Bay Area Memorial Protests Grieving Suicide of MedPot Patient Who Faced Prison

For Immediate Release: July 18, 2005 Contact: Hilary McQuie
510.333-8554

Nationwide Memorials Grieving Suicide of MedPot Patient Who Faced Prison
Advocates Call on Congress to Change Federal Law

Nationwide --- On Tuesday, July 19, medical marijuana patients, doctors
and advocates will be memorializing the life of a well-known patient -
activist who committed suicide rather than go to federal prison by
demanding Congress take immediate action to avert such tragedies. San
Francisco’s vigil will take place at 12 noon at Civic Center Plaza, and
Oakland’s will be at 7 pm in front of Oakland City Hall.

On Monday, July 11, San Diego medical marijuana patient and advocate,
Steve McWilliams, committed suicide while awaiting federal sentencing.
Steve McWilliams organized and led a public handout in September 2002 of
medical marijuana to patients at San Diego’s City Hall in protest of the
federal raids on the WAMM collective in Santa Cruz. A few weeks later,
his home was raided and he was arrested on charges relating to the
cultivation of 25 marijuana plants grown for the small medical marijuana
collective he operated, Shelter from the Storm. Shelter from the Storm
– a collective of some half-dozen patients including a 73-year-old woman
suffering from leukemia, a 70-year old man with prostate cancer, and a
terminal transplant patient – had been officially recognized by the City
of San Diego as a legal patients’ collective in compliance with
California’s Compassionate Use Act. This is one of the smallest known
cases to be criminally prosecuted by the federal government in its
crackdown on medical marijuana patients in California.

Steve pled guilty with the right to appeal because federal law prohibits
him from presenting a valid medical marijuana defense in district court.
Without the plea agreement, Steve faced up to 40 years in prison. He
was sentenced to six months and released pending appeal but denied
access to medical marijuana. In June 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled
that federal authorities may raid and prosecute medical marijuana
patients, but questioned the wisdom of doing so. This ruling destroyed
Steve’s hopes of winning on appeal, and according to friends, he became
despondent, and convinced he would not survive prison. He was
experiencing increasing pain, and was hospitalized as late as last week.
He was taking powerful pharmaceuticals including opiates, anti-nausea,
anti-migraine and a variety of other ‘prescribed’ drugs in far higher
amounts than when he was able to medicate with marijuana. Evidently,
these were the substances he used to commit suicide.

“Steve McWilliams was an incredibly kind, compassionate, intelligent and
wise man, as well as a ‘balls to the wall’ activist,” said his friend
David Bronner. In Steve’s honor, Americans for Safe Access, a national
patients’ advocacy group, is spearheading memorial protests in
Washington DC, San Diego, CA and another 15 cities across the nation.
The memorials will be on Tuesday, July 19, 2005, to remember Steve
McWilliams and demand Congress take action to change federal law.

The Washington DC protest will be a memorial procession with powerful
visuals, starting 12 noon at Health and Human Services and circling
around Capitol Hill. July 19 is also the day that the Department of
Health and Human Services is due to take final action on the medical
marijuana Data Quality petition filed by Americans for Safe Access
(ASA). The ASA petition seeks correction of information disseminated by
HHS which denies that marijuana has recognized medical benefits. The
ASA petition alleges that such information violates the Data Quality
standards because the Department has failed to consider numerous valid
scientific studies demonstrating the medical benefits of marijuana.
Additionally, ASA is a member of the Coalition for Rescheduling
Cannabis, which has a current rescheduling petition they want an answer
to this August.

What: Memorials to honor Steve McWilliams – medical marijuana patient,
caregiver & activist
When: Tuesday, July 19, 2005 at 12pm (noon)
Where: DC : Start on the corner of Independence and 4th St., SW., at
the Department of Health and Human Services building. San Diego: Civic
Center Concourse Plaza, 202 C. Street, 3rd and B Street, Downtown San
Diego. For information on other cities, please contact Rebecca at
818-632-2222; San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles, Orange County,
Susanville, Sonoma, Santa Cruz, and Eugene, OR.
Who: A national coalition of 12,000 patients, doctors and advocates,
Americans for Safe Access is the largest organization working solely on
medical marijuana. To learn more, see http://www.SafeAccessNow.org.
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