FROM CANADA, KUBBY FIGHTS DRUG CONVICTIONS

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.

"They forced me to choose between going to jail and participating in
my own death there or being with my family here," Kubby explained,
speaking by phone from his new home in Sechelt, British Columbia.

Kubby claims a jail-imposed interruption in his physician-approved
marijuana cancer therapy would endanger his life.

He defied a court order by not surrendering to jail authorities a
week ago, but said he doesn't consider himself to be a fugitive from
justice.

"I talked to the probation department yesterday. They have my
address," he said.

"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's case has been referred to the Central California Appellate
Program for appointment of counsel. Kubby said he fully expects his
convictions to be overturned on appeal.

Because he failed to appear at the jail Friday, Kubby will be charged
with violating probation and an arrest warrant request will be filed
with the court, said Deputy Chief Probation Officer Jennifer Keck.

But that doesn't mean he'll be picked up and returned to the United States.

Although not one of more than half a dozen legal authorities
consulted could cite specific law, all agreed that extradition of a
misdemeanant from another country would never happen.

Kubby, 54, a former Libertarian candidate for governor, was arrested
in January 1999. A pot task force, acting on an anonymous tip,
searched his Olympic Valley home and found 265 marijuana plants in
various stages of growth.

Kubby, claiming the crop was strictly medicinal, won dismissal of all
five marijuana counts after a jury voted 11-1 for acquittal Dec. 21,
2000.

But he was convicted of possessing small quantities of two other
controlled substances-psilocyn and mescaline -- incidentally turned
up in the form of a mushroom stem and peyote buttons during the
search of his home.

Judge John L. Cosgrove granted Kubby's request to have the
convictions reduced from felonies to misdemeanors, placed him on
three years probation and ordered that he serve 120 days in jail,
minus the three he spent incarcerated at the time of his arrest.

His May 11 surrender date was extended to July 20 when jail officials
told the judge that a pending U.S. Supreme Court ruling on medical
pot could have a bearing on their treatment of Kubby's unique
medicinal needs.

When that decision was issued May 14, the high court declared the
sale or possession of marijuana for medical use illegal.

It became clear to Kubby that the jail would not provide him with the
pot necessary to treat his disease, a most-often-fatal form of
adrenal cancer he's been battling for more than 16 years.

When his surrender date arrived Friday, Kubby was in Canada, with his
wife, Michele, and their two children.

"We're here as business visitors while we build our video production
company," Kubby said Thursday.

Their legal residence remains in Southern California, where Michele,
35, intends to launch a campaign for the office of lieutenant
governor, Kubby said. "She'll be on the ballot in March."

If she's elected, he joked, "She can pardon me when Governor Davis
leaves the state."