Pot Advocate Gets Jail Term
by Victoria Harker

August 12, 1998 - Arizona Republic

A man who has fought for years to get marijuana legalized broke down and cried in court Tuesday before being sentenced to five years' probation for possessing and selling pot.

"I did it for my kids, so they could grow up in a world without gangs and guns," a tearful Peter Wilson told Superior Court Judge Dave Cole.

Wilson also said he needed to stay out of jail so he can support his two minor children and continue to make his house payments.

The Sunnyslope man vowed to give up smoking pot and consuming "coffee and chocolate" on a daily basis if the judge showed mercy.

Cole asked sternly if Wilson continued to smoke marijuana in violation of the conditions of his release while awaiting sentencing.

"Yes," Wilson replied.

That might be why Cole gave Wilson four months in jail instead of the 30 days recommended by Deputy County Attorney Teresa Sanders.

But Wilson, former chairman of AZ4NORML, Arizonans for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, will be allowed to leave his jail cell to work, Cole ruled.

If he violates the conditions of his probation and uses drugs, Cole said, he will have to serve an extra eight months in jail.

Before being led from the courtroom in handcuffs, Wilson said his attorney will appeal the conviction.

"I'm a little disappointed," he said of his sentence. "I felt my trial was completely unfair."

Wilson, 40, was arrested in 1995, a day after The Arizona Republic published his letter to the editor in which he admitted to smoking marijuana almost daily for 25 years.

The case sparked controversy because Wilson was licensed as a marijuana dealer under provisions of a 1983 state law, which was repealed in 1997.

A justice of the peace dismissed charges against him based on the state licensing law. But a Superior Court judge overruled that ruling.

Another judge, Superior Court Judge Alan Kamin, refused to let Wilson use the license as a defense in his trial, saying it was an issue of law, not fact. Kamin also threw out Wilson's arguments that he uses drugs for religious and medicinal purposes.

During the trial, Wilson denied a charge that he used his son to sell the drugs, even though a magazine on cultivating cannabis was found in his son's bedroom. A jury found him guilty of nine counts including growing psychedelic mushrooms in his home. He was acquitted of the charge involving his son.

During the hearing, prosecutor Sanders said she sympathized with Wilson's statements that he suffered a nervous breakdown after his arrest. But she admonished him for exposing his kids to his drug use.

"It's really obvious that the defendant is really tormented," she said. "But he has put himself in this place. He has let his political quest ruin his life."

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