How the Government Helps
Medical Marijuana Patients:
"McWilliams vomited repeatedly in court Friday, prompting guards to keep a trash can
nearby."
See
AIDS
And Cancer Patient Peter McWilliams Remains Jailed As Court Refuses To Reduce Bail
and
How You Can Help
Peter McWilliams
(Ed. note: This is an excellent AP story, but neither the LA Times nor the San Francisco
papers have reported this. Of course, neither the Washington Post nor the New York Times
found it fit to print, even though McWilliams has been on the New York Times best-seller
list.
So here it is. A best-selling author, on a variety of
medications for AIDS and depression, who poses no flight risk, is being held on excessive
bail, and he is vomiting in the court room, and is denied his medications, but this
isn’t news.
Oh yes, the heinous crime of which he is accused is that he was conspiring to provide sick
people with medical marijuana as provided by Prop 215, which got more votes in California
than President Clinton.
And the media wonder why the people have lost confidence in them!
The problem is that this just does not fit anyone’s image of America, so it cannot be
happening, so it isn’t necessary to report it. Besides, how can you possibly explain this without seeming
"pro-drug?" After all, the position of the government, whose
"anti-drug" ads they carry for both pay and free, is that medical marijuana is a
plot to legalize all drugs for children.)
From the Fresno Bee
letters@fresnobee.com
http://www.fresnobee.com/
August 1, 1998
JUDGE SAYS JAILED MEDICAL MARIJUANA ADVOCATE MUST RECEIVE MEDICATION
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A federal judge ruled Friday that a medical marijuana advocate
jailed on drug charges must have access to medications to treat his AIDS and cancer.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew Wistrich said he will ensure Peter McWilliams receives the
appropriate medicine, but the judge also turned down a request to lower his $250,000 bail.
McWilliams, a self-help publisher who allegedly financed an operation that grew more than
6,000 marijuana plants, had complained he wasn’t regularly receiving his required
medication. He also said he suffered from cuts on his hands and feet
that could expose him to infections.
See
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
McWilliams vomited repeatedly in court Friday, prompting guards to keep a trash can
nearby.
See
Blind Man
Subject To Uncontrollable Vomiting Convicted In California Of Growing Marijuana For Other
Medical Users
(Ed. note: The government tells us that vomiting can be
relieved by taking a pill called Marinol.)
McWilliams pleaded innocent Monday to conspiracy to grow marijuana, possessing the drug
with the intent to distribute, and distributing it. He was arrested with another man July
23 under a federal indictment that alleged he and others grew thousands of marijuana
plants.
Another medical marijuana advocate, Todd McCormick, was arrested in the same
case along with four others. McCormick was arrested last year after authorities found more
than 4,000 marijuana plants at a rented Bel-Air mansion. He remains free on bail.
The men claimed they grew the marijuana to supply clubs who sell the drug to help ease
the pain of people suffering chronic or terminal illnesses.
The medical marijuana advocates have maintained they did nothing illegal under
Proposition 215, the state initiative that legalized the cultivation, use and possession
of marijuana for medicinal purposes on a doctor’s recommendation.
Federal courts have not recognized the state law.
Below is a report from McWilliams’ office and a comment by
Dr. Tom O’Connell
July 31, 1998 Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Federal Prosecutor Lies To Judge About AIDS Patient Peter McWilliams’ In-Prison
Medical Treatment... Judge Denies Motion To Reduce Bail.
JULY 31, 1998 / LOS ANGELES, CA:
At an emergency hearing to determine if AIDS-cancer patient Peter
McWilliams should be immediately released from federal custody on medical marijuana
charges, federal prosecutor Fernando Aenlle-Rocha told the judge, "Mr. McWilliams has
received his full complement of AIDS medications since July 24, 1998, his second day in
custody."
In fact, as the prescription bottle supplied by the federal government’s in-prison
pharmacy clearly reveals, McWilliams was not given the 3rd drug in the 3-drug
combination AIDS therapy until July 26, 1998.
"Prosecutor Fernando Aenlle-Rocha looked the judge right
in the eye and in somber, precise, governmental tones lied to the judge," said
McWilliams after the hearing. "That the government failed to provide me
with AIDS medications for 4 days is appalling. That the government would lie about that
fact in order to keep me in custody is reprehensible."
The judge believed prosecutor Fernando Aenlle-Rocha over McWilliams and remanded
McWilliams back into federal custody. The earliest McWilliams could possibly be released
is Monday, August 3, 1998.
Prosecutor Fernando Aenlle-Rocha also misrepresented the
prescription medication Trazadone, a major antidepressant, as merely, "A sleeping
pill," therefore not important to McWilliams’ AIDS treatment.
(Ed. note: Peter has had a life-long battle with serious depression – even before
he had AIDS. Depriving someone with chronic depression of their prescribed medications is
as cruel – and perhaps even more dangerous – than depriving someone with chronic
pain of their pain-relievers.
Peter has even written books on depression. Of course, all this is greatly complicated
by the fact that marijuana has been Peter’s anti-nausea medication for the last two
years, and this has also helped relieve his depression.
So now he is both nauseous and depressed and deprived of his other medications in a
life-threatening situation. But it is all for his own good, of course!)
"People with AIDS walk a tight rope over the abyss of depression," said
McWilliams. "Prosecutor Fernando Aenlle-Rocha is obviously too young to have
experienced life-threatening illness first-hand. Either that, or someone slipped his
compassion a sleeping pill."
McWilliams had praise and gratitude for the Los Angeles Chapter
of the ACLU rising in his defense. "Now that reason has failed, I hope that the ACLU
will move ahead on the legal front as soon as possible," said McWilliams. "The
shoddy medical treatment in federal lock-up is nothing short of the murder by
bureaucracy."
Although McWilliams now has his AIDS medications, he has not been given an effective
anti-nausea medication, so keeping the life-saving drugs down is difficult. McWilliams has
also not been given his antidepressants at the prescribed dosages since his incarceration,
a situation that continues to this day.
Contact Numbers:
- Bruce Margolin (Attorney).....310-652-0991
- Todd McCorrmick...............213-650-4906
- Prelude Press Publicity.......213-650-9571 x125
"One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws." - MLK
A Comment From Tom O’Connell, MD:
Peter McWilliams, well known author, who addressed the Libertarian Convention on July 4th,
publicly announced the following in that speech:
In 1996. he was diagnosed as having AIDS complicated by
non-Hodgkin lymphoma. For the past 28 months, he has been on a complex treatment regimen
of protease inhibitors, oral agents which are difficult to take because of the nausea they
produce. Use of smoked marijuana has controlled his nausea, his protease inhibitor therapy
has kept the AIDS from progressing and left him feeling well. McWilliams credits marijuana
with saving his life, a not uncommon belief in patients it has helped.
As reported in the LA Times on July 24th, McWilliams was arrested and held
in federal custody. The charge is conspiracy to grow large amounts of marijuana for sale.
His bail was set at $250,000.
McWilliams has been held in the Metropolitan Detention Center, (Prisoner #13835-112,
P.O. Box 1500, Los Angeles, CA 90053, Tel. (213) 485-0439). A communication from him dated
the 28th and posted on this list the same day alleged that he had not been
allowed to continue his medications in custody.
Conversation with Todd McCormick (out from the same Center on bail) confirms that, but
Todd, whose access is limited, said he understood that Peter was allowed to resume his
medicine on Monday. He wasn’t sure if all the medicines had been resumed in their
previous dosage.
I discussed this with an infectious disease specialist; current thinking on the
management of patients who have exhibited a good response to protease inhibitors is that
scrupulous observation of schedule and dosage is critical. Cessation of all agents for no
compelling medical reason, (such as emergency surgery which could interrupt the ability to
take oral medications), while undesirable, is probably without risk if it’s only for
a week or two.
What would be risky is sporadic or irregular resumption, or starting back on fewer
agents. In any event, prevention of McWilliams from continuing protease inhibitors while
in custody is a step beyond preventing his use of marijuana; above all it’s a medical
decision because it needlessly puts him at risk. (I’m not aware of what specific
international conventions this practice violates, but there must be some; for example, the
Nuremberg Convention forbids any use of prisoners for research on the theory that
"informed consent" is impossible while incarcerated).
I set out to speak with the physician on scene at the MDC; his name (I learned
eventually) is Dr. Sinavsky; he refused to speak with me on the grounds that he
didn’t know who I was- he referred me to the lawyer who turned out to be on vacation.
I finally reached an assistant warden (Linda Thomas) who eventually returned my call and
refused to disclose any substantive information, claiming that any answers to my questions
would have to come from McWilliams’ lawyer. I have since relayed all of this to the
LA Times and the SF Chronicle & hope they will investigate. Anyone reading this who is
as disturbed as I am is urged to make whatever use of this information the see fit.
In the meantime, as this is typed, a bail reduction hearing is taking place; it could
result in McWilliams’ speedy release, partially solving his immediate medical
problem. Even so, it won’t solve the problem posed by a punitive and brutal
government insisting that arbitrary inhumane treatment of alleged "drug
criminals" is justified by their own best interests.
This strategy of incarcerating true medical marijuana users like
McCormick and McWilliams, then insisting they undergo urine testing as a condition of bail
is diabolical. It places the government in a position to physically punish advocacy and
also allows them to anticipate the findings
of the IOM study they have commissioned advise on this issue, a "study"
McCzar refers to when he falsely promises to "let science decide" if marijuana
could possibly be medicinal.
Tom O’Connell, MD
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