Sunday , November 7, 1999
Judge, limits defense in pot trial
They also cannot refer to their medical conditions, the medical uses of marijuana or California's Proposition 215, which allowed the personal use of marijuana for medical purposes, U.S. District Judge George King said Friday.
Todd McCormick, who suffers from bone cancer, and Peter McWilliams, who has AIDS and cancer in remission, are accused of possessing marijuana with intent to distribute, distribution of marijuana, and conspiracy to grow marijuana.
They were arrested after federal officials found more than 6,000 plants growing in a Bet-Air mansion and three other leased locations in Los Angeles County.
McWilliams, a self-help publisher, is accused of financing the operation, while McCormick and others are accused of growing the marijuana and trying to sell it to the Los Angeles Cannabis Buyer's Club, which has dispensed the drug since Californians voted in 1996 to legalize it for medical use.
They are scheduled to. stand trial Nov. 16.
McWilliams said Friday he is devastated by the judge's decision.
"It's frustrating to be in a state where voters voted that I can have this medication," he said. "I am needlessly dying at the prime of my career."