"A lot of these doctors never signed the
Hippocratic oath," he added. "I spent time in
the military, and I believe in oaths.
If I wouldn't put something in my body, I won't
sell it to you for yours."
It was not long after Williams formally retired
from the military that he was diagnosed with
MS, and began his search for an effective
treatment.
"In the first year, I was put on a myriad of
medications, most of them opioid-based, only
to affect one symptom, which was pain," he
said.
"Then I started taking another, which was
supposedly immune-system modifying.
I tried homeopathic remedies, and everything
I could think of, and almost destroyed my
intestines with opioids."
In 2001, one of his doctors, a renowned one in
the area of MS, told Williams off the record
that some of his patients had reportedly seen
benefits from using cannabis.
"A credible doctor told me not to stick a
needle in myself every day, not to take four
pills a day, but to try cannabis.
It took about two and a half months to switch
over, and I've had cannabis in my system
every day since, except for about 40 when I
was traveling in a country that strictly
prohibits cannabis, and I had to use
MARINOL, one of the most insidious drugs
ever created, with strange side effects at any
dose, on anybody."
When he was diagnosed at the age of 43,
doctors told Williams that his life expectancy
would likely be cut in half.
Williams speaks to supporters of a ballot measure
that would legalise medical marijuana in the state at
the Arkansas state Capitol in Little Rock, Ark.,
Thursday, Oct. 18, 2012. (Credit: AP Photo/Danny
Johnston)
Today, at 60, Williams eats healthily and
exercises frequently, making sure to stretch
and crack out the characteristically stiff joints
which, he suggested, may have inspired a
Chinese term for MS: roughly, "the statue
disease."
He also keeps himself "saturated with
cannabinoids" to increase flexibility, help
with pain, and promote nerve-protective
neuroplasticity in the brain, he said, but which
never get him high.
By first prognosis, he said, "As an African-
American male, I should be dead."
Since the time he first started using cannabis
for MS, Williams has also been tirelessly
advocating for cannabis reform in states
around the country, as well as on behalf of
veterans. "I was lobbying literally for myself,"
he said.
His military history also drove his interest in
creating a highly tailored form of cannabis oil
using SFE's powerful capacity for targeting
and releasing specific chemicals.
"I'm an engineer, and a naval academy
graduate, and I can't look at things without
wanting to take them apart, and figure out
how to put them back together in the optimal
way," he said. "I spent 16 years figuring out