Bail Reinstated for Cancer Patient in Marijuana Case

Actor Woody Harrelson will not have to forfeit the $500,000 bond he posted for a cancer patient facing criminal charges for growing more than 4,000 marijuana plants.

Nor will Todd McCormick, the 27-year-old defendant, be sent back to jail while he awaits trial in Los Angeles federal court.

A bail revocation hearing for McCormick came to an unexpected end Wednesday after federal prosecutors and defense lawyers hammered out a settlement.

Under terms of the stipulation, which was approved by U.S. Magistrate James McMahon, McCormick renewed his promise not to use marijuana and any hempseed derivatives, but he can use Marinol, a legal drug containing a synthetic form of marijuana.

McCormick, who has a rare form of bone cancer, says he needs to use marijuana to relieve pain.

Harrelson posted bail for McCormick after drug agents raided the Bel-Air mansion where he grew the plants under artificial light. As a condition of the bond, McCormick promised to refrain from using marijuana and submit to regular substance-abuse tests.

When a series of tests produced positive results earlier this year, the government moved to revoke his bail. McCormick insisted that he hadn’t taken marijuana and suggested that the positive readings stemmed from his use of Marinol, which was prescribed by a physician, or from his use of hempseed oil, which he said he was taking as a nutritional supplement.

Wednesday’s turnabout apparently came after the judge and prosecutors were presented with evidence from a Mississippi-based laboratory that it could detect the difference between marijuana and Marinol.