Todd McCormick is one of the most prominent and respected activists for medicinal cannabis and industrial hemp in the United States of America.
Between the ages of two and ten, 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, McCormick has been an activist, publicist and researcher for cannabis. He collaborated with Jack Herer on a new edition of his ground-breaking book The Emperor Wears No Clothes and in Jack’s passing is now the editor of the book, having released the 12th edition in 2010. During the mid-90s he lived for a while in Amsterdam, while there he 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 US. Shortly thereafter, he founded the first “Cannabis Compassion Club” in San Diego. While in Amsterdam, McCormick worked as editor in chief of Hemplife, a sister publication of Highlife Magazine.
Best-selling author Peter McWilliams brought McCormick back to California in 1997 in order to write a book on growing medicinal cannabis. That summer, the DEA with over 90 officers raided McCormick's Bel Air home and destroyed all the plants on the premises; years of work and rare genetics were lost forever. After a three-year long legal battle, both McWilliams and McCormick ended up being convicted by the Federal Government; McWilliams 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 manager of HEMP.xxx, an online magazine and community, producer of 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". His 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.' "
Website: www.hemp.xxx
Twitter: https://twitter.com/HEMPxxx