Medical marijuana activist Todd McCormick, a 29-year-old cancer survivor, was sentenced to five years in federal prison on 27 March 2000 in a plea deal with prosecutors.[1] Drug agents had arrested him in 1997 after finding more than 4,000 marijuana plants growing in a house he rented in Bel-Air.[1]
McCormick and co-defendant Peter McWilliams, 60, had been forced to plead guilty after U.S. District Judge George H. King ruled they could not argue medical necessity as a defence at trial.[1][2] McWilliams, who had AIDS and used a wheelchair, was due to be sentenced on 22 May.[1] McCormick had waged his defence with financial help from actor Woody Harrelson.[1]
In exchange for letting the pair plead to a lesser charge, prosecutors insisted they admit they grew the marijuana to make money, and the agreements made no mention of medical use.[1] Prosecutors said the two men had tried to sell the crop to the Los Angeles Cannabis Buyers Club, which had supplied patients since California voters approved the 1996 medical marijuana initiative, an initiative the federal government did not recognise as binding.[1] McCormick and McWilliams maintained the marijuana was grown to supply the buyers clubs that serve patients under Proposition 215.[2]
