Pubdate: Sun, 19 Aug 2001 Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal (NV) Copyright: 2001 Las Vegas Review-Journal Contact: http://www.lvrj.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/233 Author: Vin Suprynowicz Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/kubby.htm (Kubby, Steve) Note: Vin Suprynowicz, the Review-Journal's assistant editorial page editor, is author of "Send in the Waco Killers." His column appears Sunday. FORCED TO CHOOSE BETWEEN EXILE AND DEATH Medical marijuana activist Steve Kubby "said Thursday he will continue to fight his misdemeanor drug convictions from Canada rather than submit to a 117-day stay in the Placer County jail," reported Wayne Wilson of The Sacramento Bee on July 27. "They forced me to choose between going to jail and participating in my own death there or being with my family here," Kubby explains, speaking by phone from his new home in Sechelt, British Columbia. Kubby, 54, was the Libertarian Party's California gubernatorial nominee in 1998, and helped win overwhelming voter approval of Proposition 215, which legalized marijuana for medical use. Yet -- in an astonishing example of political retribution -- Placer County sheriffs deputies staked out the Kubby house, peered in the windows and pored through the couple's garbage in search of "evidence," finally arresting Kubby and his wife Michele for growing marijuana after that electoral victory. Kubby suffers from adrenal cancer, and has survived the usually fatal disease for 16 years -- long enough to astonish his physicians. His only known treatment is the marijuana he selectively breeds to counter the effect of the excess adrenalin in his body. Kubby, who estimates the value of the breeding stock seized and destroyed by authorities at more than $1 million, is adamant that if jailed and deprived of the potent medicinal plant he would quickly die. (I tried a few puffs of his crop in 1999 -- just doing my journalistic duty -- and promptly passed out cold.) "I talked to the probation department yesterday. They have my address," Kubby told the Sacramento paper last month. "I'm not going to put my life at risk while this is under appeal, and I still haven't had a chance to have an attorney go before the judge and argue for a stay of the sentence." Kubby was arrested in January 1999 for possession of 265 marijuana plants. Police also seized the couple's computers, bankrupting them by destroying their home-based business (publishing an outdoor sports magazine), arguing in court that their subscriber mailing list was in fact a list of "marijuana buyers." Replying that the crop was strictly medicinal and for his own use -- he cross-breeds different strains to maximize the effects helpful to his condition -- Kubby won dismissal of all five marijuana counts after a jury voted 11-1 for acquittal on Dec. 21, 2000. But he was convicted of possessing small quantities of two other controlled substances -- a mushroom stem and a peyote button -- which turned up during the search. The Kubbys say they don't know whether the dried-out vegetable fragments were left behind by house guests or planted by police, who apparently changed the identification and labeling of the exhibits several times. Judge John L. Cosgrove granted Kubby's request to have the convictions reduced to misdemeanors, placed him on three years probation and ordered that he serve 117 days in jail. But Kubby says it became clear to him that the jail would not provide him with the marijuana necessary to treat his usually fatal disease. "Steve has ... refused to serve any sentence or pay any fines until this appeal is heard," Michele Kubby reported in an e-mail sent to supporters on Aug. 7. "It's absurd that Placer County would demand any jail time, since voters (even in Placer County!) solidly supported no jail for drug offenders when they voted for Prop 36. ... I'm proud of Steve for doing the responsible thing by standing by me and our two little girls, rather than turn himself over to be experimented upon by Placer County. ... "Welcome to the Drug War, where ... police can invade your home ... peek through your windows, go through your garbage, and even listen through your walls. Before you know it, you'll be facing a jury where Libertarians and people who used marijuana or advocate its re-legalization are banned. ... "Steve has the unalienable right to his life. And he has the unalienable right to grow any God-given herb, and use them as he sees fit. ... Here in the safe jurisdiction of British Columbia, where the Canadian federal government recognizes Steve's rights as a cannabis patient, we have a safe harbor from which we can continue our appeal. "How can Placer County force Steve, while he exercises his right to appeal and doesn't even have competent legal representation, to choose between being a fugitive or facing certain death?" I phoned the Kubbys in British Columbia, last week. The family is staying in a four-bedroom house with a two-car garage overlooking Porpoise Bay for U.S. $690 a month, Steve reports. "And the only black-and-whites you see up here are the bald eagles. I think there are like six cops for the whole coast. ... We're living like kings and all our friends believe as we do. ..." While that's good news, it doesn't make me any less ashamed to live in a country that would force a fine man and his courageous family to choose between exile and certain death in prison. Financial help to fund Steve's appeal is welcome at www.kubby.com/00-contribute.html, or The Kubby Defense Fund, 5823 Marine Way, Sechelt, B.C. V0N 3A6 Canada. - --- MAP posted-by: Josh