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.