More than 50 medical marijuana activists rallied near the federal courthouse in downtown Los Angeles Monday night, demanding the release of Todd McCormick.

LOS ANGELES, April 14 - A federal judge Tuesday overturned a magistrate’s ruling and ordered medical marijuana advocate Todd McCormick released from jail, pending a bail revocation hearing set for later this month.
    But U.S. District Judge George King warned McCormick: “If you are playing any games or trying to skirt anything, you will pay the price for it. Have I made myself clear to you?”
    “Very clear,” replied McCormick.
    U.S. Magistrate James McMahon ordered McCormick locked up April 3, 1998 after he failed a series of drug tests. King released McCormick on the basis of the results of a test done four days before he was imprisoned. It came back negative for marijuana.
    McCormick, 27, faces trial later this year for growing 4,000 marijuana plants in his rented Bel-Air mansion. He must undergo random drug testing as a condition of his $500,000 bail, which actor Woody Harrelson posted.
    McCormick claimed the “dirty” tests were the result of his use of Marinol, a legal drug that contains a synthetic substance similar to marijuana.
    Although McMahon also ordered McCormick to stop taking Marinol and any other marijuana derivatives, the defendant continued to test positive.
    McCormick claimed it was just slow to leave his system.
    Last week, results of a drug test that McCormick took four days before being locked up were returned. They showed no trace of cannabinoids, his attorney Eric Shevin said.
    “He was illegally incarcerated is what appears to have happened,” Shevin said outside court.
    King ordered McCormick to return to McMahon’s court on April 22 for a hearing to decide if he did violate his bail by smoking pot, or by taking Marinol after being ordered not to use it.
    Shevin says that hearing likely will be postponed because a toxicologist who plans to testify about the effects of Marinol will be out of the country.
    He likely also wants to hold off on that hearing until after another one set for April 27, when McCormick’s lawyers plan to ask King to overrule McMahon again and allow their client to take Marinol while on bail.
    Shevin also did not rule out the possibility of asking King to allow
    McCormick to smoke pot while on bail. McCormick’s lawyers already asked McMahon to allow their client to smoke pot, but he refused.
    McCormick says he needs marijuana to treat pain brought on by bouts of cancer, five fused vertebrae and a hip problem.
    He claims he has the right to grow and smoke pot under Proposition 215, the medical marijuana initiative voters approved in 1996.
    On Monday, more than 50 medical marijuana activists rallied near the federal courthouse in downtown Los Angeles, demanding the release of McCormick.
    “This is an outrage!” fumed Dennis Peron, the San Francisco man sometimes referred to as the “godfather of Proposition 215.” California voters approved the medical marijuana initiative in 1996.
    “They have put a sick man in jail for doing what he is entitled to under California law,” said Peron, who is running for the GOP gubernatorial nomination.
    “Everything (the government) is doing right now is going to backfire on them,” predicted Peron, who is fighting three legal battles of his own over selling pot at Cannabis Buyer’s Clubs in the Bay area.
    Ann McCormick, Todd’s mother, flew in from Rhode Island to attend the rally in a small park across from the U.S. District Courthouse. She said she feels “betrayed” by her government.
    “I’m here and I’m not going to leave until my son is home with his Marinol,” she said Monday.
    Ann McCormick said she first gave her son marijuana as a child, during one of his many bouts with cancer. She claims it helped him battle the disease and caused him to grow up to be a medical marijuana activist.