Longtime San Diego medical marijuana patient, provider and activist Steve McWilliams killed himself on the night of 11 July 2005 while a six-month federal prison sentence hung over him.[1] He had been free pending an appeal that collapsed the previous month, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Raich that federal authorities may prosecute medical marijuana patients even in states where it is legal.[1][2]
McWilliams operated Shelter from the Storm, a patients’ collective of about a half-dozen people that the city of San Diego had recognized as legitimate under California’s Compassionate Use Act.[2] In September 2002 he led a public handout of medical marijuana at City Hall to protest federal raids; weeks later his home was raided and he was arrested for cultivating 25 plants, facing up to 40 years before pleading guilty to a lesser charge that carried six months.[1][2] Barred from using marijuana pending the appeal, he lived with severe chronic pain from auto accidents and had been hospitalized the week before his death.[1][2]
Friends said dread of prison and failing health drove him to despair, and he used his prescribed drugs to take his own life.[1][2] City Councilwoman Toni Atkins, who once called him a hero for his work on the city’s medical marijuana guidelines, told the San Diego Union-Tribune his death was “really, really sad”.[1] Vigils were held in San Diego and other cities the following week.[1]
