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Peter McWilliams denied AIDS medication for four days
from the Colorado Hemp Initiative Project, Jul 28, 1998 JULY 27, 1998 / LOS ANGELES, CA: Writer-Publisher Peter McWilliams is being denied his AIDS medication while in Federal custody. McWilliams was arrested at his home at 6:00 AM on July 23, 1998 by seven DEA agents for Federal medical marijuana violations. McWilliams has not been given his AIDS medication since he was arrested. "At the Bail Hearing, the Prosecutor, Fernando Aenlle-Rocha, assured the judge I would receive my AIDS medication." said McWilliams on Sunday still in Federal Custody. "I have not." McWilliams was diagnosed with AIDS and Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, a result of the AIDS, in March, 1996. He has been taking the combination therapy of two anti-viral and one Protease Inhibitors since that time. Medical experts warn that noncompliance with the six-times-a-day treatment could lead to fatal mutations of the AIDS virus not treatable by medicine. McWilliams will be arraigned on nine federal counts, all involving medical marijuana on Monday, July 27, 1998 at 8:30 AM before Judge George King. "Of the three vital components of the combination therapy, I have never been given one of them." said McWilliams in a phone interview from the Federal Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles. "My doctor and every medical report I have read repeatedly stresses the importance of not missing so much as a single dose. I have taken my AIDS medication faithfully for 2 and 1/2 years. Now, there is a four day gap in that life-saving treatment." McWilliams has been a vocal advocate of medical marijuana, an outspoken critic of the Federal policies jailing sick people for treating their illnesses, especially since the passage of California's Proposition 215 in 1996. "The Federal Government has arrested me to silence me." said McWilliams. "But must it attempt to murder me as well?" McWilliams has appeared on CNN, ABC News, TIME, CBS Radio Network, MSNBC, and dozens of other media advocating medical marijuana. He is the publisher of The Medical Marijuana Magazine. McWilliams intends to detail his lack of promised medical treatment to Judge King at his Monday arraignment.
Contact Numbers: "One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws." - MLK
From the Colorado Hemp Initiative Project: If you haven't done it already, please protest this escalation of the federal government's war against patients and violation of human rights. Your letters of outrage can be sent to the California media, using the list below to cut and paste into the Blind Carbon Copy (Bcc:) field of your email program. More targets for your outrage can be found at: www.levellers.org/toddact.htm.
For background on the trials of Peter McWilliams and Todd McCormick, see:
Send copies of your letters to:
Write LETTERS TO THE EDITOR of these California newspapers. Express outrage at the persecution patients in California. Tell them to STOP THE WAR ON SICK PEOPLE!! For help on letter-writing, see the Media Awareness Project.
California Newspapers (compiled by Jim Rosenfield)
cctletrs@netcom.com(Contra Costa County Times Calif.)
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