From: [v--d--t] at [twain.ucs.umass.edu] (Sol Lightman)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.drugs,soc.culture.malaysia,alt.hemp
Subject: Grinspoon article (is marijuana/malaysia)
Date: 17 Feb 1994 01:18:54 GMT
Organization: University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Reprinted under fair use guidelines from the  International Journal on
Drug Policy (27 Hope St. Liverpool L1 9bq England Fax (44) 051 709 4916
tel (44) 051 709 3511) March/April 1991



     A Brief Account of my Participation as a Witness in the trial of
                          Kerry Wiley.  -- Lester Grinpoon M.D.

(apologies for typos -- Brian S. Julin)

In November of 1989 Kerry Wiley, a 35-year-old computer science lecturer
from Sacramento, California, was apprehended in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
for the possession of marijuana.  He was accused of mailing himself a package
containing marijuana from Thailand, and an informant tipped off the police
who searched his apartment and found more marijuana.  He was charged with
the possession of over 500 grams of cannabis.  Death by hanging is the
prescribed penalty for possession of more than 200 grams (7.05 ounces) under
Provision 39b of the Dangerous Drugs Act of 1983.  One particularly chilling
part of this law reads "In any proceedings under this Act the provisions
of this Act shall be construed and interperated so as to give effect to
the purpose of this act without reguard for ambiguities, or infirmities of
language, or other defects or deficiencies therein..."

    More than a hundred people have been hanged under this law, including
eight young Hong Kong residents last summer.  Bail is not allowed in such
cases, and the prisoner may wait two to five years for trial.  By the time
Kerry came to trial he had spent over a year in the cruelly overcrowded Pudu
prison, sleeping on a blanket on a cement floor in a small cell with several
other prisoners, bathing in dirty water.  It is not surprising that he
became seriously depressed.

    As a twelve-year-old boy, while hiking alone in the San Jacinto mountains
one winter, Kerry had slipped fallen 60 feet down a ledge to sharp rocks below.
Newspaper headlines described his survival as a "Christmas Miracle" but he was
left with serious disabilities, of which the worst was painful muscle spasms in
his left shoulder and arm.  Like many other people, including victims of
quadripalegia, parapalegia, and multiple sclerosis, Kerry discovered that
cannabis was far more useful for this kind of pain and had fewer side-effects
than any of the medicines doctors could prescribe.  He began to use it
regularly, and like anyone who needs a medicine, he wanted to be sure of an
ample supply.  There is no evidence that he ever abused cannabis or sold it.

    I first heard about Kerry's plight when I recieved a call last February
from his mother, Dr. Helen Wiley, a retired psychologist from Sacramento.
Helen is a remarkable woman who, among other things, spent eight months living
alone in a hotel in Kuala Lumpur to assist her son's defense.  She called me
because she had read "Medical uses of Illicit Drugs", a chapter James B.
Bakalar and I wrote for the book _Dealing_With_Drugs_, which she believed
would be useful in the trial if I would redraft it as an affidavit.   I
replied that much more would be needed for her sons defense, and put her in
touch with Ramsey Clark, who shortly thereafter went to Malaysia and talked
with his Malaysian lawyer.  Ramsey and I believed that a defense of medical
neccessity was the best and perhaps only hope for preventing a tragedy.
Karpal Singh, the Malaysian lawyer, was understandably skeptical, since the
defense had never been used in Malaysia.

    By the time I testified, Kerry's defense was in the hands of another
Malaysian lawyer by the name of Mohammed Shafee Abdullah.  On technical
grounds, he had prevented the admission of evidence concerning the cannabis
Kerry allegedly mailed to himself from Thailand, but the cannabis found in
his apartment (265.7 grams) would be enough to condemn him to death.

    I arrived in Kuala Lumpur on Monday, December 10th, 1990.  I examined
Kerry in Pudu prison for three hours that day, and again for two-and-one-half
hours on Wednesday, December 12th.  I also spent an hour with the prison
psychologist who had been treating Kerry for his depression.  I spent many
hours with Shafee preparing the medical neccessity defense, with which Shafee
had no experience.  This bright and affable man arranged for me to give a
lecture on the evening of Thursday, December 13th to a group of influential
Malaysian physicians and lawyers.  I spoke of the serious confusion embodied
in the concept of "dadah", a generic term which treats opiates and cannabis
as though they were identical.  Most of my remarks were about the history
of cannabis as a medicine.   I started by pointing out that Dr. W. B.
O'Shaughnessy's ground breaking work, published in 1839, was based on his
observations of the medicinal use of cannabis among Indians and Malays.
Seldom have I lectured to an audience which expressed so much interest in
cannabis.  They seemed starved for up-to-date, reiable, realistic information
about the drug.

    I was called to the stand at 9:00am on Friday, December 14th.  The judge,
Judge Shaik Daud Ismail, who sat without a jury, immediately expressed his
irritation at my presence by asking Shafee, as he tried to introduce me,
"Why have you brought this man halfway around the globe to testify when
it has been established that the defendant possessed 265.7 grams of cannabis
and the punishment is prescribed?"

    Shafee then introduced the notion of medical neccessity and pursued the
direct examination.  Like so many people in the previous night's audience,
the judge became increasingly interested in the medical uses of cannabis in
general and Kerry Wiley's uses of cannabis in particular.  The direct
examination ended at 11:50 am.  The judge then asked the prosecutor whether
the ten minutes remaining before the break for noon prayers would be enough
for cross-examination.  He replied "Oh no, my Lord!  It will take two or three
hours for me to get the truth out of Dr. Grinspoon."  I had heard from
several sources that the prosecutor, Abdul Alim Abdullah, believed it would
advance his career to convict and hang the first American under provision 39b.

    Everyone in the courtroom was surprised by the first question he put
to me after the recess.  He asked whether, in completing my disembarkation
form for visitors to Malaysia, I had indicated that I was here for business
or for pleasure.  I responded "For business."

    "And what is your business here, Dr. Grinspoon?"

    "My business is to examine the patient and appear as a witness at this
trial."

    He interrupted me to say, "You mean the accused?  And how many times
did you examine the accused?"

    "Twice."

    "How many hours did you spend examining the accused?"

    "Five and a half hours."

    "Good.  And now will you kindly produce for the court the written
authorization from the Ministry of Health as required by law for a foreigner
to medically examine a prisoner in Malaysia."

    I told him I knew nothing about this law.  It was clear from their
reactions that neither Shafee nor the judge knew about it either.  Alim
then said that he would charge and arrest me for the violation.  The judge,
after satisfying himself that the law existed, said, "You are within your
right to arrest this man now, but if you do, you will not be able to
cross-examine him and you said you needed two to three hours of cross-
examination."  Alim then decided to put the charge on hold and cross
examine me.

    He had a long list of questions which he crossed out one by one.  The
more he asked, the more ground he lost.  Eventually, exasperated, he said,
"Dr. Grinspoon, all that you have reported here about the capacity of cannabis
to relieve suffering of one type or another comes from papers and journals.
What has been your experience in observing this for yourself?"  In response
I told the court how smoking cannabis had given my son, who suffered from
leukemia, extraordinarily effective relief from the pernicious nausea and
vomiting caused by some cancer chemotherapies.  As someone from the
American Embassy later said, "You could hear a pin drop in that courtroom."
As I spoke, the prosecutor began to shuffle and rustle papers intrusively.
The judge, who was obviously deeply interested in my story raised his voice
and said, "Mr. Alim, are you listening to Dr. Grinspoon.?  Are you getting
this?  Do you want him to start from the beginning?"  Alim stopped shuffling
papers.  When I finished he pursued a few more questions, and abruptly stopped,
although he had only asked about two-thirds of the questions on his list.
He then conferred with some other government people, one of whom was in
uniform.  It seemed clear to me that they were deciding whether or not
to arrest me.  Finally he told the judge that he had concluded his
cross-examination, and the court was dismissed.

    We were fairly sure that, given his comments during the cross-examination,
the judge would not sentence Kerry to death.  We also believed that Alim
had decided not to arrest me because the publicity might damage his case
even further.  However, as we were preparing to leave the courtroom,  Allen
Kong, legal council to the American Embassy, told shafee accompanied me to the
airport, where he obtained an airport seciurity badge and walked me through
customs and immigration, never leaving my side until the door of the airplane
was closed.

    The judge issued his ruling on January 17th, 1991.  He said that "on the
balance of probabilities there was enough evidence adduced from the accused
to show that the cannabis was for his own consumption" -- specifically "to
relieve pain from injuries he suffered in a fall off a mountain."  He was
sentenced to five years in jail, of which 26 months remained to be served,
and, as a mandatory part of the sentence, ten strokes of the rattan.  The
cane used in Malaysia is particularly cruel and burdens the recipiant with
some motion limitation and pain for the rest of his life.  The sentence will be
appealed, and if it fails, Ramsey Clark and I will explore the possibility of
a pardon.


Lester Grinspoon, M.D.  Harvard Medical School.

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Brian