CANNTHROPOLOGY

The Pot Prince of Bel-Air

Many medical marijuana patients have ended up behind bars simply for using their medicine… but there are few whose struggles have been as publicized or consequential as those of activist, author, and cultivator Todd McCormick.

FROM CANCER TO CANNABIS As a toddler, Todd McCormick was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer that attacked his spine, causing his first five vertebrae to be fused together by age two. In the years that followed, he developed nine tumors throughout his body. Then when he was nine, his mother read in Good Housekeeping magazine that marijuana could be used to treat the side effects of radiation and chemotherapy – and after getting unofficial approval from their doctor – decided to try it.

“She handed me a joint on the way home from a therapy session and by the time we got home, I was feeling better,” McCormick recalls. “From then on, we started using Cannabis around my treatments.”

By age 13, McCormick had been secretly using and researching Cannabis for a few years. Then in 1984 he visited a friend’s house, where his friend’s older brother showed him the “Marijuana Grower’s Guide” by Mel Frank and Ed Rosenthal, and the grow box it taught him to build.

“When he opened the doors and I saw the Cannabis growing, it was like “The Wizard of Oz” scene where the movie goes from black and white to color,” says McCormick. “I immediately traded a $20 bag of pot for the book, went home, and started growing.”

Toddler Todd in a body cast.

Todd McCormick receiving a lifetime achievement award from Marijuana Policy Project at the Playboy Mansion in 2009.

But it would be another book about Cannabis, discovered almost a decade later, which would truly change the trajectory of his life.

ENTER THE HEMPEROR In 1993, McCormick – now 22 – moved to Pacific Beach, Calif. It was there while browsing at a bookshop that he discovered “The Emperor Wears No Clothes” by Jack Herer and was blown away. Inspired to get involved, he called the number on the back of the book and learned that Herer’s organization – Help End Marijuana Prohibition (HEMP) – was gathering signatures for the California Hemp Initiative. Todd dropped everything and drove up to Van Nuys to volunteer, where Jack himself warmly welcomed him. “He invited me to his apartment and we sat up all night talking,” McCormick reminisces. “We became best friends that night and were inseparable after that.”

Through Herer, Todd soon grew close with other prominent activists like Dennis Peron, Brownie Mary and Dr. Tod Mikuriya. In November 1994, he accompanied Jack to the High Times Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam, where he met international Cannabis Todd with his mentor, legendary luminaries such as

Cannabis activist Jack Herer. Skunkman Sam, Robert Connell Clarke and Nevil Schoenmakers, and attended the first public tour of Cannabis Castle – during which Sensi Seeds premiered their new strain named after Jack. PRESCRIPTION PIONEER While in Amsterdam, McCormick heard about a physician named Dr. Trossel, who was the first in the Netherlands to prescribe Cannabis. Todd traveled to Rotterdam to meet with him and by the end of the appointment, had a pre-

scription for 10 grams of Cannabis per day to treat his chronic pain – making him the first-ever legal international Cannabis patient. Weeks later, that legality was tested at an immigration checkpoint near San Diego when authorities found weed in his vehicle and tried to confiscate it.

“I was like, ‘No, you can’t take my Cannabis – I have a prescription. I’m not going to acknowledge your law unless you acknowledge the international law that supersedes it. So either arrest me, or give it back.”

Remarkably, they ended up giving most of his stash back. After some further research, McCormick confirmed that an American who’s prescribed a Schedule I substance in Europe is indeed allowed to bring back up to a 90-day supply. So in March 1995 he returned to Rotterdam, bought some medical Cannabis, then flew home with it. Surprisingly, security not only let him keep it, they even let him smoke some on the plane! (Back then, airplanes actually had smoking sections.) It was this legal revelation that helped inspire his fellow activists back in Cali to craft Proposition 215.

Following in Peron’s footsteps, McCormick started a compassion club in San Diego, then another in his old home state of Rhode Island. That summer, he was arrested in Ohio while transporting 33 pounds of weed and once again asserted a medical defense – this time, in court. After hearing Todd’s story and reading testimonials from prominent doctors (including Mikuriya and Lester Grinspoon), the judge lowered his bond and eventually dismissed the case. He even granted Todd permission to return to Amsterdam to attend the 1995 Cannabis Cup, where he accompanied tele-journalist Morley Safer around the event for a story on “60 Minutes.”

During this visit, he also accepted the position of editor-in-chief at Hemp Life magazine and spent the next year living in Amsterdam – teaching cultivation alongside legendary growers “Old Ed” Holloway and Wernard Bruining, and working at Serious Seeds and Positronics. HOLLYWOOD HIGH After Prop 215’s passage in November 1996, McCormick returned to California to help implement the law and to accept a lucrative book deal. Partnering with best-selling author Peter McWilliams, he published

“How to Grow Medical Marijuana” – resulting in a quarter-million dollar payday for him. McCormick used his newfound wealth to rent a huge house in Bel-Air, where he set up multiple grow rooms and began researching various strains’ medicinal effectiveness in treating AIDS, cancer and chronic pain – a project that earned his home the nickname “Marijuana Mansion.” Showing his Dutch Cannabis prescription (1995). Since he basically lived Hollywood and always had plenty of great herb, McCormick soon befriended several pro-pot celebrities – including Woody Harrelson, Larry Flynt, Hugh Hefner and Bill Maher, who invited both Woody and Todd to be on his show “Politically Incorrect.” In front of his Todd and Woody also participated “Marijuana Mansion” in Bel-Air. in a college speaking tour organized by members of Rage Against The Machine and Nirvana called Spitfire – a gig that landed him an opening slot on stage at Woodstock 99. BEL-AIR BUST Unfortunately, in 1997, Herer’s pride in his protégé unintentionally led to tragic results. While selling herb to the LA Cannabis Buyers Club, Jack reportedly bragged about Todd’s medical grow op. When Todd refused a request to sell them clones, the Club’s director With celebrity friends Woody ratted him out. On July 23, the DEA Harrelson and Bill Maher. raided the Marijuana Mansion – seizing 4,116 plants and charging him (and later McWilliams and others) with multiple offenses. Todd’s was the first cultivation bust since the passage of Prop 215, making him an instant cause célèbre for medical marijuana. But since the charges against him were federal, Harrelson & McCormick on Bill Maher’s old show Politically Incorrect. California’s protections didn’t apply. So when his case went to trial, the judge denied him the right to mount a “medical necessity” defense – meaning his lawyers weren’t allowed to mention his medical history or Prop 215. McCormick had three options: to go to trial without the benefit of his medical defense, meaning he’d face a quarter million dollars in legal expenses and a mandatory minimum of 10 years; to grovel for leniency and lose the chance to appeal; or to accept a plea deal that carried a five-year mandatory minimum. So in November 1999, McCormick pled guilty to a lesser charge and was sentenced to five years. He self-surrendered to prison on January 3, 2000. POST-PRISON PROMINENCE After his release in May 2004, McCormick dove right back into Cannabis activism. He helped produce two documentaries, “The Union: The Business Behind Getting High” and then its sequel, “The Culture High.” He organized a series of fundraising parties for Marijuana Policy Project at the Playboy Mansion. He launched the massive THC Expo at the LA Convention Center. And after Herer’s death in 2010, he edited the 12th edition of “The Emperor Wears No Clothes” featuring a special tribute to Jack. Todd has also been honored with a lifetime achievement award from MPP in 2009 and a Cannabis Culture Award from Sensi Seeds in May 2012.

Nowadays, McCormick is as busy as ever – writing features for Grow magazine, as well as two new books: a guide to the endocannabinoid system entitled “From Cancer to Cannabis” and a free online cultivation book with OG grow writer Bill Drake (author of the first grow manual, “The Cultivator’s Handbook of Marijuana”). And in 2019, he launched Authentic Genetics – the exclusive source for the original heirloom genetics from some of the legendary breeders he’d developed friendships with, including Skunkman Sam and Mel Frank (coauthor of the book that initially set him down the path of Cannabis cultivation 35 years earlier).

“To think that I was once a little 13-year-old kid reading his book and being inspired, and now I’m one of his best friends and the only person in the world he lets sell his genetics, it’s quite an honor.”

Accepting the 2012 Cannabis Culture Award at Sensi’s Hash Marihuana & Hemp Museum in Barcelona.

breeders he’d developed friendships with, including Skunkman Sam With Mel Frank.

To read the full, unabridged version of this story and listen to the interview on our podcast, visit worldofcannabis.museum/cannthropology.