Actor May Post Bail for Marijuana Activist Court: Woody Harrelson offers to
send money. Authorities want video conference.

By SUE MCALLISTER, Special to The Times

Attorneys for Todd McCormick, the medical marijuana activist facing up to
STORY 10 years in federal prison for growing thousands of marijuana plants
in a rented BelAir mansion, were struggling Thursday to set up an
international video conference that might free him on a
halfmilliondollars bail.

A spokesman for actor Woody Harrelson, a proponent of the commercial use of
hemp, said Harrelson would send a $500,000 check to the U.S. attorney's
office to obtain McCormick's release after eight days in custody.

But authorities said later Thursday that they wanted assurance that
Harrelsonnow filming a movie in Australiaunderstood his obligations. A
video conference was planned for late Thursday night, but officials said it
might be delayed for a day or more.

McCormick, 27, who was arrested last week after authorities found 4,000
marijuana plants with an ultimate commercial value of $20 million, has
smoked marijuana since he was a teenager to lessen the pain of bone marrow
cancer.

Medical marijuana activists were infuriated by his arrest, saying that he
should be protected by California's Proposition 215, which legalized the
cultivation of marijuana for medical purposes.

Federal authorities said a person posting bail is required to sign an
affidavit in the presence of a federal prosecutor stating he or she
understands that the bond will be forfeited if the defendant fails to
appear in court as scheduled. With that option gone, they turned to a video
conference.

Said Harrelson's publicist, Simon Halls: "Woody does not advocate
legalization of marijuana for recreational use, but he is absolutely an
advocate for medical use." Halls said Harrelson understood McCormick to be
growing marijuana for medical use, a practice legalized in California in
November with the passage of Proposition 215.

"He doesn't understand why Todd is being treated like a criminal," Halls said.

McCormick, who had been renting the BelAir mansion with bookadvance money
from a publisher, was arrested by sheriff's deputies who said he was not
only growing marijuana for himself, but selling it to people in other
states. * * * Proposition 215 decriminalized possession and cultivation of
marijuana for those whose doctors approve its use. But the measure does not
protect the sale of marijuana, even for medical use. McCormick's lawyers
say prosecutors have provided no evidence that McCormick was selling
marijuana.

Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office, would not comment
on Harrelson's involvement in posting bail and could not confirm receipt of
a Harrelson check. He said the conditions of McCormick's bail require
prosecutors to determine that the bond posted did not derive from illegal
sources.

Harrelson, a partner in a California company that makes clothes and other
products from imported hemp, challenged Kentucky law last year by planting
four hemp seeds, which led to his being charged with misdemeanor possession
of marijuana.

Mrozek said the Proposition 215 defense would be moot in McCormick's case
because he is accused of violating federal laws. But friends hope McCormick
will prevail.

"I just am dubious they'll be able to get 12 people in an L.A. jury to send
someone who's had cancer 10 times to the penitentiary for 10 years," said
Richard Cowan, a friend of McCormick's and editor of the online publication
Medical Marijuana Magazine.

McCormick's attorney Bruce Margolin said Thursday that he may waive a
preliminary hearing to have more time to persuade prosecutors not to indict
McCormick in federal court.

He said McCormick was acting in good faith under Proposition 215.

"To deny him that defense by taking him to federal court denies him his due
process and would be unjust because he was acting in good faith."

When sheriff's deputies announced that McCormick would be federally
prosecuted, they cited their belief that he had engaged in interstate sales.

McCormick's bail was originally set at $100,000, but was raised late last
week at the request of prosecutors who thought the magnitude of the crime
warranted it, Mrozek said.