Pubdate: Tue, 23 Apr 2002
Source: Sacramento Bee (CA)
Copyright: 2002 The Sacramento Bee
Contact:  http://www.sacbee.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/376
Author: Wayne Wilson, Bee Staff Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/kubby.htm (Kubby, Steve)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

MEDICAL-POT ACTIVIST FREED

Canadian authorities released Steve Kubby on bail after three days in jail 
but have added new drug charges against the medical-marijuana activist and 
his wife, Michele.

Sgt. Bryon Hodgkin of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said a search of 
the Kubbys' residence in British Columbia resulted in the seizure of what 
he called "a sophisticated marijuana grow." Authorities said they 
discovered "approximately 160 marijuana plants."

The Kubbys have been living in the community of Sechelt since July 2001 
when Steve Kubby failed to report to the Placer County jail to begin 
serving a 120-day sentence on two misdemeanor drug convictions.

Police consider Kubby, 55, to be a fugitive from justice.

But Kubby, a cancer patient whose doctor testified at his California trial 
that marijuana therapy probably saved his life, contends that a 120-day 
jail term without the therapy would be tantamount to a death sentence.

Kubby won his marijuana possession-for-sale and cultivation trials in 
Placer County but was convicted of having a trace of two illegal 
substances, peyote and a psychedelic mushroom stem, in his Olympic Valley home.

He appealed the convictions and moved to Canada, but shortly after the 3rd 
District Court of Appeal in Sacramento ruled April 12 that a fugitive "has 
forfeited his right to appeal," Kubby was arrested in Canada on immigration 
warrants.

That led to the subsequent search of his home, Canadian authorities 
reported, and discovery of the marijuana plants.

Hodgkin said the pot garden violates Canada's Controlled Drugs and 
Substances Act.

He said Steve Kubby, 55, and Michele Kubby, 36, were charged with 
production of a controlled substance and possession for the purpose of 
trafficking.

In a communication received by The Bee over the weekend, Michele Kubby said 
her husband's health "was seriously compromised" by his three-day stay in a 
Canadian jail.

She said his blood pressure was elevated and he suffered "such severe 
vomiting and diarrhea that he lost 20 pounds."

But she said his doctor on the Sunshine Coast told them that "no permanent 
damage has been done."

Attorney J. David Nick, who represented Kubby at his trial in Auburn, 
blasted Kubby's arrest in Canada as "punitive, not for any true immigration 
concerns."

Nick said Kubby is "not a fugitive. He's never been a fugitive." But he 
said Canada "apparently thinks that because his appeal was dismissed, this 
makes him a convicted individual subject to deportation.

"It's simply inhumane. ... It's not morally right (to prosecute people who 
are ill)."
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