LIBERTARIAN CANDIDATE ENTERS INNOCENT PLEA TO DRUG CHARGES

AUBURN -- 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.