Pubdate: Sun, 07 Nov 1999 Source: Wisconsin State Journal (WI) Copyright: 1999 Madison Newspapers, Inc. Contact: http://www.madison.com/wsj/ MEDICAL MARIJUANA DEFENSE MUZZLED LOS ANGELES -- In a July 1997 raid, police officers and federal agents here found more than 4,000 marijuana plants in a Bel-Air mansion known as the castle, near the home of Ronald Reagan, whose administration created the "zero tolerance" approach to illegal drugs. With a trial scheduled to begin Nov. 16, the case has turned into a test of judicial tolerance for a defense strategy based on marijuana's medical uses. Defendants, Todd McCormick and Peter McWilliams advocate legalizing marijuana for medical use and have used it to treat their own ailments: McCormick for pain from cancer treatments that fused several of his vertebrae, and McWilliams for nausea from drugs he takes to treat AIDS. Saying the plants were for personal use and research on a book about medical marijuana, they contend their actions were legal under Proposition 215, the ballot measure approved by California voters in 1996 allowing patients to smoke marijuana with a doctor's recommendation. Federal prosecutors, however, sought and received an order from a federal judge barring the defendants from telling the jury that side of the story. In a ruling on Friday, U.S. District Judge George King prohibited the defendants from making any reference to Proposition 215, the purported medical benefits of marijuana or even the federal government's own experimental program, now closed, providing marijuana to patients. The defendants say they are not being allowed to defend themselves. "I'm devastated," McWilliams said in an interview on Friday. "I can't even present my case to the jury. We just have to sit there and listen to the evidence, and we've already admitted everything. Obviously, the federal government is stonewalling any discussion of medical marijuana in any forum." McWilliams, a best-selling self-help author, and McCormick, were among nine people charged with conspiring to grow and sell marijuana. They face minimum prison sentences of 10 years if convicted. - --- MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart