DEFENDANT DENIED REQUEST TO SMOKE POT PENDING TRIAL

A federal magistrate on Monday denied a defendant's request to smoke
marijuana for medicinal purposes while awaiting trial on a charge he had a
pot farm secreted in a five-story Bel-Air mansion.

"I am outraged," defendant Todd McCormick said after the ruling. "I am not
requesting to do anything that is not legal in the state of California."

U.S. District Judge James McMahon also refused to lower McCormick's
$500,000 bail, which already was posted by actor Woody Harrelson.

McCormick is the founder of a San Diego cannabis club and an active member
of California's successful Proposition 215 campaign to legalize medicinal
marijuana. A friend said McCormick was cultivating the 4,000 pot plants to
give to cancer sufferers like himself to ease their pain.