law prohibits the
drug from being cultivated.

"I think it's really, really sad," said San Diego City Councilwoman
Toni Atkins, of Mr. McWilliams' death. He lived in Normal Heights, in
her council district, where in 2000 he ran for council against Atkins
and three others. Atkins won.

When he ran for council, Mr. McWilliams listed former cowboy as his
career and that he had attended Western State College in Colorado and
the University of Colorado.

Atkins once described him as a "hero" for his medical marijuana
efforts.

"Steve was a really compassionate guy who worked hard for people who
were very sick. I never doubted his sincerity."

Mr. McWilliams was arrested at least four times, the latest in 2002,
when he was charged with two felonies and faced 40 years in federal
prison. Federal law enforcement officers confiscated 25 plants he was
growing in his front yard.

He ultimately pleaded guilty to a single felony charge and received a
six-month sentence. He was appealing that.

Over the years, he did anything but shy from the controversy of
medical marijuana use. He taught those who were seriously ill how to
grow the drug to help ease their pain. He also helped San Diego draft
guidelines to allow seriously ill people to grow marijuana within city
limits.

San Diego was the largest city in the nation to draft such a
guideline.

The controversy over medical marijuana escalated in June, when the
U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the federal government can prosecute
seriously ill people who use the drug. California is one of 10 states
that allow the chronically ill to use marijuana.

Mr. McWilliams suffered a number of ailments after several car
accidents and used marijuana for pain relief - until his most recent
conviction, when the judge ruled that he must abstain.

Friends say he relied on other pain-relieving drugs, but they caused
negative side effects.

"I didn't realize how much pain he was in," said friend Dale
Gieringer, coordinator for the California chapter of the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

It's tragic, he said, that he was not allowed to use the one drug that
eased his pain.

"He was a principled freedom fighter."

Information on survivors and services was not available.