LOSING DRUG CASE IN CALIF. BOLSTERS MY REFUGEE CLAIM, SAYS MEDICAL-POT ADVOCATE

Medical-marijuana activist Steve Kubby says his refugee claim has likely
been bolstered by losing his drug case in California.

Kubby, now a Sechelt resident, lost an appeal of his felony possession of
mescaline and a psychedelic mushroom.

Now, he says, he can successfully argue that being sent back to the U.S.
would effectively be a death sentence.

"They will arrest me and kill me if I go back," he said yesterday. "The
felony that stands is not even a crime in Canada. Now we can say, 'There's
no relief.'"

Dr. Joseph Connors, a cancer specialist at the B.C. Cancer Agency, said
Kubby suffers from a rare type of cancer with symptoms that Kubby keeps
under control by smoking up to one ounce of marijuana a day.

Connors said that without the pot "there would be a real possibility that
he could have a heart attack or a stroke or even possibly die. There are
medicines, but he has found out that marijuana is more effective."

Kubby has government permission to possess up to 5.4 kilograms of pot,
which he grows and stockpiles for himself.

"Peyote [the cactus that contains mescaline] is not a crime in Canada," he
said. "It's as if a parking ticket becomes a death sentence."

Kubby, 57, is a father of three who says authorities singled him out
because he ran as a candidate for governor of California.

Kubby fled to Canada and is considered a fugitive in the U.S. for failing
to report to jail in July 2001 to serve a 120-day sentence on the convictions.