| Photo: The Daily Voice |
| Montel Williams uses marijuana to ease the symptoms of MS, but Wisconsin doesn’t recognize the medicinal uses of cannabis — yet. |
Former talk-show host Montel Williams, a medical marijuana advocate, has reportedly been fined for possession of a pipe of the sort “commonly used to smoke pot,” according to the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office.
The pipe was found Tuesday at a routine security checkpoint by Transportation Security Administration agents at the General Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, reports Jennifer LaRue Huget at the Washington Post.
Williams paid his $484 fine and went on his way, according to the sheriff’s office.
Williams, 54, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1999. Laws in the 15 states which allow medical marijuana typically include MS among the conditions which qualify. But neither New York state, where Montel lives, nor Wisconsin, where he was fined, allows medicinal cannabis.
Williams has said he uses marijuana to ease the effects of his condition. He has joined other advocates asking Congress to allow him and other sick people to use cannabis without fear of prosecution.
“As regular readers of The Checkup know, I have MS,” reporter Huget wrote in the Post. “I haven’t hit the stage (yet) at which I’d consider using marijuana to ease symptoms. But really, folks, what was the point of Montel’s being fined?”
No marijuana was reportedly found, but Wisconsin chose to enforce its “drug paraphernalia” law against Williams.
Simply possessing any so-called “drug paraphernalia” (pipe, bong, etc.) is a crime in Wisconsin.
The maximum penalty for possession of drug paraphernalia in Wisconsin is 30 days in jail and a $500 fine.