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)."