Downsize DC has a added a new campaign for writing Congress. Its goal is to Help End the Mexican Civil War, and its message is simple: “Please bring peace to both Mexico and the United States by ending the War on Drugs.” (You can add your own additions to it, of course.)
They’re also remembering a very special person, who died 10 years ago yesterday — Peter McWilliams.
Peter is one of the Drug War Victims listed on my page, and is particularly significant:
Peter was a world-famous author and an advocate of medical marijuana, not only because he believed in it in principle, but because it was keeping him alive (he had AIDS and non-Hodgkins lymphoma). After California passed a law legalizing medical marijuana, Peter helped finance the efforts of Todd McCormick to cultivate marijuana for distribution to those who needed it for medical reasons. Federal agents got wind of his involvement, and Peter was a target for his advocacy. He was arrested, and in federal court was prevented from mentioning his medical condition or California’s law. While he was on bail awaiting sentencing, the prosecutors threatened to take away his mother’s house (used for bail) if he failed a drug test, so he stopped using the marijuana which controlled his nausea from the medications and allowed him to keep them down. He was found dead on the bathroom floor, choked to death on his own vomit.
I first got to know Peter McWilliams through his extraordinary book: Ain’t Nobody’s Business if You Do: The Absurdity of Consensual Crimes in a Free Society
Thanks, Peter.
There is a way for you to take action to end the Mexican Civil War by the end of 2011, but you only have until the end of this weekend to do it. Here is how it works.
The vast majority of the murder and mayhem on our southern border would disappear if marijuana could legally be manufactured and distributed within the United States. There is an initiative that has a good chance of getting on the ballot this year in Washington State, but it needs your financial help. You can read it here.
http://sensiblewashington.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/1068petitiondmasterpdf41210.pdf
This initiative I-1068 would allow a free market to exist in the manufacture and distribution of marijuana within the United States. This is real legalization of the entire marijuana economy.
This new legal marijuana economy would within one year end the importation of most if not all marijuana from Mexico. It would result in the end of the export of billions of dollars through the sale of drugs that goes now to fund criminals and would instead finance legal businesses. The problem is we need your help.
There are powerful players that claim to want legalization but do not want to see this get on the ballot.
Please take the time today to change the world by learning about and donating generously to Sensible Washington, tomorrow may be too late.
http://sensiblewashington.org/.
Two grateful nations, Mexico and the U.S., thank you.
You are missed Peter…may your memory and spirit give us strength to press on and bring an end to Their war on Americans.
All because of a freakin’ plant!
This book is my mantra. I was shocked and angered to see the author on the drug war victims page when I was linking people to it in discussions about the video of the raid where the dogs were shot in february.
The best line in the Downsize article is “The politicians have their typical answer, which is to do more of what hasn’t worked.”
I wonder how many people are aware that there are two versions of Ain’t Nobody’s Business. The original hardcover is far better because it’s much more comprehensive, including an extra couple of hundred pages devoted to an examination of the Bible, how it’s been used to justify all sorts of malicious stupidity, and how said stupidity isn’t actually justified by any biblical text when taken in context.
Unfortunately, the revised edition (the one available on Peter’s site and elsewhere) omits all of this, and the book is vastly inferior for it. I would LOVE to have a PDF version of the original hardcover, but it seems that while Peter’s site is up, no one checks the email address given on the site.
This book quite literally changed the course of my life and my outlook on so many things. It has been the most influential book I’ve ever encountered.
Peter, the world is worse for wear without you, and you are missed.
Just ordered the hardcopy off of ebay. 800 some pages, so it should be much longer than what is available on the website
http://www.petermcwilliams.org/mirrors/www.mcwilliams.com/books/books/aint/toc0.htm
Unless I’m mistaken, the above link is where you can read ANBIYD online in full, including the analysis of “what Jesus and the Bible really said” about the various adult consensual behaviors discussed throughout the rest of the book.
cheers from clearwater
SS
Yup, Peter McWilliam’s book ANBIYD, life, and horrible death made a huge impression on me. I remember reading the book, buying it mostly because the title caught my eye. His perspective on freedom and choices and power is part of my world-view. I remember that a few years after reading the book, I looked him up and learned about his death. He is remembered, RIP.
The outstanding insanity of consensual “crimes” is illustrated by, of all things, prostitution. En que cabeza cabe (in what head does it fit for all you gringos) to criminalize something it is perfectly legal TO GIVE AWAY???
Pot, a weed, grows damn near EVERYWHERE.
En que cabeza cabe???
For the record, the hardcover version of this book is NOT available online and the version that IS available is significantly different, shorter, and inferior. I’ll never understand why the publisher – and possibly Peter himself(?) – felt the need to butcher such a fantastic piece of work.
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