KUBBY TRIAL UPDATE

Drug policy is at the heart of the ongoing prosecution of former Olympic
Valley residents Steve and Michele Kubby in Placer County.

Steve Kubby was one of the leaders of the 1996 Proposition 215, and was
running for governor as a Libertarian in 1998 when Placer County law
enforcement launched a six-month investigation after an anonymous note
alleged that he was selling the marijuana he grew.

One of the other candidates in that gubernatorial race, Dan Lungren of
Roseville, has now become a presence in the Kubby case. Lungren was the
California attorney general when Prop. 215 passed, and issued a guideline to
local law enforcement afterward that said, "(O)ne can argue that more than
two plants would be cultivation of more than necessary for personal medical
needs."

On Tuesday, Dep. District Attorney Chris Cattran referred to Lungren's
notorious two-plant standard, which medical marijuana advocates say was an
attempt to thwart the intent of Prop. 215, in challenging a defense expert's
conclusion that the Kubbys' garden was for personal, medical use.

In other developments, Judge John L. Cosgrove tossed out three minor charges
of the 19 counts against the Kubbys. And Cosgrove ordered the sheriff's
department to investigate who planted anti-medical marijuana fliers in the
jury room.

"We infer that it was an inside job," said defense attorney Tony Serra. "It
must have come from someone privy to the workings of the inside room, which
in the jury process is the holy of holies."

Serra thanked Cattran for bringing the discovery of the fliers to the
court's attention.

"I share your outrage," Cosgrove said in ordering an investigation. But the
judge noted that witnesses and attorneys have access to the room on two days
a week, complicating the search for the culprit.