MONTEL WILLIAMS GOES TO POT

On November 3, Montel Williams was briefly detained at Detroit Metro
Airport, where baggage screeners found a glass pipe and residue of a
marijuana by-product in his bags. That's when the talk show host, who
suffers from multiple sclerosis, was outed as a user of the herb for
medicinal purposes.

In his first interview after the airport discovery, Williams makes no
apologies. In fact, he devotes several chapters to the case for
medical marijuana in his new autobiography, "Climbing Higher," in
bookstores today. He clears the air to TV Guide Online.

Q. What happened to you in Detroit?

A. When my bags were going through a metal detector at the Detroit
airport, the security people found my needles. I take injectable drugs
every day. Then, one guy found a perfectly clean glass pipe that looks
like an egg. He said, "What do you smoke in it?" I said, "None of your
business." And it pissed him off. I also had a little bottle that had
been in my bag for a month. It had less than a twentieth of a gram of
kef residue. He called the police. They had to give me a paraphernalia
violation. (Williams paid a $100 fine.) They said there was too little
to bother testing.

Q. Have you done a show on medical marijuana?

A. I'm doing a show on Jan. 13 about the book and this issue. The
model Emme, whose father died of MS complications, is going to
interview me. I think it's time for a change. I hope to inspire others
to take a stand. You cannot tell me that if one of George Bush's
daughters came to him and said, "This is the only thing that will help
my pain," he'd say, "No, baby, you have to suffer. I'll lay you down
on a bed and hook you up to a morphine drip, and when you wake up in
four or five days, we'll talk."

Q. Why do you use it?

A. It eases depression in some ways. It helps sleeping disorders and
it eases nerve pain.

Q. Why not use any of the legal painkillers?

A. I attempted to use some. Oxycontin and Vicodin are extremely
addictive. Percocet didn't work. Marijuana is the best tool for me.