MEDICAL MARIJUANA PROPONENT IS JAILED PENDING BAIL

Medical marijuana advocate Todd McCormick, who is awaiting sentencing for a
federal drug conspiracy conviction, was jailed Monday pending the outcome
of a hearing on whether he violated the terms of his bail. The U.S.
attorney's office filed papers in Los Angeles federal court seeking to
revoke McCormick's bond because of his arrest in November after a 90-mph
freeway chase in Orange County.

A California Highway Patrol officer testified during a hearing before
federal magistrate James W. McMahon that McCormick, 29, threw a small item
out of his car before stopping.

The officer also said he detected a strong odor of what he thought was
marijuana coming from the vehicle.

McCormick, who admitted he did not have a driver's license, then sped off
with the CHP officer in pursuit, the officer said. Stopped again a few
miles away, McCormick was arrested and taken to the Orange County Jail,
where he was booked and released on his own recognizance.

A federal prosecutor said the Orange County district attorney's office is
deciding whether to file formal charges against McCormick.

But McMahon indicated after Monday's three-hour hearing that he will
probably base his decision not on the car chase--since those allegations
have not been adjudicated--but on another government claim that McCormick
violated his bail conditions by failing to tell authorities that he had
moved out of actor Woody Harrelson's mountain home near Big Bear Lake.

Harrelson has posted $500,000 bail for McCormick's freedom and stands to
lose some of that money if the government's bail revocation motion is granted.

The proceedings will resume Wednesday with testimony from Harrelson's
mother, who has been living at the Big Bear-area home, and from a federal
employee who supervised McCormick's bail release.

McCormick was arrested in 1997 when authorities found more than 4,000
marijuana plants growing in the Bel-Air mansion that he rented. He pleaded
guilty in November after a federal judge barred him from using medical
necessity as a defense.