See Best
Selling Author / AIDS-Cancer Patient Peter McWilliams
Launches Medical Marijuana Press; Risks Federal Imprisonment in Doing So
and
Statement Of Author
Peter McWilliams To Institute Of Medicine Medical Marijuana Hearings
and
McCormick Now
Prisoner Of Pharmaceutical Industry; To Stay Out Of Jail He Must Pay $17,500 To Set Up
Test
and
Judge Says
McCormick Can Use Marinol Unless Government Can Prove He Is Using It to Hide Medical
Marijuana Use
and
Judge Orders
McCormick Released; Held Illegally Without Hearing After Government Said He Failed Urine
Test.
Now Federal Prosecutor Says, " He Was Not Aware Of The Test Results."
and
Forced to Walk
Barefoot Through Sewage, Denied Even A Pillow, Cancer Patient Todd McCormick
In Such Fragile Condition, He Is Transferred To The Psychiatric Ward Where He Is Kept In
Cold Cell(Ed. note: Indicting a person as well
known as best-selling author Peter McWilliams is a major escalation in the war on medical
marijuana. Clearly, this is an attempt to silence McWilliams. I think that it will
backfire on the narks.
Conspiracy cases are notoriously susceptible to prosecutorial abuse, but the basic
premise is that somehow thinking about making money for supplying medical marijuana is
wrong. Perhaps the prosecutors will get a grant from a pharmaceutical company to explain
this to us.
I don’t believe the charges against them, but anyone who knows them knows of their
dedication to freedom and to making medical marijuana available to everyone who needs it.
That is the real reason that they are being prosecuted.)
TWO ARRESTED FOR ALLEGED POT POWERHOUSE
LOS ANGELES,
July 23, 1998
(AP)
Two men were arrested Thursday on charges of engaging in a conspiracy to grow more than
6,000 marijuana plants and to distribute the drug throughout Southern California.
Five other defendants previously arrested, and two people who are fugitives, were also
named in a superseding indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles.
The nine-count indictment alleges that marijuana was grown at four locations in Los
Angeles County in an operation that received funds through a publishing company run by one
of the defendants.
On one of the four sites, 4,116 marijuana plants were being grown, according to federal
prosecutors.
Those arrested Thursday were Peter McWilliams, 48, of Los Angeles, who owns Prelude
Press, and David Richards, 25, of Lancaster.
Also indicted, but previously arrested, were: Todd McCormick, 27, of Bel-Air; Kirill
Dyjine, also known as Hermes Zygott, 33, of Hollywood;
Andrew Scott Hass, 34, of Malibu and Bellingham, Wa.; Christopher Carrington, 32, of
Manhattan Beach; and Gregg Collier, 25, of Van Nuys and Bellingham.
The two fugitives were identified as Aleksandra Evanguelidi, 24, and Renee Boje, 28,
both of Los Angeles.
The indictment charges all nine defendants in a conspiracy to grow marijuana, with
possessing the drug with the intent to distribute it, and with distributing marijuana.
McWilliams allegedly financed the growing operation, which was located at his Laurel
Canyon home and at other residential properties that had been leased, according to
Assistant U.S. Attorney Fernando Aenlle-Rocha.
He is also charged with attempting to negotiate contracts to sell harvested marijuana
grown by McCormick and Hass, who allegedly planned and created sophisticated indoor and
outdoor growing centers.
McWilliams’ Century City-based attorney, Harland Braun, said his client is one of
the most prominent advocates for the medicinal use of marijuana in the country and is not
a criminal.
"The government is trying to make medicinal use of marijuana a criminal
conspiracy," he said. "You might not like what he’s doing, but he’s
doing what he believes is right."
Braun said his client would use a federal trial to "educate the public." He
was released on $250,000 bail and is due back in court for arraignment on Monday.
McWilliams, a self-publisher whose books include "How to Survive the Loss of a
Love" and "How to Heal Depression," describes himself as an AIDS and cancer
patient and ‘outspoken advocate’ of medical marijuana use and Proposition 215.
He contends he uses marijuana to ease the nausea caused by the ‘cocktail’ of
drugs he takes to sustain his life. The indictment alleges that McWilliams and
McCormick—who was arrested last July 29 for growing more than 4,000 marijuana plants
at his rented Bel-Air mansion—had an agreement regarding the cultivation of the drug.
The indictment further alleges that:
Supported