Headline: Pot grower says he's a simple 'gardener'

Photo caption: HAPPY TO BE FREE: Todd McCormick'right,gets a hug from Brett
Harrelson,brother of actor and marijuana activist Woody Harrelson.McCormick
got out of jail after his $500,000 bail was posted Tuesday,by Woody
Harrelson through a third party. (photo of Todd&Brett)The Associated Press

Law: Todd McCormick needed the marijuana from his 4,000 plants as cancer
medicine,he says.

By MICHAEL FLEEMAN The Associated Press

LOS ANGELESA man arrested for growing more than 4,000 marijuana plants in
a BelAir mansion said Thursday that he was a simple"gardener"developing
new strains of marijuana to treat his own cancer.

"This is a situation that I find absurd,"Todd McCormick told a news
conference on the patio of the same fivestory mansion raided by
authorities last month. "I'm growing a flower here and I'm going to suffer
a decade in jail?It's just amazing."

McCormick,27,was arrested July 29 by sheriff's drug investigators and held
on federal drug charges.He was released from jail Wednesday after his
$500,000 bail was posted by actorindustrial hemp activist Woody
Harrelson.An unidentified woman who posted the bail in Los Angeles Tuesday
apparently represented Harrelson,who was in Australia.

McCormick's lawyers said the U.S. Attorney's Office has delayed seeking an
indictment while both sides discuss the charges.The next meeting between
lawyers and prosecutors is set for next week,attorney Bruce Margolin said.

Wearing a shirt made of hemp, McCormick opened the news conference by
speaking at length about the medical benefits of marijuana.

"I'm not manufacturing for distribution or making some controlled
substance,"he said."I'm not some mad scientist in my cellar.I'm a gardener."

He told reporters the marijuana plants,growing in the back patio and on all
but one of the mansion's five floors,were intended for use in treating the
cancer he has suffered since childhood.

:I was growing it for my own self...so I could do research on my own
body,"he said.

McMormick said he has suffered cancer since age 2 and has used marijuana
off and on since he was 9 years old to battle the pain,particularly from
five fused vertebrae in his back.

After the raid on the castlelike,$6,000amonth rental mansion,sheriff's
officials said they suspected McCormick was selling the drug to support
himself.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block belittled McCormick's claims of
health needs, saying:Four thousand plants should make him very healthy."

But McCormick said his income came from a book advance.He said he needed to
grow so many plants because he was experimenting with different varieties.
He also said he had to stock up.

"This is an annual plant,"he said."Summer only comes once and I have a long
year ahead of me."

McCormick was an outspoken supporter of California's voterapproved
Proposition 215 medicaluse marijuana measure.

"I don't feel I went outside what 215 allowed in the least,"he said.