cannabisnews.com: Sometimes the Bad Guys Win 





Sometimes the Bad Guys Win 
Posted by FoM on July 13, 2000 at 10:12:00 PT
Note From The Editor, By Jeremy Lott 
Source: Spintech Magazine
On June 14, like thousands of fellow Americans every year, Peter McWilliams, 50, went to meet his maker while bathing. Two things separate his death from countless others: (1) it wasn’t his bathtub and (2) it wasn’t an accident or a natural death. The bathtub was his mother’s, not his own, because the government of the United States of America had just bankrupted him for smoking pot and refusing to do so quietly, hypocritically and behind closed doors. 
The death -- caused by choking on his own vomit -- was wholly avoidable if he had not been prohibited by the order of a federal judge from using marijuana to combat the effects of his mandatory anti-AIDS cocktail. His mother had been told in no uncertain terms that if Peter failed a drug test, she would loose her house as well. So, dutiful son that he was, McWilliams abstained and paid a rather steep price. The prosecutors, perhaps feeling the need to absolve themselves of guilt, expressed “regret” over his passing. How’s that for a sick sign of just how far we’ve come: sensitive new age hangmen? But hold on! Isn’t marijuana, the keen observer is inclined to ask, legal in California? Didn’t voters, who were either enlightened or high (depending on your bias) vote for a referendum legalizing pot for medicinal purposes in 1996? Yes, but, says Vin Suprynowicz, “Unfortunately, cops operating in California -- the same ones who used to snarl "If you don't like the law, change it" -- no longer pay any attention to the law. Now they just break into people's homes, trash or seize their property, and kidnap them because they feel like it. [As they had done with all of Peter’s computer apparatus, thus shutting down his publishing business and forcing his bankruptcy.]” Further, wily soldiers of the drug war decided that, rather than taking their chances with volatile Californians, the case would be prosecuted in federal court, thus making an end run around the will of “the people.” Excluded in advance was the ability to tell a jury the following: (1) This was legal in the state in which the offense occurred; (2) It was necessary to allow McWilliams to survive; (3) The seizure of McWilliams computer was a massive violation of his first and fourth amendment rights. Peter therefore plead guilty and was praying for a lenient sentence at the time of his death. Sigh. So our hands were tied for the July issue of Spintech and the duty was clear: Mourn a friend and hero, thank him for his accomplishments and try, hoping against hope, to prevent his death from having been in vane. There was also the additional constraint that we should not dehumanize Peter and treat him as a mere propaganda tool. I think (though it’s hard to be certain in this sort of venue) that we’ve succeeded. To judge this, I attempt to summon the ghost of McWilliams himself. That is, if Peter were here with us today, would he approve of heretofore reluctant prohibitionist Chris Burlingame writing the following?: “Make no mistake: I am not an antigovernment libertarian who believes one has a constitutional right, if he so desires, to get as high as a kite. And I would certainly prefer to live in a neighborhood where drugs are not readily available. But my general approach to drugs vis a vi the freedom question has come to be tethered to the famous line that your right to swing your arms freely stops at the tip of my nose.” I think he might. Knowing what I know of him, I think he’d get a chuckle out of Chris’ description of the libertarian position. He also might have relished the description of Bob Dole, a “geriatric wonderkind,” and I know he’d at least nod his head in assent to tagging Gen. McCaffrey an “imbalanced tyrant.” And I hope, though he would find things to disagree with in Sunni Maravollosa’s tribute/call-to-arms, that McWilliams would not feel as if his death was being misused. He might even cheer her conclusion that “[b]y killing my friend, our would-be rulers have strengthened my resolve, and will create new activists out of many of those who've previously been silent.” The above passage stands out (in my mind at least) because I am one such person. I have never yet publicly written anything on the War on Drugs -- whether this was for lack of interest or for fear of controversy, I do not honestly know. Now? The forces arrayed in defense of the War on Drugs run the gamut from the religious right to the granola crunching, health obsesses secular Calvinists of the left. Their arguments are formidable and well amplified. Drugs should be illegal, they say, for a whole host of reasons: they are a sign of moral rot; they cause death on a massive scale; their effects are often irreversible; they disproportionately hurt poor minorities; they’re bad for public health; and, just for good measure, they are of the devil. To which I appropriate the response of Kurt Vonnegut’s Newt Honnicker, “No damn cat and no damn cradle.” It all amounts to an elaborate house of cards, constructed to hide the will to power in a candy wrapper. So here’s to Peter McWilliams, Spintech’s 1999 Man of the Year. He saw through the whole facade long before I ever would. But that doesn’t make his passing any less bitter. http://www.spintechmag.com/9901/mcwilliams.htmSenior Editor Jeremy Lott also serves as assistant managing editor of WorldNet Magazine. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/Direct Link To Article:http://www.spintechmag.com/0007/editor.htmPublished: July 12, 2000Copyright 2000 Spintech Magazine.Related Articles & Web Sites:For A Hereohttp://www.forahero.com/McWilliams.comhttp://www.mcwilliams.com/All My Books On Line For Freehttp://www.mcwilliams.com/books/books/Peter McWilliams Tribute Pagehttp://homepages.go.com/~marthag1/Peterm.htmPictures Of Peter McWilliams 1950 - 2000http://mischiefmarketing.com/mcwilliams/pics_01.html How I Became a Dove http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6381.shtmlThe Life and Death of Peter McWilliamshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6340.shtmlDrug War Hypocrites Kill A Troublesome Authorhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6167.shtml
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Comment #4 posted by FoM on July 14, 2000 at 07:54:41 PT
Good Question
Hi John Adams,I wondered if they did an autopsy too. I understand how Peter could have died from choking on his own vomit. The lungs of an AIDS patient don't have the ability to clear thick mucous very well from the lungs. PCP acts that way.Peace, FoM!
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Comment #3 posted by John Adams on July 14, 2000 at 06:08:42 PT:
Autopsy of Peter McWilliams?
I am puzzled as to how Peter McWilliams really died. First of all, people who choke to death on their own vomit can only do so if their gag reflex is suppressed. The only two possible medical causes of this are drug induced coma or a muscle spacicity disorder such as MS. Peter McWilliams did not have MS. Second, it is a widespread misconception that placing a person who has become unresponsive as a result of a heroin overdose in a bathtub of cold water will resucitate them. This myth is so widespread that medical examiners who encounter a dead body in a bathtub will report it as a virtual certainty that they are dealing with a heroin overdose. The combination of Peter McWilliams being found dead in a bathtub having choked on his own vomit bears the unmistakable sign of a heroin overdose death. Has anyone seen the autopsy report? How did a person die of "choking on his own vomit" unless in a coma? This is not to say that Peter McWilliams doesn't stand for all the things in the article. It's just important that we not be fed a load of crap about his death.
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on July 13, 2000 at 20:06:34 PT
Here's what I could gather up so far
Thanks Rainbow for the suggestion about Peter's articles! I can't make a topic for his articles but I can put them together myself on one page. I have this many so far. I know I didn't do all of the articles but I tried to get most of them.Here is the page I made in Memory of Peter and it has links to some of the articles.Peter's Tribute Pagehttp://homepages.go.com/~marthag1/Peterm.htmHere is what I have saved now.Drug War Hypocrites Kill A Troublesome Authorhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6167.shtmlDeath of a Crusader http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6165.shtmlAnother Drug War Victim http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6153.shtmlPeter McWilliams, R.I.P.http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6128.shtmlMurder in Californiahttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6119.shtmlUnnecessary Deathhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6109.shtmlLearning from Peter McWilliams http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6086.shtml Peter McWilliams Backed Medical Use of Marijuana http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6083.shtmlLibertarians Mourn Passing of M Marijuana Activisthttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6078.shtmlPeter McWilliams Passes Away http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6069.shtml Here is MapInc.'s links to all of Peter's articles that have been submitted.MapInc. Articles On Peter McWilliamshttp://mapinc.org/mcwilliams.htmCannabisNews Articles On Peter:171 came up in the search.http://alltheweb.com/cgi-bin/search?exec=FAST+Search&type=all&query=cannabisnews+McWilliams
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Comment #1 posted by Rainbow on July 13, 2000 at 18:37:10 PT
Library for Peter articles
FoMI would like to suggest if it is not too much more work that you add a name to the list of topics and that be Peter McWilliams.It would be nice to be able to group the articles but haveing the list would be fantastic.The St. Louis article about Durban, South Africa and the two spin articles need to be included in that listing.They are great reporting and even better reading.I sent the Durban - St. Louis Dispatch article to barry and copied all my representatives (??) in congress federal and state.I also fired barrry again :-) , really it feels good. We just need more people to fire him. And then there is just one we have to get to that will break it.PeaceRainbow
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