sunday, november 7, 1999
U.S. stonewalling talk on medical pot
New York Times
With a trial scheduled to begin Nov. 16, the case has turned into a test of judicial tolerance for a defense strategy based on marijuana's medical uses.
Two defendants, Todd McCormick and Peter McWilliams, advocate legalizing marijuana for medical use and have used it to treat their own ailments: McCormick for pain from cancer treatments that fused several of his vertebrae, and McWilliams for nausea from drugs he takes to treat AIDS.
Saying the plants were for personal use and-research on a book about medical marijuana, they contend their actions were legal under Proposition 215, the ballot measure approved by California voters in 1996 allowing patients to smoke marijuana with a doctor's recommendation.
Federal prosecutors, however, sought and received an order from a federal judge barring the defendants from telling the jury that side of the story, even offering to drop some of the counts against them to keep those issues out of the courtroom.
In a ruling on Friday, US. District Judge George King prohibited the defendants from making any reference to Proposition 215, the purported medical benefits of marijuana or even the federal government's own experimental program, now closed, providing marijuana to patients.
The defendants say they are not being allowed to defend themselves.
"I'm devastated," McWilliams said in an interview Friday. "I can't even present my case to the jury. We just have to sit there and listen to the evidence, and we've already
admitted everything., Obviously, the federal government is stonewalling any discussion of medical marijuana in any forum."
McWilliams, a bestselling selfhelp author; McCormick, who founded a club that distributes marijuana for medical purposes; and another defendant, Aleksandra Evanguelidi, were among nine people charged with conspiring to grow and sell marijuana. They face minimum prison sentences of 10 years, if convicted. Three other defendants have pleaded guilty.
The trial comes at a time of increasing conflict in America's relationship with marijuana. On Tuesday, voters in Maine approved an initiative allowing medical use, joining Arizona and five Western states. A report commissioned by, the Clinton administration concluded earlier this year that marijuana's active ingredients are useful in treating pain and nausea, though the benefits are limited by the smoke's toxic effects.