Four Thousand Plants In Los Angeles Is A Felony;
Twenty Thousand Plants In The UK Is Venture Capital.
– 2 Stories and Infinite Irony.

(Marijuananews note: I first met Todd McCormick in 1994 when I was National Director of NORML. He came to Washington for what we called the First National Medical Marijuana Day.

Through an odd series of coincidences we ended up in Amsterdam at the same time in 1996. We even ended up working at Positronics, the legendary marijuana mall, at the same time. Through an even odder coincidence, 3 years ago this week, Peter McWilliams sent a friend to look for us.

November 20, 1999
From The Los Angeles Times
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By Davis Rosenzweig, Times Staff Writer

ACTIVISTS PLEAD GUILTY TO DRUG CHARGES
See
McCormick and McWilliams Plead Guilty to Avoid Ten Year Minimums.
McCormick Reserves Right To Medical Necessity Defense.
Sentencing Set for February 28.
Courts: Barred From Using Medical Necessity Or State Initiative As Defense, Two Accused Pot Growers OK Plea Bargain.

Barred from using medical necessity as a defense, two prominent marijuana advocates pleaded guilty to reduced drug charges Friday in Los Angeles federal court.
(Marijuananews note: This is fairly friendly coverage.)
The pleas by Todd McCormick and Peter McWilliams followed a judge's ruling earlier this month that the pair could not refer to California's medical marijuana initiative or to their own medical conditions in their upcoming trial. McCormick, 29, suffers from bone cancer, and McWilliams, 50, a self-help book publisher, is a wheelchair-bound AIDS patient.

They were accused of growing more than 4,100 marijuana plants at a rented Bel-Air mansion and trying to sell their crop to the Los Angeles Cannabis Buyer's Club, which has dispensed the drug since California voters passed Proposition 215 in 1996.
(Marijuananews note: And it is still in business, even as Peter faces death at the hands of the government for trying to cut the costs.)
The federal government does not recognize the state initiative as binding. Nor did U.S. District Court Judge George H. King in a Nov. 5 opinion that devastated the defendants.

McWilliams' lawyer, Tom Ballanco, said Friday that King's ruling "took away every defense we had," leaving McWilliams facing certain conviction and at least 10 years behind bars.

"He couldn't survive a sentence like that," he said.

McCormick, whose legal bills are paid by actor Woody Harrelson, said that pleading guilty will give him a chance to remain free on bail while his lawyers appeal King's ruling on a medical necessity defense.

"If I would have been found guilty at trial, I would have been remanded into custody and not allowed an appeal bond," he said. "I felt this was the smartest way to protect my health and my well-being and my rights in an appellate process."

After issuing his earlier ruling, King pressed both sides to negotiate a plea agreement rather than go to trial.

In the end, the prosecution dropped marijuana manufacturing charges carrying a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison.

McWilliams and McCormick were allowed to plead guilty instead to conspiring to grow and distribute marijuana, punishable by a maximum five years imprisonment.

McCormick agreed to a flat five-year prison term and McWilliams faces a term of up to five years when they are sentenced on Feb. 28.

Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office, called the pleas a victory for the prosecution.
(Marijuananews note: Yes, the government of DEAland has won a great "victory" over a dying man and a young man who has beaten cancer ten times. What a triumph!)
"This is the first time that these defendants have acknowledged they were producing marijuana for commercial gain," he said.
(Marijuananews note: And Galileo "admitted" that the Earth does not revolve around the Sun. As a part of the standard procedure, Judge King asked Todd was he being coerced by anyone. Todd responded: "Besides the government, your honor?")

Indeed, the agreements they signed make no mention of growing marijuana for medical use.
(Marijuananews note: Indeed, that is the whole point of the plea bargain. The defense could not mention medical marijuana! The government’s original charge was that there was a "conspiracy" to supply medical marijuana. And of course, that was what it was all about. And that will be the subject of the appeal, assuming that the 9^th Circuit upholds the 3 judge panel’s ruling on the Oakland case. Presumably the government would appeal that to the Supreme Court, if the ruling is upheld.)

McWilliams, owner of Prelude Press, admitted financing the marijuana growing operation and paying McCormick more than $120,000 in one year. According to court documents, McWilliams hoped to strike it rich as a marijuana grower and compared himself to Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

In a letter to McWilliams memorializing their partnership, McCormick wrote that the deal entailed "us splitting the harvest three ways, you receiving two thirds for providing space and equipment and me receiving one third for labor and expertise."
(Marijuananews note: Does this sound like a plan for an illegal business? One of the defenses denied by Judge King was the fact that McCormick had consulted an attorney about the legality of what they were doing under Prop 215. In hindsight, they were naïve in thinking that the law meant anything and that the government of DEAland would tolerate research on medical marijuana that would prove that it was guilty of mass murder.