MARIJUANA RIGHTS GIVEN U.S. CITIZEN

VANCOUVER, B.C. - Steve Kubby, the medical marijuana advocate who ran for
governor of California as a Libertarian in 1998, has been granted the right
to smoke and grow huge quantities of pot for medical purposes in Canada.

Kubby, who fled with his family to Sechelt on British Columbia's southern
coast to avoid a jail term in California, said he is "cleaning out our
garage to start growing."

"The Americans would do well to come up to Canada and see how the Canadians
are doing this," Kubby, 56, told The Province newspaper in Vancouver after
receiving his exemption Thursday.

His lawyer, John Conroy, said he believes Kubby is the first U.S. citizen
to be granted one of the approximately 800 exemptions that have been issued
by Health Canada since 1999.

Kubby's permit allows him to grow 59 marijuana plants at a time for medical
use, store up to 2,655 grams of the drug and carry up to 360 grams.

Kubby said he smokes up to 12 grams of marijuana a day to control the
symptoms of a rare form of adrenal-gland cancer. A backer of the medical
marijuana law Californians passed in 1996, Kubby also unsuccessfully sought
the Libertarian vice presidential nomination in 2000.

He was convicted in December 2000 of two drug possession charges and
sentenced to four months in prison. He and his family fled to Canada after
the sentence was handed down.

The former candidate was arrested in Canada on an immigration warrant last
April and since then has applied for political refugee status. The U.S. has
asked Immigration Canada to deport both Kubby and Boje.