McWilliams’ Legacy Still Inspires Medical Marijuana Activists

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Recollection Books

​Peter McWilliams was many things: author, publisher, photographer, poet and activist, among others. But one of the most important things McWilliams was, was an inspiration. His courage and charisma were and continue to be a source of strength to many who are struggling with illness and with the injustice of our marijuana laws.

He had a remarkable career starting in the 1970s, writing more than 40 books, including works on depression, losing a loved one, computers, and poetry. Several of Peter’s books made The New York Times Top 10 nonfiction bestseller list.
Peter’s 1993 book Ain’t Nobody’s Business If You Do remains one of the greatest affirmations of the right of citizens to act and live in any peaceful, honest lifestyle, including their inalienable right to drugs and especially cannabis. It is regarded by many as a “libertarian Bible,” with its emphasis on personal freedom and responsibility.

In 1995, Peter was diagnosed with depression, after having suffered from it all his life. Along with coauthor Harold H. Bloomfield, M.D. — who treated Peter for his depression — he’d authored How To Heal Depression the previous year.
In 1996 McWilliams was diagnosed with both AIDS and cancer and became very ill; he found that medical marijuana helped control the nausea and keep his medications down.

Peter’s Page
The great Peter McWilliams.

​McWilliams became a cannabis legalization activist after contracting AIDS. In 1997, in what would be his final project, Peter and Todd McCormick started a medical marijuana garden in Bel Air, California, and were researching a book about medicinal cannabis. Both Todd and Peter agreed that, according to their understanding of the newly passed Proposition 215 — approved by California voters in 1996 — their right to do so was legally protected.
Federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents raided the Bel Air garden, and both McWilliams and McCormick were arrested and later sentenced to mandatory minimum five-year federal prison sentences in 1999.
By this time Peter had a very personal stake in legal medical marijuana, as he was using cannabis to treat the nausea and debilitating effects of the anti-AIDS pharmaceuticals he was taking to deal with HIV symptoms and cancer. McWilliams had intended to write about the effectiveness of cannabis in helping him deal with his illness.
At his federal trial, Peter was forbidden to even mention that his use of marijuana was for medical purposes, because federal law doesn’t recognize any such use for cannabis.
The federal judge who sentenced McWilliams forbade him to use marijuana, and just five days after he was prohibited from using medicinal cannabis, Peter was found dead, choked on his own vomit from the nausea he suffered, on June 14, 2000.
Without marijuana, he had been unable to control the severe nausea associated with his medical conditions.

Steve Elliott ~alapoet~
Julia Rose, curator of Peter’s Page, an online tribute to the late poet and cannabis activist Peter McWilliams, sang a beautiful tribute to Peter at Seattle Hempfest 2011 from the stage bearing his name.

​The official cause of death was a heart attack, but many believe that Peter died of a broken heart, betrayed by an America that had turned its back on compassion and medical science. McWilliams sincerely believed that medicinal cannabis had been legalized by a vote of the people of California.
McWilliams’ legacy continues with a new generation of activists whom he has inspired. One of the most prominent of those is Julia Rose, curator of the online Peter McWilliams Museum. Julia has established “Peter’s Page” at PeterMcWilliams.org and on Facebook, and also maintains McWilliams.com, which was once Peter’s own personal site.
Julia is helping to keep Peter’s words, memory and legacy alive through online activism, videos and personal appearances at such events as Seattle Hempfest, the world’s largest marijuana protestival. At Hempfest 2011, she performed a moving and beautiful song about Peter’s life and work for an entranced crowd.
“I discovered Peter McWilliams in 2009 after reading his book You Can’t Afford The Luxury Of A Negative Thought,” Julia told Toke of the Town. “I was very inspired and wanted to do something about it.
“I started Peter’s Page on MySpace and then the Facebook page,” Julia said. “This year I created a video which shows Peter’s life and works.” (Editor’s note: See video below.)
“His words always tried to help people,” Julia said. “He wrote books that helped disabled people learn computers. He cowrote How To Survive The Loss Of A Love, which helps people to this day heal their broken hearts and lives.”
“Peter did so much with his short life,” Julia told me. “It’s only fair we remember him.”

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