DELAWARE RESIDENT FACES JAIL TIME FOR ‘MEDICINAL’ MARIJUANA

TOWNSEND –

William R. "Randy" Powell desperately wants to stay out of jail.

But prison may become reality. Mr. Powell is facing his third arrest in less than a decade for growing and possessing marijuana.

"If I’m incarcerated, I will die," he said during a recent interview at his home in Townsend. "I will just commit suicide. Period. And I believe the system could care less."

Mr. Powell, 40, has AIDS. He smokes marijuana as part of his own personal battle against the deadly disease that affects millions of people worldwide.

Diagnosed HIV-positive in 1992, Mr. Powell was told the following year he had "full-blown AIDS." He thinks he may have been infected as early as 1990. One doctor gave him only two years to live.

He’s alive today, he emphatically believes, because his endless, regular diet of aggressive AIDS medications also included - by his own doing - smoking marijuana daily.

But growing and possessing marijuana is a crime in Delaware.

"I knew it was illegal, but it gave me a peace and it kept me calm," Mr. Powell said. "It was a conscious decision on my part. I knew I needed it, in spite of the law."

Honors in school and college degrees

Mr. Powell was born the youngest of five children to Edward L. and Cora B. Powell on the family’s farm in Townsend. His father died in 1979. His mother is 81 years old. His oldest sibling, Barbara E. Armstrong, 62, lives in Clayton. She ha been a strong supporter in the battle with AIDS.

"We all had chores to do on the farm when we were growing up," said Mrs. Armstrong. "The only excuse to miss chores was church activities. We had a religious upbringing. We were taught the right way to go in life."

Mr. Powell attended Townsend Elementary School and graduated from Middletown High School. He was an honor student and class valedictorian.

He went to Tennessee Temple University in Chattanooga, Tenn., earning degrees in psychology and religious education. He taught school for a year in York., Pa., before returning to Delaware, where he began studying towards an MBA degree at Wilmington College.

During the 1980s, Mr. Powell worked in several corporate marketing jobs. But everything shuddered to a stop when he had a nervous breakdown.

"I just felt like I couldn’t deal with life anymore," he said. "I’d tried to be a pillar of strength to everybody. I was a perfectionist. I just broke. I just couldn’t keep the cup full anymore."

"You were the only one out of five children that went to college," Mrs. Armstrong pointed out. "You were trying to be so perfect and live up to all the expectations your family had of you. You were on a pedestal you placed yourself on. All of a sudden you couldn’t cope."

Booze, marijuana and AIDS. Villain or victim?

By 1990, Mr. Powell’s life had changed dramatically. "I started meeting people, there were parties," he said. "It actually took a medical person to get me to smoke a joint for the first time. I smoked that joint and I said, ‘Oh my God, that’s what relaxation is all about.’ "

There was also drinking. Lots of drinking.

"I was introduced to alcohol at the parties," Mr. Powell said. "I still think alcohol is the most dangerous drug. I think alcohol is what contributed to my AIDS. It shuts down your memory, it shuts down your thought waves, it causes blackouts. It’s a horrible drug."

As time wore on, Mr. Powell fought bouts of depression, alternating with anxiety attacks, mounting stress and a general feeling of approaching sickness. "I knew I was sick," he said. "It was like a big mix."

Marijuana became more important. "I found that by using marijuana, I was at least able to perform," he said. "I was finally able to relax, to slow myself down. It gave me a chance to stop and think. It gave me a peace.

"In 1991, I met a friend. I told him my dream was to build a grow-room, some place I could grow pot, just for me. I didn’t want to involve anybody else. I decided to do it secretly, in the middle of my house, underground. He showed me how to grow it."

Working by hand, Mr. Powell scooped out a 12-foot-by-12-foot space under the house. The entry was a hidden door in his bedroom closet.

"It became my little secret world," he said. "I loved it. I could go into my bedroom, go through the hatch, and nobody would know. I could actually grow and produce something that could help me."

The secret world collapsed Nov. 27, 1991.

Delaware State Police learned the friend was a fugitive and was staying at Mr. Powell’s residence. Troopers raided the home, collared the friend, and by chance discovered Mr. Powell’s marijuana growing operation.

They confiscated 49 live marijuana plants, more than 100 grams of dried leaves and buds, and miscellaneous drug paraphernalia.

Mr. Powell was arrested and indicted on drug charges, including five felonies.

Ten days later, he learned he was HIV-positive.

Represented by Dover attorney Barry W. Meekins, Mr. Powell negotiated a guilty plea to one count of growing marijuana. He got three years’ probation.

"The thing that really got me is they took away my drivers’ license," he said. "Why? what’s the point? It was such an inconvenience for a sick person who had to go get medication."

The loneliness and stigma of AIDS; more marijuana

"I was so lonely and cold that winter," Mr. Powell said. "My mother was the only one I told. I knew I was dying. I had no hope, no future, no money. I had to rely on my family to take me to the doctor."

Unwilling to admit his plight, Mr. Powell and his mother developed a cover story. "We decided to tell everybody I had Lyme disease," he said. "I was able to get disability and Social Security, but the family still didn’t know."

Lyme disease is an acute inflammatory illness, transmitted by ticks. It can be fatal if left unchecked.

"I remember I rented the movie, "Philadelphia Story", and watched it maybe 20 times," Mr. Powell said. "I would cry and cry to myself. I really just wanted to die, but inside I wanted to live."

He joined an experimental AIDS program in Wilmington for people without health insurance. "I became a guinea pig, a literal pin cushion for more and different medicines," he said. "I never knew if it was a placebo or an actual medication."

Except with marijuana.

"The marijuana helped me eat," Mr. Powell said. "It helped me relax. It helped me so much with the side effects of the medication. I believed I had to prolong my life somehow, in some way. So I started another grow-room. I told the doctors I smoked pot. They basically said, ‘Do whatever you have to do.’ My psychiatrist said it was wrong. But she was wrong. She didn’t know my mind."

Busted again

On May 12, 1995, with the help of an undercover police informant, troopers raided Mr. Powell’s home a second time.

"I was naked. I had just gotten out of the shower," Mr. Powell said. "I went down into the grow-room. They were ordering me to come up. I thought maybe I would do myself in right there. Just take the (electric) wires and electrocute myself."

Police said Mr. Powell refused to exit, despite repeated demands. Finally, they said, he was flushed out with a pepper-based irritant called Cap-Stun. They said he resisted arrest. He was taken outside, still naked, where he was hosed down to remove the Cap-Stun.

Troopers said they could not give Mr. Powell his clothes because of the Cap-Stun gas in the house. The fire department came to ventilate the home.

"That was the first time I openly said I had AIDS," Mr. Powell said. "Oh my God, you should have seen the cops. They were afraid to touch me. When I told them, the rubber gloves came out. There were rubber gloves everywhere."

Besides fire and police personnel, a group of neighbors and family members gathered near the home.

Mrs. Armstrong was there. "As far as I could see, it was just a big public display," she said. "They had these big lights on and everything. It was a very horrible time. We weren’t even allowed to go to him."

A fireman threw him a blanket. "They were seeing an injustice being done," Mr. Powell said. "Here I had been brought out of my house, totally nude, in front of all those people. I was humiliated beyond belief."

Police reported an "abrasion" on Mr. Powell’s head from an "unknown source." He claims officers roughed him up and knocked out one of his teeth.

He was indicted on drug-related charges and resisting arrest. On the recommendation of the prosecutor, after documenting his AIDS, he was allowed to plead guilty to lesser charges. The sentence, once again, was probation.

Staying alive; marijuana, but no grow-room

Although he never reopened the grow-room, marijuana remained a part of his life. "After I got that probation, I believed even stronger of my need for marijuana," he said. "It kept me alive."

A three-time loser?

"I believe I’m the voice of tens of thousands of people who can’t have a voice or who don’t have a voice," he continued. "They’re scared to talk about it. I worked in the corporate world, I know."

If he avoids jail a third time, will he continue to smoke pot - in defiance of the law?