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US: Death By Government: How to Kill the Sick
L K Samuels Coastal Post on line
Tuesday 31 Jan 2006 War may be hell, but statistically, it is less deadly than living during times of peace as a civilian. That is R. J. Rummel's assertion in his landmark book "Death by Government". A political scientist from the University of Hawaii, Rummel contends that a person has almost twice the probability of being killed by his own government as by foreign forces. And one particular subset of this "democide," in which government kills its own people, is beginning to make its rounds in the United States. The type of killing Rummel is talking about concerns "politicide," the murder of persons by a government for political reasons. This death by government mostly occurs in corrupted third world nations or black-shirt police states. But in the last few years, seriously ill patients who happened to be politically active have been dying at the hands of the US government. One of the better-known cases involved Peter McWilliams. Suffering from AIDS and lymphoma, McWilliams found that only one type of medication helped him overcome his medical handicaps: marijuana. But he was more than a patient trying to relieve pain and suffering. McWilliams was a well-known California-based publisher, poet, and medical-marijuana crusader whose best-selling book "Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do" ridiculed the government for trying to legislate lifestyles. But McWilliams's brush with the law did not occur until he became more vocal. As a cancer, chemotherapy, and radiation survivor, he was asked in 1996 to testify before the National Academy of Sciences about the anti-nausea effect of marijuana. He told the audience that cannabis had helped him while taking the anti-AIDS drugs that were keeping him alive. A few weeks later his honest testimony was paid back with a full-scale raid by a swarm of DEA agents. He was charged with being a big-time drug kingpin. Many considered his arrest to be a politically motivated prosecution to prevent him from speaking out about the benefits of cannabis. Others were more suspicious, wondering if the authorities' long-range plan was to silence him permanently. Without access to pot, McWilliams had no way to suppress the nausea that prevented him from keeping down his food and medication. The authorities knew about his health problems but argued that the federal government considered marijuana to have no medicinal value. As his health slowly deteriorated, McWilliams became wheelchair-bound and finally died in 2000, choking on his own vomit while awaiting court sentencing. Other sick people are meeting the same fate, with the government going after the infirm as if they were mass killers. For example, 20 heavily armed men from the Placer County Sheriff's department raided Steve Kubby's home a few months after his campaign for California Governor on the Libertarian Party ticket in 1998 ended, arresting and charging him with illegal drug use. He had made medical marijuana the top priority in his campaign, going after politicians who were not following the intent of Prop. 215, California's Compassionate Use Act. Like McWilliams, Kubby needs access to medical marijuana to stay alive. According to doctors, including USC Medical Center's Dr. Vincent DeQuattro, nothing else will keep his malignant pheochromocytoma, a form of adrenal cancer, at bay. In fact, DeQuattro believes that the marijuana has not only controlled the symptoms of the cancer but also "arrested its growth." And according to doctors, this rare form of cancer is so deadly that five years after diagnosis the mortality rate is virtually 100%. Because of Prop. 215, Kubby was not convicted during the trial for marijuana usage, but he was found guilty of possessing a hallucinogenic cactus. Realizing he could die without access to his medicine, his whole family fled to Canada in 2001. But because of his drug conviction, the Canadian government deemed Kubby inadmissible and ordered him to leave. At this point, he filed for refugee status. He was eventually turned down and has exhausted most legal options. Pleading to a Canadian judge in early 2006, Kubby's wife said that if her husband is forced back to California, it will be his death sentence, arguing "To remove him from Canada is like removing a diabetic from his insulin." Although the Canadian government has recognized the seriousness of sending Kubby back to the United States, it appears they will do it anyway. Currently, no US prison allows the use of medical marijuana by inmates. Despite the medical evidence, if Kubby is forced back, he will be jailed and will have no access to his life-saving medication. Again, the state will perform what it has done so well in the past: death by government. L.K. Samuels is a realtor from Carmel Valley. He is editor and contributing author of "Facets of Liberty", an anthology of political, economic, and sociological essays (Freeland Press). Samuels managed the Future of Freedom Conference series for five years in Southern California. A more complete biography and a photograph of the author suitable for printing may be found at: The Libertarian Perspective - Biographies and Photographs (http://www.ca.lp.org/bios.shtml)
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