On the
Right
By William
F. Buckley Jr
August
16, 1998
The general
mess created by our drug laws has reached a tropical low in Los Angeles,
where the storm center gathers over the head of Peter McWilliams.
Here is
the political background:
In November
1996, the California voters endorsed a plebiscite (Proposition 215)
that authorizes the purchase of marijuana by any Californian with a
doctors recommendation. Doctors are supposed to write out that
prescription only when cannabis provides unique relief. That law conflicted
with federal statutes that make the smoking of marijuana a crime at
any time, including - to observe the language - on your deathbed.
The question
immediately arose: What do we do about these conflicting jurisdictions?
Everybody waited for everybody else to act. The most that Attorney General
Dan Lungren would do (he is running for governor) was promise to observe
the new law "minimally."
But of
course the reciprocal gears of justice do not here interlock glibly.
The marijuana lobby in California is sincerely interested in making
the weed available to the sick, who are said to profit greatly from
it. But the marijuana lobby in California is also sincerely interested
in anybodys getting marijuana who wants marijuana, and the political
story here took flesh and blood in Peter McWilliams.
McWilliams
is a middle-aged literary man-about-town. He has written 30 books that
range in concern from poetry to love to computers to moral anarchy.
He is a self described libertarian who believes that no law should be
passed that gets in the way of anybody doing anything he wants to do,
provided it doesnt hurt somebody else; and that such laws as are
on the books that conflict with libertarian doctrine should be treated
only with just such as much respect as is necessary to keep you out
of jail.
On July
23, the feds concluded that McWilliams and partners were not sufficiently
complying with the law. McWilliams, who has always appreciated the lighter
side of life and thought, had lent money from his tiny publishing firm
to an entrepreneur who used it to nurture 4,000 marijuana plants.
Why? Well,
if a doctor is entitled under the law to prescribe marijuana, then he
has to get it somewhere, does he not? Parthenogenesis wont give
you fresh supplies of marijuana, even in California.
So the
feds announced themselves at 6 in the morning, with handcuffs, and took
away not only McWilliams but also his computer with all its records.
They demanded bail of $250,000. His lawyer pleaded against the draconian
extreme of the bail demanded. The defense was perfectly glad to give
up Peters passport. Did anybody really think he would not show
up at his trial?
Pressures
of another kind were inflicted. McWilliams has AIDS and also a form
of lymphoma. The treatment prescribed by his doctor is complex and delicately
balanced and is required six times every day. The failure of the prison
authorities to give him the doses as called for has resulted in frequent
nausea, no trivial complaint given that in that condition, those who
suffer from that combination of maladies McWilliams suffers from run
the risk of contracting a terminal case of tuberculosis.
The meltdown
is therefore now scheduled. A few months from now, McWilliams and his
fellow defendants will insist that they were not guilty of any criminal
intent. No money changed hands. True, McWilliams did at one point pass
off the wisecrack that he wished to become the "Bill Gates of medical
marijuana." But you dont go to prison for making wild statements
about a fantasy life, any more than Bill Clinton goes to prison for
making wild statements about celibate behavior.
But in
ruling on McWilliams vs. the United States, prosecutors are going to
have to face headlong the California argument. At one level, California
will argue the Ninth and 10th level, Amendments to the Constitution,
which prohibit federal activity in areas reserved to the states under
the Constitution.
That defense
will be half-hearted, because the justice establishment in California
never liked Proposition 215, and dont like McWilliams, who is
an enthusiast for marijuana, which he proclaims (in publications protected
by the First Amendment) as suitable to give relief for most adult aches
and pains.
It will
be a very interesting trial, and it is likely that many institutions
will weigh in with amici curiae pleading their own judgments of law,
conflicts, drugs and liberty. Meanwhile, one hopes that Peter McWilliams,
something if a bird of paradise, is left alone to take proper care of
himself.
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