Why Libertarianism Is As Much Fun As Medical Marijuana
A speech before the Libertarian National Convention
given July 4, 1998, by Peter McWilliams
Thank you, thank you very much. Good afternoon. Where are the
Teleprompters? How am I expected to do a political speech without a
teleprompter? You mean, I’m just supposed to stand here and say what I
think and believe? What kind of political party is this?
I want to tell you about a pair of epiphanies that I had in 1996. The
first happened in March of 1996 when I was diagnosed with both AIDS and
cancer. I tell you this early on because I want your sympathy throughout the
rest of this speech. When you mention AIDS or cancer, people are so afraid
of their own death that they treat you very nicely.
Remember that. For example, I am going to demonstrate it here. I am
going to show you how much sympathy this audience currently has. As an AIDS
patient, if Bill Clinton had followed his campaign promise to start a
Manhattan Project-style federal program to end AIDS, I would not have AIDS
today.
Do you see how much sympathy I'm getting? Normally somebody saying that
at a Libertarian event would be booed off the stage. Because, in fact, if
Clinton had started his federal Manhattan Project-style cure for AIDS, I
wouldn’t have AIDS now.
I’d be dead.
It’s the greedy pharmaceutical companies who wanted to exploit and
profit from my misery and my tragedy who are keeping me alive today.
Speaking of greedy manufacturers, tonight those of you coming to the banquet
will receive a free copy of my book, Ain’t
Nobody’s Business if You Do, as sort of a first course. I do this
not because I like any of you, but because I get to hold this up on C-SPAN.
That wasn’t a shameless plug; the book is online, as all my books are, for
free, at www.mcwilliams.com. So that
was a plug to go online and read the book for free, please.
Back to March 1996. I was being pumped full of chemotherapy, which
causes nausea, and radiation, which causes nausea, and AIDS medications,
which cause nausea, and none of the prescription antinausea medications were
working. The nausea, however, ended instantly with medical marijuana. With
one puff of marijuana, the nausea turned to hunger. Thank Mother Nature for
that (Mother Nature is one of Nature’s Gods, from the Declaration of
Independence.) Medical marijuana has been around for more than 5000 years
and it hasn’t killed anyone.
It is astonishing how well it works.
And you have to understand how serious it is when you can’t keep your
medication down--it’s not just uncomfortable, if you can’t keep that
medication down, it’s not going to save your life. And that is the
important point. We’re talking about life and death when we’re talking
about treating AIDS and cancer. Half the people not taking the AIDS
combination therapy—some 40 percent of all who try—do so because of
nausea. This is a shame, because the AIDS medications are working so well
for those who can tolerate them. I am one of them. But 20 percent stop
because of nausea. I wonder how many of those 20 percent, if they had access
to legal, inexpensive marijuana, would have that same problem. Every day
people are denied cancer chemotherapy because the doctors stop treatment
knowing that they will die of malnutrition if they go another day without
eating. Nausea is an unsolved problem of medicine and marijuana is the
finest antinausea medication known to science.
At the same time our leaders have lied about this consistently. Our
leaders whom we trust, whom we look up to. From the Democratic president to
the Drug Czar to the Republican leaders in Congress, in both the House and
the Senate. They have lied to us about medical marijuana. They have lied to
us about the harm of marijuana. There is no more benign medicinal substance
known to human beings. And we have been lied to about this. And so this was
my first epiphany, watching my normal run to the bathroom, with one puff of
marijuana, turn into a meandering raid on the kitchen. And with that
epiphany I said, "I am not going to rest until medical marijuana is
available to every sick person who needs it in the United States."
Epiphany two came exactly two years ago, probably today, when I lay in
bed smoking marijuana -- see, I hadn’t smoked marijuana for a couple of
decades. I believed all those lies having to do with lack of mental, um, uh,
clarity... and short term... where was I? Anyway, all of that nonsense is
really a lot of nonsense and boy, do I regret those two decades I wasn’t
smoking pot. I can honestly say I was not a pot smoker until I started using
medical marijuana. So there I was in July two years ago and I was smoking
pot and boy, was I enjoying myself. And I was channel surfing, and I was
smoking pot, and I was really grooving on this whole thing called
chemotherapy. And I flip to these people talking, mostly men with pot
bellies and t-shirts, and they would be talking and one of them would tell
the truth, and I kind of sat there stunned -- who expects the truth on
C-SPAN?
So there I was watching, and one person would tell the truth, and then
another person would tell the truth, and then another person would tell the
truth. What on earth is going on, I mean, this must be really good pot. It
turned out to be the Libertarian National Convention. I said, oh great. But
then I thought, where is it, in Denver? Because you see, in 1993, when I
completed Ain’t Nobody’s Business if You Do, I wanted to join and
praise the Libertarian Party and in 1993 I called information in Washington
DC and there was no listing for the Libertarian Party. I called 800
information; there was no listing for the Libertarian Party. And I thought,
as much as I love these people, someone who doesn’t at least have an
answering machine in Washington DC can’t be very serious about the whole
political thing.
So you can imagine my epiphany when here, totally without my
interference, the libertarians had matured into a political party. And then
in the two years, the two years in which I have been single-mindedly working
on medical marijuana, when I wasn’t ducking bullets, the Libertarian Party
got an entire office in Washington DC, until today, now, July 4, 1998,
Washington DC, my two epiphanies meet in this speech before the Libertarian
National Convention.
Although I have not joined the Libertarian party yet, I know I stand for
a lot of [audience begins yelling for McWilliams to join the Libertarian
Party] -- remember, I have AIDS! Come on; get that sympathy up, huh? Come
on, back, back! Boy, it’s like saying I haven’t accepted Christ at a
Christian Coalition meeting. Down! I never thought I’d tell a Libertarian
to be less aggressive politically. I thought those were words you’d never
hear out of my mouth.
I would like to suggest to you that you--not necessarily the party but
you individually, maybe not as a party plank but more as a pet project, kind
of a little Chia pet project--actively work for medical marijuana in this
country. I have four reasons for this. The third one is in your own best
interest, so listen up when I get to the end of number two. The first two is
that I believe medical marijuana currently stands for the most hideous
ongoing example of government interference in the private lives of
individuals today.
The first reason: Medical marijuana prohibition is an outrage within an
outrage within an outrage. The first outrage, of course, is the War on Drugs
itself. Prohibition does not work, has not worked, cannot work, and anyone
who says it can is either deeply delusional or is making money on the drug
war.
The next layer of outrage is marijuana prohibition. Marijuana 61 years
ago was unjustly criminalized based upon lies by the self-serving drug czar
of his time to a Congress who lapped it up like milk because it was hot and
they wanted to go home. It happened in the summer. And so they voted in the
Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 after ninety seconds of debate. The prohibition
has been unrelenting. More than 12 million Americans have been arrested for
marijuana since that time. This is a plant that has never hurt anyone in
5000 years in a country where 400,000 people die prematurely of cigarettes
and 100,000 people die prematurely from alcohol. That this herb, this plant,
this weed should be so illegal in this country that since the 1995 Omnibus
Crime Bill, if you possess enough of it, our government will put you to
death. If you don’t think marijuana is still prohibited keep in mind that
645,000 people were arrested in 1996 alone, the most ever. That’s one
arrest every 48 seconds. Meanwhile we have a speaker of the house and a
president and a vice-president who have all admitted to smoking marijuana.
These are pothead baby boomers and it’s outrageous that they should put
their fellows in prison.
Finally, the outrage within the outrage within the outrage is medical
marijuana. In the War on Drugs, unlike any war in American history, unlike
any modern civilized war of the past two centuries. In this War on Drugs
they are not stopping the battle and allowing the Red Cross on the field. In
fact, they are shooting directly at the sick and at those who are trying to
help them. And they are shooting to kill. A friend of mine named Todd
McCormick was arrested for growing marijuana in his own home after
Proposition 215 passed in California that allowed for cultivation. He had cancer
nine times before he was 10. The DEA came in, destroyed his plants, and
wants to put him in prison for the rest of his life, a ten-year mandatory
minimum. Plus a $4 million fine. That’s shooting to kill. It’s been
going on for 11 months now.
As you know, the DEA and their bosom buddy, the IRS, have investigated
me for 11 months now. The DEA and the IRS came into my home and they took
away my computer containing a book on medical marijuana and a book critical
of the DEA, which very quickly became three books critical of the DEA.
Don’t tread on this faggot.
You know, the only way to discharge the hate words of the bigots of the
world is to embrace them. When I was growing up, queer was the worst thing
you could possibly call anybody. I don’t know where the word faggot was in
my town, but queer was the worst. And then all sorts of people started
calling themselves queers, all sorts of gay people, and now it’s a
perfectly acceptable word. You yell "Queer!" and they’ll go,
"What, yes?" And I think it’s the same thing with faggot. It’s
like legalizers. That’s the new demonized buzzword, like communist. If
they accuse you of being a legalizer, please, don’t resist. Say,
"Yeah, I’m a legalizer, absolutely. I believe that everything should
be legally sold in the free market, equally and open to competition. That’s
what I believe as a libertarian."
You know, of all the compliments I got for Ain’t Nobody’s
Business if You Do, from people as diverse as Archbishop Tutu and Sting
and Hugh Downs and Larry King, all those people were very kind, but the
thing that meant the absolute most was when Milton Friedman, unasked, sent
me a very nice letter, and Milton is a great hero of mine, and I know of
many people in this room. If you’re watching, Milton, know that we send
you our love and Nature’s God’s blessings, from the Libertarian
Convention. [Applause.]
When I say medical marijuana is the most egregious ongoing federal
intrusion, there are of course incidents that are worse. There’s Ruby
Ridge, there’s Waco, there’s William Bennett getting his own children’s
show on PBS.... These are greater outrages of the federal government going
where it never should have gone in the first place.
You know, the DEA agents who came into my house and even the two federal
prosecutors who would prosecute me and try to put me in prison for the rest
of my life, they’re patriots. They are doing something for their
government, and they’re doing it because they love America, because they
love the United States, because they think they are protecting and defending
the Constitution of the United States. They believe this, they just
misunderstand the facts, and they’re caught in bureaucracy that won’t
teach them. These are ordinary, decent Americans. Anybody who’s willing to
go into covert operations and put their lives on the line like that for
their country, is a hero.
So here’s William Bennett, on the other hand, who I think is
personally culpable for this entire mess we’re in right now The fact that
the man would ride through a Republican administration, first of all
leeching off of the NEA, and then he went to the Education, and then he
ingratiated himself very carefully, just like Iago misleading Othello, with
Bush as Othello, and Bennett as Iago, and Lady Liberty there [points to
large replica of Statue of Liberty onstage] as Desdemona.
About now young people are saying, "What the hell is this guy
talking about?" [Member of the convention yells, "That’s because
they went to public schools."]
I don’t know why libertarians have this image of as being dry and kind
of living in desert climates and being on a ranch all day, I don’t know
what this is all about because libertarians have the best sense of humor of
all. We can laugh at everything! Because if we’re not enjoying the moment,
what the hell is there? It’s a very Zen party.
So, William Bennett is personally responsible for the fact that needle
exchange was not put into effect 10 years ago. Ten years ago the studies
were there showing that needle exchange significantly reduced the spread of AIDS and
at the same time did not increase the use of drugs. Bennett at the time said
yes, of course, we care about the AIDS epidemic, but we care about the
signal we’re going to send our children more. He personally fought for and
got not only not federal funding for needles, but also got them made
illegal. As a direct result of him, 200,000 heterosexual people in this
country now have AIDS. It is about the only way AIDS got into the
heterosexual population. One-third of all AIDS cases now are from drug use
or their partners. Sixty percent of all new AIDS cases next year will be
female partners of those 200,000 people who got it intravenously and will
pass it on to their lovers, wives and children, often without not even
knowing it.
Thank you, William Bennett.
Ten years later, the government finally admits that, yes, indeed, needle
exchange works, it doesn’t make drug use go up, and it certainly reduces
the spread of AIDS. Who in the entire administration fought the hardest and
even went to the Republicans in order to get federal funding for needle
programs banned? Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey. So I move that we call
heterosexual AIDS the Bennett/McCaffrey illness, or the BM disease.
We all know that William Bennett has been taking money from dark
organizations so that he can continue to perpetrate the War on Drugs so the dark organization can continue to
prosper. One of those is the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. Bennett is
bribed. You sit in his office, and all day long these platinum Halliburton
cases go in full and they go out empty; they go in full and they go out
empty. They’re full of éclairs.
Have you seen that man? I’m fat, but he’s
obese. Not that I have anything against obesity. If you're fat you're fat,
so what? What I hate is hypocrisy. Here this man cannot stop putting food in
his mouth and he wants to tell me to stop taking the medicine that is saving
my life and put me in prison if I don't.
William Bennett personally went to Arizona and
convinced the Arizona legislature that two-thirds
of the people’s will should be overruled by new legislation. So, for all the people who have been suffering in Arizona for the past
two years who could have had relief were it not for Bill Bennett, thank you
very much again, Mr. Bennett.
I mean, I’ve read the Bible, too, and I know that gluttony is punished
in the Bible, the very same Bible that Bill Bennett
points to to support his "moral" attack on gays and just about
everyone else he doesn't agree with.
-
and put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony. [Proverbs
23:2]
-
for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes
them in rags. [Proverbs 23:21]
-
a companion of gluttons disgraces his father. [Proverbs
28:7]
-
Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons. [Titus
1:12]
One Biblical punishment
for gluttony is to be stoned to death. As long as it’s not done with
rocks, this can work. In some African tribes, the punishment for any crime
is to sit and smoke marijuana endlessly—marijuana smoke is forced into the
small tent so that all the criminal can do is breathe marijuana for the
prescribed period of time. It is the cure for all crimes.
Where’s my, I had my medicine here [takes out golden Art Deco cigarette
case]. The nice thing is, if you’re gay-- I’m a gay libertarian, I’m
one of those laissez fairies--you get to carry around delightful things like this is a cigarette
case that Gary Cooper gave
Marlene Dietrich for a good, [clears throat] well, anyway, for a good time. So I’ll
have it there just in case I need it, but I know you won’t mind. So,
gluttony is punishable by stoning to death, or being cut off from one’s
people. I believe that that will be the fate of William Bennett; he will be
cut off from his people. There’s no need to punish the drug warriors; they
are already punishing themselves.
Reason number two: unlike any other issue currently in political play,
public opinion polls are outrageously in favor of medical marijuana and
almost every politician vigorously opposes it. Public opinion polls show
that somewhere between 65 and 80 percent of the population, but never below 65,
favor marijuana use under a doctor’s supervision. They do that
even though all five living presidents and Nancy Reagan said it was a
hoax, even though C. Everett Koop said it was a hoax. People still believe
that if a doctor says it’s okay, it’s okay, and if you’re sick it’s
okay to take medicine, and we make exceptions when people are sick.
Compassion has not been beaten or tricked or propagandized out of the
American people. It is still there and we can appeal to it.
The drug warriors have been so opposed to marijuana, especially medical
marijuana, they have done it on the record, and they have done it recently.
In December, the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine report
will come out. This is the one that McCaffrey spent a million dollars of our
tax money on, about the only good federal expenditure last year, if you ask
me. And he took that money and he used it for a study that was going to last
18 months, and he’s been hiding behind that ever since. He won’t talk
about the medical marijuana issue, he’ll say, "We’ve turned that
over to the doctors. Let them decide." Well, we know pretty much what
the doctors are going to decide. They are not under federal control, like
the National Institute of Health, or NIDA, National Institute of Drug Abuse (groan) and so they will come up with
an honest report.
What report did Institute of Medicine issue in 1982? In 1982
it determined that regular
marijuana, the prohibition of just regular marijuana, not medical marijuana,
was doing more harm than good and it should be legalized at once. The
same august body of independent scientists is not going to reach the
conclusion that under a doctor’s care, under a physician’s instructions,
you can’t take marijuana? It is inconceivable to me for that to happen. So
sometime around the end of the year, the beginning of next year, McCaffrey
will be in a very tight place. Because there’s 18 months of videos of him
saying, "I’m not talking about that, I’m turning that over to
science and we’re going to let science decide." So science will
decide, then what? Stick around; it’s going to be the best show in town.
I
invite you to be not just ringside seats holder, but a direct participant,
because, boy, this has been fun the last two years. It’s not just public
opinion polls, it’s been reflected in the polling booth. As you know, in
California 56.4 percent of the population voted for medical marijuana. That’s
more than voted for [California Attorney General] Lungren, who’s been
trying to suppress it. In the same election more Californians voted for
Proposition 215 than voted for Bill Clinton.
Point number three: Many of you are asking, as libertarians do when
pondering deep moral issues, "What’s in it for me?" You see, the Libertarian
Party can embrace a political cause that is in very, very dire need of
friends, and by embracing, there’s a marvelous line from Shakespeare, by
embracing the two make more than the one. Or is that Milton Friedman?
Anyway, I think is the synergistic possibility
here between medical marijuana and the Libertarian Party at this particular juncture
of time. Because when medical marijuana is truly accepted for what it is, we
will see a phenomenon that makes Viagra’s phenomenon seem limp. You know,
I kind of think of the Libertarian Party of kind of political Viagra.
On October 19, 1997, the Society for the Study
of Neurosciences published a report based on scientific evidence from four
universities. It began, "New research shows that substances similar to
or derived from marijuana, known as cannabinoids, could benefit more than 97
million Americans who experience some form of pain each year."
Ninety-seven million Americans! Marijuana has the unique property of
filtering out pain while allowing the sense of touch and the sense of
pleasure to pass through. All other analgesics that work beyond the level of
aspirin work by suppressing feelings overall. Marijuana filters out only the
bad stuff. So imagine those 97 million people turning around and asking,
"Why?" People who have been in intractable pain for years, for
decades, asking, "Why didn’t I have this medication before now? Why
was this kept from me?"
And they’ll look to the Democrats: guilty. They’ll look to the
Republicans: guilty. They’ll look to the Libertarians [imitates inhaling
from a joint]: "We told you
so!" If the Libertarian party has the gratitude of those 97 million
people, and believe me they will, we can elect everybody to every office
everywhere.
And finally, I ask you to support medical marijuana
now because it is the right thing to do. I am tired of people thinking that
libertarians don’t have morality, that they don’t have values. That’s
a lot of hogwash. Libertarians are the only politicians with values. "I
won’t physically harm your person or your property without your consent.
Therefore, I am a moral person." And for those who choose to go above
and beyond that, who choose to work for change, to make the government more
moral, more accountable, more "right," who look at what is and say
there is great harm being done and we must stop it because we can stop it
and we can stop it now--these are my heroes, my friends, my compatriots.
You know, on C-SPAN those bars, those great pillars of the Capitol
Building [indicates a replica of the Capitol Building onstage behind him],
it almost looks like I'm standing in front of prison bars. And I look
there and I think, that’s where the federal government wants me for the
rest of my life for taking my medicine--prison. And so I ask you who are the beacons
of liberty in this country, and I ask you in the name of her, that Lady
Liberty there [indicates model of Statue of Liberty]. (I’m gay, but that
woman turns me on. In fact, she is only one of three women I’ve ever been
inside. My mother told me that joke. She stole it from Woody Allen.) I ask the Libertarian Party to take this healing herb and use it to heal,
[a baby cries] yes, you too, we’ll be doing it for you, that baby crying in the corner
there, we’ll be doing it for you, our children, and I ask you to take this
herb, this healing herb, and I ask you to heal the body politic with it. And
I ask you, Lady Liberty, to once again lift your shining lamp above the
golden door. [Takes a joint out of the golden cigarette case and holds it to his
mouth].
"Hey, lady, got a light?"