restore Sun, 18 Jun 2000 Volume 1 : Number 528
In this issue:
Peter McWilliams video on website
Fwd: MOMS Peter's playful side ;-)
MN: US CA: Medical-Marijuana Advocate Peter McWilliams Dies At
50
Swiss move to ease cannabis law
AK: Issue's Rope,Not Dope
Libertarian Harry Brown on Peter McWilliams
CA: McWilliams Backed Medical Use of Marijuana
The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue #141
FIGHT the Federal Government's War on Marijuana
thoughts on Peter and the War
McWilliams fire/death suspicious?
Re: Yes, Ann, Peter McWilliams items in press
Fw: AMMA: Peter McWilliams - Honoring with Action
Fw: Release: Peter McWilliams Death
Jacki's tribute to Peter
Marijuana "MIRACLE BUTTER" - Holistic Cure un-covered for Irritable
Bowel Syndrome
Activists Jury Leaflets Delay Trial
Re: restore V1 #525
Peter's answers from us.
Hawaii decriminalises marijuana
(http://www.news.24.com/News24/Health/0,1113,2-
USA Today Opinion
Ann, more news items about Peter are flooding in....
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 17 Jun 2000 13:01:31 -0700
From: "D. Paul Stanford" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED],[EMAIL PROTECTED],[EMAIL PROTECTED],
[EMAIL PROTECTED],[EMAIL PROTECTED],[EMAIL PROTECTED],
[EMAIL PROTECTED],[EMAIL PROTECTED],[EMAIL PROTECTED],
[EMAIL PROTECTED],[EMAIL PROTECTED],[EMAIL PROTECTED],
[EMAIL PROTECTED],[EMAIL PROTECTED],[EMAIL PROTECTED],
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Peter McWilliams video on website
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
CRRH and HempTV is honored to announce that we now have the video of ABC
News' 20/20 on June 9, 2000 featuring Peter McWilliams up on our website in
Real Video. You may use the free Real Player to watch this 3 minute, 45
second video clip, which is ABC news reporter John Stoessel's end-of-show
segment called, "Give me a break."
The video is at:
http://www.crrh.org/hemptv/news_mcwilliams.html
Peter McWilliams is a martyr, killed in the line of duty by the US federal
government in its campaign of intimidation and propaganda called the War on
Drugs. Though this best selling author lived in a state where the
sovereign, the people, voted to allow McWilliams and other ill people to
use medical marijuana, the federal government persecuted Peter, prosecuting
him in federal court for medical marijuana, and a court order denied him
the medicine he needed to live. His death is a direct result of the actions
of officials of the US federal government.
A couple days after this video aired nationwide on ABC's 20/20, McWilliams
final book and computers were destroyed in a mysterious fire at his home.
Then, 3 days later, despondent and ill, McWilliams' nausea, caused by the
regimen of other life-saving medications he was forced to take for his
illnesses, overwhelmed Peter and he died from asphyxiation.
We wonder, what or who caused the fire at Peter's home 3 days before he died?
Bless you Peter, may your life and death be a further inspiration for change.
Yours truly,
D. Paul Stanford
CRRH is working to regulate and tax the sale of cannabis to adults like
alcohol, allow doctors to prescribe cannabis through pharmacies and restore
the unregulated production of industrial hemp.
*Campaign for the Restoration and Regulation of Hemp*
mail: CRRH ; P.O. Box 86741 ; Portland, OR 97286 USA
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
phone: (503) 235-4606
fax: (503) 235-0120
web: http://www.crrh.org/
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 17 Jun 2000 13:03:47 -0700
From: "D. Paul Stanford" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Fwd: MOMS Peter's playful side ;-)
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>From: Ann <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Mailing-List: list [EMAIL PROTECTED]; contact
>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Subject: MOMS Peter's playful side ;-)
>
>A few years ago, I got an amusing, playful message from Peter. This
>spontaneous exchange with Todd had tickled him and he wanted to share it
>with me.
>
>He had brought Todd a copy of High Times and told him,
>"They mention you in there".
>
>Todd took the magazine, "Let me see!"
>
>Peter added, "You're only in there once. Your mother is mentioned 3
>times."
>
>Todd looked up, "Huh? My mother????"
>
>Peter laughed, "It's okay, Todd, don't worry about it. Most people love
>Mary more than Jesus, anyway."
>
>Since then, when Peter was feeling well and felt like teasing, he would
>not address me as 'Ann', but rather, "Mary!" Likewise, I began signing
>personal emails to Peter, "love, 'mary'" His humor, though often
>irreverent, maintained a gentle, playful and loving nature.
>
>Last night I sent an outline to use as a springboard for ideas
>
>How about helping to fill it in and start laying some plans that we can
>get to work on over the coming months..
>
>1.) Memorialize Peter and keep his work and memory alive
>
>2.) Demand Accountability
> a) Judge King
> b) Prosecutors
> c) Elected Officials
> d) Magistrate McMahon
> e) DEA, Barry McCaffrey
>
>3.) Use Peter's death as he would want it to be used
> a) Legalize MedMj
> b) Raise public outrage about the WoD
> c) Elect Libertarian (and/or libertarian-minded) candidates
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 17 Jun 2000 13:04:07 -0700
From: "D. Paul Stanford" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: MN: US CA: Medical-Marijuana Advocate Peter McWilliams Dies At
50
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Newshawk: WallyB
Pubdate: Fri, 16 Jun 2000
Source: Honolulu Star-Bulletin (HI)
Copyright: 2000 Honolulu Star-Bulletin
Contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Address: P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu, Hawaii 96802
Fax: (808) 523-8509
Feedback: http://starbulletin.com/forms/letterform.html
Website: http://www.starbulletin.com/
Author: Dan Whitcomb
MEDICAL-MARIJUANA ADVOCATE PETER MCWILLIAMS DIES AT 50
A Best-Selling Author, He Championed The Right To Heal Yourself
Without Government Intervention
LOS ANGELES - Bestselling self-help book author and medical
marijuana advocate Peter McWilliams has died at his Los Angeles home
as he was awaiting sentencing on federal charges of growing the drug
for sale, friends said today. He was 50.
McWilliams, author of ``How to Survive the Loss of Love'' and the
``Life 101'' series of self-help books, was found dead in his bathroom
on Wednesday, the friends said. No cause of death was listed but he
suffered from AIDS and Hodgkin's lymphoma. He was scheduled for
sentencing on Aug. 15 and faced five years in federal prison.
The wheelchair-bound McWilliams, who admitted cultivating marijuana
for sale in a 1999 plea agreement with federal prosecutors, gave a
nationally televised speech at the 1998 Libertarian National Convention.
``Peter McWilliams was a true hero who fought and ultimately gave his
life for what he believed in: The right to heal oneself without
government interference,'' said California Libertarian party chairman
Mark Hinkle said.
McWilliams and his co-defendant, 29-year-old Todd McCormick, pleaded
guilty after a judge ruled that they could not use medical necessity
as a defense.
Prosecutors said that the two men were growing the drug for profit and
said McWilliams once said he hoped to become the Bill Gates of
marijuana growing.
McCormick, who was arrested in 1997 after drug agents found more than
4,000 marijuana plants growing at his rented home in the exclusive Los
Angeles enclave of Bel-Air, was sentenced in March to five years in
federal prison.
He published the best-selling ``Surviving the Loss of Love'' in 1971,
followed by ``The Personal Computer Book'' and a series of self-help
books titled ``Life 101.''
Note: The Reuters version did not mention Peter's 20/20 "Give Me A Break"
segment last Friday (see transcript at
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n790/a05.html)
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Derek
www.mapinc.org
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 17 Jun 2000 13:05:07 -0700
From: "D. Paul Stanford" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Swiss move to ease cannabis law
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Swiss move to ease cannabis law
Dozens of hemp farms have appeared in Switzerland Switzerland could be on
the verge of overtaking the Netherlands as the cannabis centre of Europe,
with plans to legalise consumption of the drug.
Next month, the Swiss Government will unveil proposals to relax laws on
consumption and possibly, in a limited way, on sales and production.
Unlike in the rest of Europe, hemp with a narcotic content is legal, as
long as it is not sold to be smoked as cannabis.
Dozens of hemp farms have sprung up in Switzerland in the past five years
along with 150 hemp shops, where hemp products are sold together with
marijuana.
To cover themselves legally, the shops pack the dried weed in cellophane,
and then barcode, price and label it as "hemp tea", "dried flowers",
"organic buds" and "scent sachets".
A recent report by the Federal Commission for Narcotics Issues, an
independent panel that advises the government, found that half a million
people out of Switzerland's population of seven million smoked cannabis at
least once a month.
It concluded that cannabis had all but attained middle-class respectability
"because of widespread use and a marked increase in its social status".
The narcotics commission, along with some of the cantons is calling on the
government to legalise possession, sale and consumption of small amounts.
The head of the Health Ministry, Thomas Zeltner, says next month the
government will propose to parliament that the laws on cannabis are relaxed.
However, he said he would be against legalising the sale and production of
cannabis.
He said: "Consumption yes, sale and production definitely no. That would
make Switzerland an island and we do not want that."
Three of the parties in the governing coalition are expected to agree with
the decriminalisation of consumption.
Black market
Mr Zeltner says the government may suggest a system similar to that in the
Netherlands which will mean consumers and traders will no longer be
prosecuted.
"There is a possibility that the government will introduce a formula like
the Netherlands that hemp production and sale will in principle be illegal,
but that law enforcement will not look after these shops."
Francois Reusser, the president of the Swiss Hemp Association, who runs
Chanf, a popular Zurich hemp shop, said: "Adults have the right to have
controlled and regulated access to that stuff.
"That way the black market will disappear and that is what we want from the
government."
'Needle park'
Switzerland has attempted innovative ways to combat the drugs problem.
The largest open-air drug market, the notorious "needle park" in Zurich,
was closed in 1995 after pressure from community groups upset with crime
and other problems.
But Switzerland continues to experiment with progressive treatment
programmes, including prescribing heroin to hard-core addicts under strict
medical control.
Swiss voters in 1998 overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to legalise both
so-called "soft" and "hard" drugs.
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 17 Jun 2000 13:05:49 -0700
From: "D. Paul Stanford" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: AK: Issue's Rope,Not Dope
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Newshawk: Sledhead
Pubdate: Fri, 16 Jun 2000
Source: Anchorage Daily News (AK)
Copyright: 2000 The Anchorage Daily News
Contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Website: http://www.adn.com/
Author: Isaac Schapira
99HEMP
Issue's Rope,Not Dope.
In November, Alaskans will have the opportunity to vote on an
initiative, known as 99HEMP, to legalize the various derivatives of
cannabis sativa. If the measure passed, it would legalize marijuana
cultivation, possession and use. It also would make it possible for
Alaskans to grow industrial hemp.
Sounds good at first. I support the legalization of both industrial
hemp and marijuana. But the reasons for legalizing hemp are different
than the reasons for legalizing marijuana. Industrial hemp is a
nonpsychoactive crop with practical applications as a source of fuel,
food and fiber. One acre of hemp will yield 1,000 gallons of ethanol
through a relatively simple refining process.
Hemp is a low-maintenance crop, and the amount of carbon dioxide it
takes in during the growth cycle balances out the amount of carbon
dioxide emitted by burning ethanol. Clearly, hemp biomass could prove
to be a valuable energy resource in the coming years. Since one could
get no higher smoking industrial hemp than by smoking asparagus, it
makes little sense for anti-marijuana statutes to outlaw hemp's
cultivation.
Unfortunately, the 99HEMP supporters have chosen to lump industrial
hemp in with marijuana. The initiative petition, found online at the
Free Hemp in Alaska Web site (www.freehempinak.org), defines hemp as
"hemp, cannabis or marijuana, or any part or preparation of cannabis
sativa, cannabis indica. . .or any variety of cannabis."
That's wrong. Cannabis indica is not hemp, it is an entirely different
species, and a far more psychoactive one. This distinction was made by
Pierre Lamarck as early as 1783.
The movement to legalize industrial hemp will meet with limited
success if it is linked with efforts to legalize marijuana. If voters
are reliably informed that industrial hemp cannot be smoked
recreationally, and of the numerous economic and environmental
advantages that hemp has to offer, then it is reasonable to expect
that they might vote to legalize it. On the other hand, many Alaskans
do not support the legalization of drugs, and will reject a measure
like 99HEMP because it would make marijuana legal.
Even something like using the same term for industrial hemp and
marijuana indicates a faulty concept of botany and chemistry on the
user's part and can perpetuate a similar misunderstanding on the
reader's part. This misunderstanding is why hemp was outlawed in the
first place.
Furthermore, the Free Hemp in Alaska site, which is decorated with
goofy images of bongs and pot leaves, makes the effort to legalize
hemp look less like a legitimate endeavor and more like the work of
oafish potheads.
In a 1996 interview with High Times magazine (the work of decidedly
less oafish potheads), International Hemp Association project manager
Robert Connell Clarke said, "There's recreational marijuana, there's
industrial hemp and there's medical marijuana. That's three distinct
issues. And they should not be linked together.
"The hempsters feel that linking them together allows medical
marijuana, or more likely industrial hemp, to lead the way toward the
eventual legalization of recreational marijuana. But in my view,
that's not putting your best foot forward, that's tying your shoelaces
together. Believe me, I have a lot of contact with the industrial
side, and they don't want to hear about marijuana. They just want to
have hemp be hemp. They wish. . .it came from a different plant."
The focus of a pro-hemp initiative should be to legalize industrial
hemp and should not be bogged down by the stigma of marijuana. But I
believe that marijuana should be legal as well.
Conservative writer William F. Buckley Jr. maintains that the war on
drugs is lost.
While the legality of the cannabis genus is justifiable, any attempts
to bring about this freedom should be gradual. Right now, a more
reasonable and feasible step would be to lobby for an initiative to
legalize industrial hemp and maintain the proscriptions against
marijuana. Hopefully, these will be overcome someday. If not, at least
we'll have better fuel and rope.
When November rolls around, I will vote yes on the 99HEMP initiative.
If it passes, Alaskans will probably enjoy a wide range of benefits
from access to cannabis. But the tactics of people at Free Hemp in
Alaska are not only limiting the likelihood of passage but
disseminating more of the misinformation that continues to cloud the
minds of the anti-hemp crowd.
There's a list of quotes at www.freehempinak.org, and among them is
this one, from Edmund Burke: "The only thing necessary for the triumph
of evil is for good people to do nothing." That's also incorrect. Evil
does just fine when good people do the wrong thing.
Perfect World editor Isaac Schapira is a recent graduate of West.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: greg
www.mapinc.org
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 17 Jun 2000 13:07:07 -0700
From: "D. Paul Stanford" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Libertarian Harry Brown on Peter McWilliams
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Newshawk: Doug Caddy
Pubdate: Sat, 17 June 2000
Source: Worldnetdaily
Website: http://www.worldnetdaily.com
Author: Harry Browne
Learning from Peter McWilliams
----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
--
--
=A9 2000 WorldNetDaily.com
Peter McWilliams, who died on June 14, was more than an author and activist
for libertarian causes. He was a teacher from whom we can learn to be better
salesmen of liberty -- and even better people.
First some background. In March 1996, Peter was diagnosed with both AIDS and
cancer. He was required to take so many pills that he vomited constantly,
rendering the pills useless. Like many other people, he found that smoking
marijuana relieved the nausea, kept the pills in his stomach and allowed him
to stay alive.
Always a libertarian and opposed to the Drug War, his personal afflictions
prodded him to become even more an activist -- and he set to work writing a
book on medical marijuana.
In December 1997, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency conducted a pre-dawn raid
on his home and stole his computer -- containing the only copy of the book
manuscript. In July 1998, he was arrested and charged with violating the
federal drug laws by smoking marijuana. The trial judge prohibited him from
pointing-out that medical marijuana is legal in California. Stripped of his
only defense, he plea-bargained for a sentence of five years -- which he
hoped to serve under house arrest, rather than in prison.
While awaiting the final determination of how he would serve his sentence,=
he
was allowed to post bail and remain at home -- provided he stop smoking
marijuana. He complied with the prohibition because his family's homes were
mortgaged to provide his bail. No longer able to use marijuana to keep his
medicines down, he finally died this past week -- apparently choking on his
own vomit. As Steve Kubby has said, Peter died of an overdose of government.
Despite his somewhat flamboyant public personality, Peter was a gentle,
sensitive soul. He exhibited a tolerance toward his enemies that would have
made a saint proud.
Someone once asked him why, since he was living on borrowed time anyway, he
didn't get a gun and take some of the Drug Warriors to the Hereafter with
him. Peter replied:
My enemy is ignorance, not individuals. It is winning the war of ideas --
through fact, logic, persuasion and, yes, humor -- that brings about lasting
change.
What we are facing today in America is not an evil dictator like Hitler, who
is the head of a snake and whose removal will kill the snake -- but=
overgrown
bureaucracies like the Drug War, which is more like an anthill. No matter=
how
many individual ants you kill one at a time, the colony goes on.
Any idiot with a gun can kill. It takes clever perseverance to make lasting
change.
As has been proven time and again, to alter the government in this country
does not take violence, but education. My job is to get the country back=
into
believing and living under the supreme law of the Constitution, not to kill
those who are leading the country astray.
I support the high road of truth, facts, debate, and education even if I'm
not able to walk that road much longer and even if lies, deception,
repression, and ignorance are the direct cause of my death.
Peter was a wonderful example -- not just of tolerance, but of=
effectiveness.
He taught us that the battle for a free, libertarian America is too=
important
to indulge ourselves by being venomous, snide, patronizing or violent toward
our opponents. We must keep our heads, be patient and help Americans
understand how the government and the Drug War are hurting them.
We gain nothing by asserting our superiority and browbeating the people we
need to bring to our side. We gain everything by following Peter's example
and treating everyone -- friend or foe -- as a sovereign, but perhaps
misinformed, human being.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
--
--
Harry Browne was the 1996 Libertarian Party presidential candidate. Many of
his articles are published at his website.=20
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 17 Jun 2000 13:13:11 -0700
From: "D. Paul Stanford" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: CA: McWilliams Backed Medical Use of Marijuana
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Peterr McWilliams Backed Medical Use of Marijuana
Posted by FoM on June 17, 2000 at 07:06:42 PT
By David Rosenzweig, Times Staff Writer
Source: Los Angeles Times
Peter McWilliams, a best-selling author who advocated the medicinal use of
marijuana, died Wednesday at his Laurel Canyon home after a long
battle with AIDS and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
At his death, the 50-year-old McWilliams was awaiting sentencing in federal
court on a charge of conspiring to possess, manufacture and sell
marijuana.
McWilliams and co-defendant Todd McCormick were arrested in 1997 after law
enforcement officers raided a Bel-Air estate where the two men were allegedly
growing more than 4,000 marijuana plants.
They pleaded guilty to the charge last year after U.S. District Judge
George H. King ruled that they could not rely on California's medical
marijuana initiative as a
defense.
Federal courts have refused to recognize the initiative, which was approved
by California's voters in 1996.
Accused of bankrolling the operation, McWilliams contended that he was
growing the marijuana for cooperatives that supply the drug to medical
patients in
California. Government prosecutors argued that he wanted to make money.
"They're making me out to be some kind of drug kingpin and I'm not," he
once told a reporter.
McWilliams, who was scheduled to be sentenced in August, remained free on
$250,000 bail on condition that he refrain from using marijuana.
He said that being denied marijuana left him nauseated most of the time and
sapped his strength. At his last court appearance, he sat slumped in his
wheelchair.
He was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 1996. He said that he
hadn't smoked marijuana for years but that he found it eased the side
effects of
chemotherapy.
McWilliams was the author of several popular books, including "Ain't
Nobody's Business if You Do," a wry treatise on the absurdity of consensual
crimes. He also
wrote "How to Survive the Loss of a Love" and "The Personal Computer Book."
His death was reported Friday by Mark Hinkle, state chairman of the
California Libertarian Party. McWilliams was a party member.
Assistant U.S. Attys. Jackie Chooljian and Mary Fulginiti, who prosecuted
McWilliams, said in a statement: "We are very saddened by Mr. McWilliams'
death."
McWilliams is survived by his mother, Mary, and a brother, Michael. Funeral
arrangements were pending.
Published: Saturday, June 17, 2000
Copyright 2000 Los Angeles Times
www.cannabisnews.com
__________
Exopolitics - Alternative News for ecology, consciousness &
Universe politics. MIRROR SITES:
USA http://www.exopolitics.com/
CZECH http://mujweb.cz/www/ecologynews/
UK http://members.tripod.co.uk/ecologynews/
Canada http://www.ecologynews.com/
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html
<A HREF="http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
<A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
