ACLU Letter to then-DEA Administrator, Thomas Constantine (pic
tured)
December 23, 1997
Administrator Thomas A. Constantine
Drug Enforcement Administration; Washington, D.C. 20537
Dear Administrator Constantine:
The ACLU Foundation of Southern California has been contacted by Mr. Peter McWilliams
concerning the execution of a search warrant by Drug Enforcement Administration agents
at two homes owned by Mr. McWilliams, as well as his place of business in Los Angeles.
Mr. McWilliams is an author and publisher who has openly criticized the DEA. Recently,
he took out a two-page advertisement in Variety highly critical of the agency. As
you probably know, Mr. McWilliams has plans to publish a book by Todd McCormick,
a cancer patient arrested for growing marijuana plants. He is also writing his own
book, A Question of Compassion: An AIDS Cancer Patient Explores Medical Marijuana.
On December 17, agents searched the premises pursuant to a sealed warrant, the contents
of which were not made known to Mr. McWilliams. The warrant purportedly allowed
DEA access to papers, computer files, address lists, and other written material owned
or controlled by Mr. McWilliams. Agents seized, among other things, Mr. McWilliams'
computer and his two external back-up drives. In addition, agents went through research
documents and other papers in Mr. McWilliams' home, and confiscated eight bags full
of paper. The DEA provided no particularized accounting to Mr. McWilliams of the
papers taken.
Moreover, an agent searching Mr. McWilliams' publishing business, Prelude Press,
reportedly told the manager that the DEA would take over the company in the next
six months. By all appearances, the search warrant and the conduct of the search
may represent a broad attempt by the DEA to retaliate against Mr. McWilliams for
exercising his First Amendment rights to criticize a government agency and to suppress
his efforts to write and publish about the medical use of marijuana. The DEA took
all the material related to the two books on this topic on which Mr. McWilliams was
actively working. It is well known that the DEA opposes the use of the medical marijuana,
and came out forcefully against the Compassionate Use Initiative that passed recently
in California.
We are gravely concerned about the possible constitutional and other legal violations
that may have occurred here and intend to study the issue closely.
I would like to hear from you on these issues.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth Schroeder
Associate Director
UCLA of Southern California
cc: Special Agent Robert Bender
Chief Counsel Cynthia Ryan
