PLACER JAIL WON'T ALLOW KUBBY POT

Medical marijuana proponent Steve Kubby -- who won acquittal earlier
this year on charges that he grew 265 pot plants at his home for
personal profit -- was told Friday that he wouldn't be able to smoke
cannabis while serving a 120-day jail term on the two drug charges he
was convicted of.

Kubby produced expert witnesses during a lengthy pot-possession-for-sale
trial to back his contention that heavy marijuana smoking keeps a rare
form of cancer he suffers from at bay.

But a jail official told a hearing before Placer County Superior Court
Judge John L. Cosgrove that the facility's medical director wouldn't be
able to dispense marijuana or its synthetic derivative to Kubby.

Cosgrove agreed to extend Kubby's deadline for admission to the jail
from May 11 to July 20. The extra time is expected to provide enough
time for the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on the use of medical marijuana.

Cosgrove ruled against a request by Assistant Public Defender Julie
Mumma to eliminate the jail sentence and a search and seizure provision
of Kubby's probation.

But he added that he was concerned about the jail being able to handle
Kubby's situation while in custody.

Proposition 36 -- a voter-approved initiative that orders counseling
rather than jail time for first and second-time drug cases -- wouldn't
apply to Kubby because any shift to treatment from jail time would
involve total abstention from drug or alcohol use, Cosgrove said.

Kubby said after the hearing that cessation of his marijuana use would
be akin to a death penalty for him.

"The medical marijuana initiative passed by voters wasn't difficult for
them to understand, it wasn't difficult for juries to understand, but it
seems very difficult for Placer County's criminal justice officials to
accept, understand or even tolerate," Kubby said.

Kubby was convicted of felony possession of a magic mushroom stem and
peyote buttons. Cosgrove reduced the two convictions to misdemeanors and
sentenced Kubby to a 120-jail term.

Electronic home monitoring was not an option for Kubby because he would
have had to refrain from drugs or alcohol.