LIBERTARIAN CANDIDATE ENTERS INNOCENT PLEA TO DRUG CHARGES

AUBURN, Calif. (AP) -- Former Libertarian Party gubernatorial candidate
Steve Kubby and his wife have entered innocent pleas to drug charges
against them.

Kubby, 52, and his wife, Michele, 32, entered the pleas Friday at their
arraignment in Placer County Superior Court.

The Olympic Valley residents were charged with cultivating marijuana,
possession of marijuana for sale, two counts of conspiracy to commit a
crime, two counts of possession of a controlled substance, possession of
more than 28.5 grams of marijuana and possession of an ingestion device.

The couple say they were growing the 265 marijuana plants seized at their
home in a Jan. 19 raid for their own medical use and not for sale.

Steve Kubby, who was diagnosed with adrenal cancer about 15 years ago, has
a Feb. 4 letter from Dr. Vincent DeQuattro, a professor of medicine at the
University of Southern California, stating that Kubby still has a
malignancy, for which the marijuana "in some amazing fashion ... has not
only controlled the symptoms ... but in my view has arrested the growth."

A trial date of May 18 was set in the same court.