Peter McWilliams; Backed Medical Use of Marijuana

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.