One of the most dedicated, passionate medical marijuana campaigners in America, Todd McCormick (USA) describes himself as an ‘activist/author, traveler, photographer, friend to many’. He has been actively working on initiatives for cannabis and health since 1994 and was instrumental in promoting the implementation of new medical marijuana legislation following Proposition 215 in California.
McCormick is the Editor in Chief of Hempire magazine and author of How To Grow Medical Marijuana, an acclaimed step-by-step guidebook (which he offers as a free download). He has worked on the THC Expo in Los Angeles, which in 2011 attracted over 40,000 people.
Between the ages of two and ten, Todd McCormick underwent long-term chemotherapy & radiotherapy treatments, as well as nine major operations in his fight against a rare disease called Histiocytosis X. When his mother feared that he would not survive a new tumour in soft tissue next to his heart, she decided to give him medicinal cannabis. Todd was nine years old at the time and his mother's decision saved and changed his life.
Since 1994, Todd McCormick has been an activist, publicist and researcher for cannabis. He collaborated with Jack Herer, who has received the Cannabis Culture Awards 2006, on a new edition of his ground-breaking book The Emperor Wears No Clothes. In Jack’s passing, McCormick is now the editor of the book, having released the 12th edition in 2010.
During the mid-90s he lived in Amsterdam for a while, and became one of the first 10 patients in the Netherlands to receive a prescription for medicinal cannabis. In 1995, after debating the DEA at the University of Miami, he used this prescription to transport Dutch cannabis to the U.S. and declared it at customs as medicine. Shortly thereafter, he founded the first “Cannabis Compassion Club” in San Diego.
Best-selling author Peter McWilliams brought McCormick back to California in 1997 in order to write a book on growing medicinal cannabis. That summer, he became one of the first Federal arrests by the DEA after the passage of the 1996 “California Compassionate Use Act” (Proposition 215). Over 90 officers raided his home and destroyed all the plants; years of work and rare genetics were lost forever.
After a three-year long legal battle, McWilliams and McCormick were convicted by the Federal Government; McWilliams, who suffered from AIDS, died within six months because he was prohibited from using medicinal cannabis. McCormick would be imprisoned for nearly five years from 2000 till 2004. His only crime was growing and studying the medicine that had saved his life.
In addition to being an uncommonly dedicated activist and expert on the cannabis plant, Todd McCormick is primarily a likeable and charismatic person. Tirelessly, he continues the fight to rehabilitate the image of the hemp plant as the owner of HEMP.xxx, an online magazine and community. McCormick produced the 2009 THC Expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center and was co-producer of the Marijuana Policy Projects’ fundraisers at the Playboy Mansion in 07, 08 & 09.
McCormick was featured in the award winning Canadian documentary, The Union: The Business Behind Getting High and is an executive producer on the currently in-production, follow-up film: The Culture High.
McCormick's 1998 book; "How to Grow Medicinal Marijuana" is one of the most downloaded books about growing cannabis on the Internet. In its introduction, Peter McWilliams wrote: "Todd's life is his work, his work being the education about and propagation of an herb he personally knows to ease suffering and save lives. Todd is a good person on an important mission. Todd has a compassionate heart. I am happy to risk life in prison for the honor of saying, 'I was Todd McCormick's first publisher.’"
Read an interview with Todd McCormick here.
