The Killing of Peter McWilliams is a sad, sad story:
McWilliams, a Californian, a computer genius and a poet, had been suffering from AIDS and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma since 1996. And under California’s Proposition 215, which passed in 1996 and legalized marijuana for medical purposes in the state, he used pot to suppress nausea and keep down his food and medication.In what many consider to have been a politically motivated prosecution — McWilliams was a popular author and medical-marijuana activist whose book, “Ain’t Nobody’s Business If You Do,” argued fervently against the criminalization of consensual acts — McWilliams’ home was raided by federal agents in 1997, and he was charged as a drug kingpin with conspiracy to sell marijuana.
A federal judge ruled that McWilliams could not rest his defense on his illness or on Proposition 215, which made his actions legal in his state, because federal drug laws superseded California’s. McWilliams pled guilty to avoid a 10-year mandatory-minimum prison sentence.
While out on bail and awaiting sentencing, prohibited from using medical marijuana, McWilliams died. He was found dead in his bathroom in Los Angeles at age 50. He choked to death on his own vomit — unable to keep down his medication.
The entire text of Ain’t Nobody’s Business If You Do is available on-line.