Peter McWilliams - Death

Death

On June 14, 2000, McWilliams was found dead in his apartment. The New York Times reported that he had both AIDS and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma at the time of his death, but did not explicitly state that either disease directly caused his death. His mother's house had been used to collateralize the bond on which he was allowed to remain free pending sentencing, a condition of which was that he refrain from using cannabis. For fear of losing his mother's house, he did so, again forgoing the medication needed to control his symptoms. He had access to Marinol, but it was effective for him only one-third of the time. William F. Buckley Jr., a friend and an admirer, wrote a public letter expressing his grave concern that such a man should be made to die from excess vomiting under such uninformed conceptions of law (see below).

The federal prosecutor personally called my mother to tell her that if I was found with even a trace of medical marijuana, her house would be taken away.

Richard Cowan and many critics of the U. S. drug policies have described his death as murder by the U. S. government, insofar as they denied him the use of the medical marijuana which might have prevented his death. At least one account suggests that he choked on his own vomit because of the nausea and William F. Buckley stated that he was vomiting when he died. Others (including McWilliams himself, in Ain't) suggest those involved in such tragedies as his are otherwise good people whose dedication to the law had allowed them to be used for the purpose of enforcing unnecessarily cruel, unnecessarily expensive, and simply unnecessary laws, for the purpose of enforcing a morality that is in the interests of satisfying the moral offense of a segment of the American population, rather than satisfying the legitimate interests of America or Americans.

When his elderly mother pledged her house as security for the bail, they threatened that the government would seize her house if her son simply failed a drug test, not just if he were to flee. She would not be intimidated, but now her son is dead as the result of the conditions of the bail. These are the "family values" of America's war on the sick and dying.

In October 2001, John Stossel reported again on McWilliams' story. The segment, entitled Sex, Drugs and Consenting Adults, included footage of the late author and was highly critical of victimless crime laws.