cannabisnews.com: Marijuana Activist Sentenced To Prison 





Marijuana Activist Sentenced To Prison 
Posted by CN Staff on April 28, 2003 at 13:22:48 PT
SignonSanDiego News Services
Source: SignOnSanDiego.com 
San Diego – Medical marijuana proponent Steven McWilliams was sentenced today to six months in federal prison for growing 25 marijuana plants in his front yard, but will remain free pending his appeal. McWilliams, 48, pleaded guilty Feb. 7 to one count of federal aiding and abetting, and manufacturing marijuana. The defendant, who has said in the past that he used marijuana to relieve pain from injuries suffered in "automobile and motorcycle accidents," distributed samples of the drug outside City Hall last year to sick people. 
A federal drug agent approached him on the street a week later and hand- delivered a letter warning him to stop cultivating his plants or face arrest. McWilliams' marijuana gardens have been raided several times, and in 2002 he completed three years formal probation after pleading guilty to a 1998 misdemeanor charge of illegal cultivation. He said he will immediately ask the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse his latest conviction. A decision could take months or years. "A number of these cases are expected to go all the way to the (U.S.) Supreme Court," McWilliams said outside court. U.S. District Judge James Fitzpatrick ordered the defendant to abstain from using marijuana as a condition of release while the case is appealed. If McWilliams loses his appeal, he would serve six months in federal prison without the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. "I think it's torture. I think it's inhumane," the defendant said. "When you're in prison, you don't get medical treatment." But Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim Coughlin said McWilliams' sentence was appropriate given his prior contacts with law enforcement. "We're satisfied with it," the prosecutor said. "We look forward to the appeal." McWilliams was arrested last Oct. 11, three weeks after members of the San Diego Narcotics Task Force seized the marijuana plants from in front of the his home on Wilson Avenue. The defendant had previously vowed to go to trial in federal court to argue that he had a right to grow marijuana under California's Proposition 215, which allows sick people to grow marijuana. Federal prosecutors said McWilliams was arrested and charged because marijuana is not recognized as a "medicine" under federal law, and, therefore, cannot be grown, used or possessed anywhere in the United States. The San Diego City Council recently voted to accept guidelines that allow sick people, with a doctor's prescription, to keep as much as one pound of marijuana. McWilliams was one of the original members of the city's Medical Cannabis Task Force, which supported the guidelines. The defendant had hoped that if he went to trial, a jury might acquit him because of conflicts between state and federal laws. But to mount such a defense, McWilliams' attorney would have had to call witnesses to testify that the pot was being grown by them, not McWilliams, to treat their illnesses. A federal judge would have been unlikely to allow such evidence. An Oakland activist, known as the "Guru of Ganja," took that gamble and now faces up to 85 years in prison. After a two-week trial, a federal jury convicted medical marijuana advocate Edward Rosenthal of pot growing charges. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer refused to allow the defense to present evidence that Rosenthal was acting as an agent of the city of Oakland's medical marijuana program. Source: SignOnSanDiego.com (CA)Published: April 28, 2003Copyright 2003 Union-Tribune Publishing Co. Contact: letters uniontrib.com Website: http://www.signonsandiego.com/Related Articles & Web Site:Americans for Safe Access http://www.safeaccessnow.org McWilliams Out on Bail After Federal Charges http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14437.shtmlPot Garden Uprooted in Raidhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14240.shtmlLocal Pot Advocate's Home Raidedhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14238.shtmlPot Grower Gets Letter of Warning from DEAhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14191.shtml 
Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help




Post Comment