The case of a U.S. woman who fled to B.C. after being charged for watering plants at the home of a medicinal marijuana advocate highlights the gap between Canadian values and America's war on drugs. With her peasant skirts, willowy looks and gentle voice, Renee Boje appears to be just the sort of British Columbia flower child one would expect to meet in Robert's Creek, a short ferry ride up the coast from Vancouver. But not everyone agrees. American drug enforcement officials insist Ms. Boje, 30, is a serious criminal on the run from justice, a woman guilty of such a horrible crime that she must be punished as harshly as rapists and murderers. [continues 2262 words]
Marc Emery, founder of Vancouver's HempBC, publisher of Cannabis Culture magazine, the man the National Post called "Canada's Pot Millionaire", has resurfaced in cyberspace. After having computers, pot seeds, furniture and 10 grand worth of bongs seized in a series of raids on his Vancouver offices in 1996 and 1997, Emery said goodbye to the material world and now has recreated himself as an Internet entity with his own TV station: PotTV (http://www.pottv.com/). Moored to the planet by a few small buildings on the Sunshine Coast, bobbing safely in the international waters of the world wide web, Emery figures he's in a key position for the final conflict in the War On Drugs. He's Switzerland - or perhaps Tokyo Rose. [continues 1141 words]
Bookmark: For Journey for Justice Protest news items: http://www.mapinc.org/journey.htm Cited: Journey for Justice: http://www.JourneyForJustice.org/ Common Sense for Drug Policy: http://www.csdp.org/ A handful of demonstrators from across the nation gathered Sunday afternoon for a vigil at the Federal Prison Camp in Bryan to protest the mass incarceration of nonviolent drug offenders. Kay Lee of Florida, founder of the group Journey for Justice, and others paced in a grassy area across from the prison in black-and-white striped prison costumes while passing out various marijuana literature. [continues 561 words]
Prisoners Of The Drug War Tiffany Landreth of Dallas worries about becoming a "drug-war prisoner" if arrested for her medical use of marijuana for a chronic back injury from surgery. The 29-year-old woman, riding on an electric scooter, joined about 30 protesters railing against the country's punitive drug policies Friday during a Journey for Justice march through downtown Houston. For the next seven days they will travel to Huntsville and other cities until they end up in Austin next Friday at Gov. George W. Bush's mansion, where more than 100 protesters are expected. Accompanying the group is a flatbed truck carrying a mock jail cell filled with protesters. [continues 387 words]
Tiffany Landreth of Dallas doesn't think she should be a "drug war prisoner" and arrested for her medical use of marijuana for a chronic back injury. Riding on an electric scooter, Landreth, 29, joined about 30 other protesters today on a "Journey for Justice" march in downtown Houston. Landreth, who said she buys her marijuana from a physical therapist, said, "I would get the mandatory minimum of five years in prison if I'm ever arrested." [continues 157 words]
BOSTON They came. They saw. They smoked. Roughly 40,000 people showed up to the Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition's 11th Annual Freedom rally on Boston Common and a number of those who gathered to call for legalizing marijuana took the opportunity to use it. Organizers say the event merely supports pot legislation, not use of the drug at the event. But they smiled with approval when Elvy Musikka, a California resident who legally receives medical marijuana from the federal government to treat her glaucoma, lit up a joint. [continues 357 words]
Another Casualty Of The War On Drugs On June 14, Natalie Fisher went to Peter McWilliams' home, where she worked as housekeeper to the wheelchair-bound victim of AIDS and cancer. In the bathroom on the second floor, she found his life-less body. He had choked to death on his own vomit. As regular readers of Liberty know, Peter, a world famous author* and a regular contributor to these pages, was diagnosed with AIDS and non-Hodgkins lymphoma in early 1996. Like many people stricken with AIDS or cancer, he had great difficulty keeping down the drugs that controlled or mitigated those afflictions. He began to smoke marijuana to control the drug-induced nausea. It saved his life: by early 1998, both his cancer and his AIDS were under control. [continues 1362 words]
To the editor: A friend and colleague in the cause of medicinal cannabis, Peter McWilliams died recently. The facts surrounding his death are clear. The cause of death? He choked on his own vomit. (Orange County Register, Saturday, June 24, 2000). Was Peter using cannabis at the time of his death? No. He and a co-conspirator Todd McCormick (who's serving five years on the same charge) were busted for growing medicinal cannabis. (Daily News of Los Angeles, Sunday, June 25, 2000.) The judge didn't allow cannabis to be used medically. [continues 251 words]
Contracted AIDS: Arrest For Growing Drug Became Test Case Peter McWilliams, who has died aged 50 of AIDS-related symptoms and lymphoma, was a best-selling author of self-help books, but he was known in recent years as an advocate for the legalization of marijuana for medicinal purposes. At his death, he was awaiting sentence in federal court after being convicted of having conspired to possess, manufacture and sell marijuana. Mr. McWilliams made his case for the legalization of drugs in a 1993 book, Ain't Nobody's Business if You Do: The Absurdity of Consensual Crimes in a Free Society, which was adopted as a libertarian manifesto. [continues 401 words]
Judge Calls Bill Small's Supplies To Ailing People "Humane And Altruistic" A B.C. Supreme Court judge recognized medicinal-marijuana use yesterday in his decision to grant an absolute discharge to an unselfish grower who pleaded guilty to cultivating pot. Bill Small was a director of the B.C. Compassion Club when police raided his Roberts Creek home in September 1998 and found more than 200 marijuana plants. He was growing various strains of marijuana solely for club members. The plants the police found were dead and earmarked for the compost heap because they were of no use to the club - a registered non-profit society that supplies about 1,1000 cancer, AIDS and multiple-sclerosis patients with the strains of marijuana that ease their suffering. [continues 742 words]
"The Drug War doesn't need another martyr," Peter McWilliams wrote last November. "It has too many already." McWilliams, a best-selling author and activist who was arrested on federal marijuana charges in 1998, was explaining his decision to plead guilty and throw himself on the mercy of the court. Mercy was not something that U.S. District Judge George King seemed to have in abundance. King had prohibited McWilliams, who used marijuana to fight the nausea caused by his AIDS medications, from presenting a "medical necessity" defense at his trial in Los Angeles. [continues 656 words]
Medical cannabis patient, Freedom Fighter, and author of the book Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do Peter McWilliams died in his home on Wednesday, June 14. He was 50 years of age. He apparently died from suffocation on his own vomit. He had typically controlled severe nausea, from AIDs and cancer medications, through the use of cannabis. However, under conditions of his bail, he had to pass regular drug screenings or his mother would lose her house, which she put up for his bail of $250,000. The denial of cannabis as a medicine by the courts led him to develop a rigorous daily routine, which consisted of many hours of lying in bed, that enabled him to keep down the numerous pills he had to take, pills that cause violent nausea in 40 percent of the population. [continues 312 words]
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. [continues 366 words]
Editor: New York Times best-selling author and publisher Peter McWilliams was literally killed by the federal government in the name of the war on marijuana. Peter's books sold more than 2 million copies, including: "Getting over the loss of a loved one;" How to heal depression," Life 101 and other best sellers. Peter had cancer and AIDS. In 1997, he financed professional gardener and cancer patient Todd McCormick to write a book on various strains of medical marijuana plants for diverse illnesses. McCormick was arrested in 1997. [continues 128 words]
Last Wednesday, Peter McWilliams was found dead in his bathroom. Some maintain that it was murder, plain and simple. The question is, who was responsible for his death? McWilliams was afflicted with the cancer of non-Hodgkins lymphoma and with AIDS. To treat his illness, he had to take so many pills that nausea and constant vomiting made it impossible for him to keep down his expensive medication. The only treatment that McWilliams found effective in controlling his nausea was medical marijuana. Since the diagnosis of his cancer in March 1996, he was able to keep his illness in check with medication by controlling his nausea with marijuana. It kept him alive. [continues 513 words]
The drug war claimed another victim last week when author, publisher and activist Peter McWilliams died at his home in Los Angeles. He was 50. Perhaps ironically, he died the same day Gov. Ben Cayetano of Hawaii signed a medical marijuana bill passed by the state legislature - making Hawaii the first state in the country to authorize the medicinal use of marijuana through the legislature rather than by a vote of the people. An author whose computer how-to books several times made The New York Times best-seller list, and whose "Ain't Nobody's Business if You Do" is destined to be a modern classic, Mr. McWilliams contracted AIDS and cancer a few years ago. He found that marijuana was the best way to control the nausea brought on by both AIDS and cancer treatments and to restore his appetite. He gave writer and patient Todd McCormick a large advance to finance a research project into the medicinal qualities of different strains of marijuana for a book after California's Proposition 215 passed in 1996, which allows use of marijuana with a doctor's recommendation. When McCormick was arrested, Mr. McWilliams came to his defense, explained that he had financed the project - and got a federal indictment as a "drug kingpin." [continues 167 words]
Editor, Index-Tribune: This could happen in Sonoma! New York Times best selling author and publisher Peter McWilliam's was literally killed by the federal government in the name of war on marijuana. Peter's book sold over 2 million copies, including: "Getting Over the Loss of a Loved One;' How to Heal Depression,' "Life 101' and other best sellers. Peter had cancer and AIDS. In 1997 he financed professional gardener and cancer patient Todd McCormick to write a book on various strains of medical marijuana plants for diverse illnesses. McCormick was arrested in 1997. [continues 192 words]
LOS ANGELES - Peter McWilliams, 50, a best-selling author who advocated the medicinal use of marijuana, died June 14 at his home here. He had AIDS and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. At his death, he was awaiting sentencing in federal court on a charge of conspiring to possess, manufacture and sell marijuana. He and co-defendant Todd McCormick were arrested in 1997 after law enforcement officers raided an estate where the two allegedly were growing more than 4,000 marijuana plants. [continues 231 words]
An Indictment, Not an Obituary Peter McWiliams, 50, best selling author, poet, photographer, publisher, libertarian crusader, medical marijuana activist, AIDS patient and cancer survivor, was found dead on the floor of his bathroom, apparently having choked to death after vomiting, for want of medical marijuana. There will be an autopsy, but whatever the immediate cause of death may have been, he was murdered by the United States Government as surely as if they shot him. Indeed, it would have been much more humane if they had just put a bullet in his head. No one should have to go through what he suffered at the hands of his country. [continues 2251 words]
