Drug Policy Forum of Florida | National/International Organizations

ARRESTING and TRYING THE DEFENSELESS

Florida MS PATIENT, BILL WITT, Exemplifies the cruelty of Marijuana Laws

And won't we feel safer when he's taken off the streets?

 William Richard Witt
 8710 West Sample Road #7
 Coral Springs, FL  33065
 954-753-2751

 Arrest Number: 98-2167JCHO   or   98.21675CHU
 Broward County Charges
 Trial in September 99

Public Defender: Barry F. Feingold 954-831-8658
Pro Bono Attorney: Dick Wilson barr@magicnet.net

Court TV (Alexi Mellado - 305-347-6628) has committed to covering the trial, and Dr. John P. Morgan (212-650-8255), from NY Medical School will give expert testimony.

Bill is in his fourties and totally incapacitated from a twenty four year battle with Multiple Sclerosis. He used to make a good living building beautiful original fireplace designs before the disease ravaged and conquered his body.

His wife does not live with Bill as she is in the end stages of cancer. His son cares for him and the small apartment they share, which is quite a job for a young man (19?).

Bill has almost no control of his body. He lives strapped into a wheelchair; straps around his chest and waist and feet hold him upright. If he begins to lean, he must have someone sit him back up. His bones are fragile: In Bronson at the trial of Joe Tacl, Bill had a broken thigh bone. It just snapped when his son was putting him into the lotus position. But Bill felt he needed to be in that courtroom to prepare himself for his own ordeal. "If I want the support of others, I must be prepared to support them in kind."

His hands are drawn and his legs spasm, especially when he tires. He must have 2 shots at night, and keeps a knapsack full of medications with him at all times. As you heard in the courtroom, the medicines make him sleep at inopportune moments. I can't remember the names of all the pills, but I know he's on Marinol and Valium. He must depend on someone to get the proper doses out and drop them in his mouth, and he drinks best through a straw.

Marijuana stops his legs from jerking uncontrollably, but he must have help to smoke it. He is very thin and the plant helps him eat a little. It allows him to take less of the mindnumbing drugs he is on. Bill has been using marijuana to raise his quality of life in more ways than one. He knows there is a place of peace inside himself and marijuana is helping him learn to free his mind and find it.

The law took almost everything Bill owned when they arrested him on marijuana charges, and now he faces trial in Broward County in September. This is the most ridiculous trial that can be imagined. Everyone involved ought to feel a deep sense of shame.

Bill must settle for second rate medical care. His home health care workers do not allow him to have a bowel movement but three times a week. On the days no one will clean him, he modifies his eating and drinking to comply. But, this care is far superior to any medical treatment he will have in prison.

Even probation would be harsh as Bill has no vehicle but his wheelchair, no money left, no freedom of movement, and a definate medical need for marijuana, so I can think of nothing more fair under the allowed Florida medical marijuana defense ruling than to send this man home.

This is the kindest man you'd ever want to meet. Inside that broken body is a very astute mind trying to deal with an unthinkable situation; not a criminal mentality threatening society. It's long past time for compassion when we have to roll our prisoners into the courtroom and hold them up while we pronounce them guilty.

Kay Lee