GUINEA-PIG KUBBY

"God Bless Orange County," proclaims Steve Kubby, the 1998 Libertarian
gubernatorial candidate, as he sits in a friend's OC home, eating a garlic
tofu dip. Although he and his wife, Michele, face 19 criminal charges
between them relating to their medicinal use of marijuana, both seem at
ease and confident. Perhaps it's because they're so far from their Placer
County home and in an area that has proved supportive to their plight.

"Orange County is leading the way on this issue-the media, the OC Weekly,
The Orange County Register, the OC Libertarians, Marvin Chavez," Kubby
says. "The conservatives recognize-the liberals are still out to lunch-but
the conservatives of Orange County understand that if you pass a law,
you're supposed to follow it."

With the arraignment for their court cases not until March 19, the Kubbys
journeyed to Orange County to participate in fund-raisers. While here,
Kubby will undergo medical examinations. Unlike many medical-marijuana
patients, for whom pot smoking alleviates symptoms of disease, Kubby's use
of marijuana seems the sole barrier between life and death from an
incurable form of adrenal cancer, an opinion put forward by USC's Dr.
Vincent DeQuattro, a leading specialist in the field, and recently backed
by Dr. Lester Grinspoon of Harvard University.

In one of the tests, researchers will inject Kubby with a radioactive
metabolite that will allow DeQuattro's staff to see exactly where his
tumors are located. They'll also check his blood and urine.

The threat of prison seems only to have strengthened the Kubbys'
determination to promote enforcement of the Compassionate Use Act-otherwise
known as Proposition 215-and, as Kubby put it, to keep "upping the ante" on
their persecutors.

Kubby has already announced plans to run for governor again in 2002. His
wife is considering a run for the U.S. Senate. A UC Berkeley graduate with
degrees in political science and international studies, Michele Kubby was
extensively involved with the battle to win passage of Prop. 215.

"They've created a monster," she says. "I am not afraid of them anymore.
They have stepped over a line and threatened my family, and that's the most
sacred thing to me. They are going to have to answer for it."