cannabisnews.com: Medical Marijuana Activists Plead Guilty





Medical Marijuana Activists Plead Guilty
Posted by FoM on November 19, 1999 at 22:22:56 PT
By Associated Press
Source: Boston Globe
Two medical marijuana activists pleaded guilty Friday to federal drug charges for cultivating a marijuana farm inside a Bel-Air mansion. 
Todd McCormick and Peter McWilliams pleaded guilty Friday evening to one count of conspiracy to manufacture and distribute marijuana, said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office. A judge earlier this month ruled that McCormick, 29, and McWilliams, 50, could not use ''medical necessity'' as a defense. McCormick agreed to five years in prison and the right to raise the medical necessity issue with the appellate court. McWilliams, a self-help publisher, faces up to five years with no appeal rights. Sentencing for both men was set for Feb. 28. McCormick, who has bone cancer, and McWilliams, who has AIDS and cancer now in remission, were arrested in July when more than 6,000 plants were found in a Bel-Air mansion and three other leased locations in Los Angeles County. Voters in California approved Proposition 215 in 1996, which recognizes marijuana use under a licensed doctor's care. Federal officials have not recognized the measure, reasoning state laws do not apply to federal offenses. Published: November 19, 1999© Copyright 1999 Boston Globe Electronic Publishing, Inc. Related Articles:County Again Urged to 'Uphold Law' Allowing MMJ - 11/14/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread3664.shtmlLA Drug Case Bars Medical Marijuana Defense - 11/07/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread3585.shtmlUphold The Law - 11/05/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread3569.shtml 
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Comment #1 posted by ConcernedCitizen on December 05, 1999 at 14:09:20 PT
re fed govt actions in cannabis prosecutions
The federal government is, however, supposed to be restrained by the federal Constitution, that alleged supreme law of our land, and there is nothing in it giving the federal government any authority to outlaw any plant, least of all the one that provided the paper that the constitution itself was initially drafted on, nor to violate it's own 13th amendment by enslaving all citizens, convicted of crime or not, through depriving them of the ability to make decisions concerning which substances they may choose to put into their own private bodies, which, as free citizens, they should rightfully own.
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