Pubdate: Fri, 7 Jan 2011
Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (WI)
Copyright: 2011 Journal Sentinel Inc.
Contact: http://www.jsonline.com/general/30627794.html
Website: http://www.jsonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/265
Author: Jim Stingl
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Montel+Williams

EMPTY POT PIPE CAUSES MORE PAIN FOR MONTEL WILLIAMS

Rest easy, Milwaukee, knowing that Montel Williams' pot pipe has been 
taken away.

We're sending a clear message that we're not going to tolerate the 
former talk show host's use of marijuana to ease the chronic pain of 
multiple sclerosis. No sir. Not in our city, punk. Rub some dirt on it.

The celebrity didn't have any actual evil weed, you understand, but 
the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Department lightened his wallet by 
$484 just for the empty pipe in his bag at a security checkpoint at 
Mitchell International Airport this week. The contraband was very 
much like the pipes you can buy in shops all over town.

In a telephone interview Thursday, Williams told me it was a wooden 
pipe that he had forgotten to remove from the travel bag. It was 
spotted by the screener, and Williams wound up being detained at the 
sheriff's airport substation for an hour, though he did not miss his 
plane. The pipe tested negative for marijuana residue. He did not 
have to pose for a mug shot or leave fingerprints.

Williams doesn't call it a pot pipe. "It's an instrument I utilize to 
take my medication," he said. That medication is marijuana.

"There were four police officers involved in this entire situation. 
It's very interesting that a wooden pipe that tested negatively took 
away the actions of four security officers that were there to protect 
and serve the country against the potential of terrorist attacks, 
bombs and other things," he said.

It turns out Williams had come to Wisconsin in search of healing, and 
the drug paraphernalia ticket was a crummy parting gift.

Since September, he has been participating in experimental treatment 
at the University of Wisconsin medical school in Madison. The 
research involves stimulating the tongue with electrical impulses 
that then flow into the brain stem and enable the brain to more 
effectively process information in patients with MS, stroke, brain 
injury or Parkinson's disease.

Williams found out about it when a fellow air traveler called his 
attention to an in-flight magazine article about UW's Tactile 
Communication and Neurorehabilitation Lab.

"I'm all in on this," he says excitedly in an online video about the 
lab. At one point, he breaks down when talking about the possibility 
of easing the pain in his feet and legs and improving his gait and balance.

Williams, 54, who hosted a TV talk show from 1991 to 2008, was 
diagnosed with MS in 1999. He founded the nonprofit Montel Williams 
MS Foundation.

The UW lab is trying to keep a lower profile until more test results 
can be gathered and published, medical school spokeswoman Susan 
Lampert Smith said. After Williams talked about it on Oprah Winfrey's 
show, the lab was overwhelmed by requests from people who wanted the 
treatment. No new patients are being accepted at this time.

Williams was in Wisconsin this week for a follow-up visit to the lab, 
and he was returning home to New York on Tuesday when he got busted. 
He said he'll be returning here to the lab once a month for the next 
six months.

He told CNN he uses marijuana every day and expects that will 
continue the rest of his life. "I don't get the same euphoria that 
other people do. I get neuropathic pain lessening, and that's why I 
use it," he said.

He's become an outspoken advocate for legalizing the drug for 
medicinal use, and said he's a "card-carrying" user in two of the 
states where it's been approved. Wisconsin has talked about joining 
those more enlightened states but so far hasn't. Neither has his 
state of New York.

For now, we're the place that nails sick people at the airport for 
carrying their medicine dispensers. Williams was not critical of the 
screeners or the deputies and said they were doing their jobs. He 
said he deserves no special treatment.

This happened to him once before at the airport in Detroit in 2003. 
He was ticketed for having a marijuana pipe, but the case later was 
thrown out in court, he said. Without detailing his defense, he said 
he plans to send some paperwork about his medicinal use to the court 
in Milwaukee. His court date is Feb. 2.  
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake