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'Williams wishes all the naysayers and disbelievers had shown up. "Their hearts and minds would have been changed." They would have seen that no one there was faking a terminal illness or debilitating condition just to score a little marijuana for weekend parties.

'"We're talking sick, sick people," she said. "People who are pale and emaciated."

'At one point during the rally, Williams stood next to a man who looked like a skeleton wearing a Hawaiian shirt. When she commented about something a speaker said, he turned to her, looked in her eyes and smiled.

'"Something about him reminded me of my sister," she said. "And then I realized it was the eyes. His eyes looked so, so tired. There's just so little light there. . . . How uncompassionate are people that they would accuse these terminally ill people of being fakers; that government agents would raid their homes and handcuff them?"'