High crimes?

WRITER FACES JAIL AFTER INTERVIEWING MEDICAL MARIJUANA ACTIVIST

WHEN A FREELANCE WRITER for High Times magazine met with a prominent
medical marijuana activist, he thought he was just getting a good story. He
might be getting five years in state prison.

On New Year's Day, Pete Brady interviewed California Libertarian Party
gubernatorial candidate Steve Kubby at Kubby's house in Olympic Valley,
near Lake Tahoe. On Jan. 21 the Chico-based writer was arrested for
possession of marijuana by officers of the Butte County sheriff's
department, according to information from the National Organization for the
Reform of Marijuana Laws and the Web site www.marijuananews.com. Two days
earlier Kubby and his wife, Michele, had been arrested by a four-agency
antidrug task force.

Kubby, an outspoken medical marijuana user and activist, told the Bay
Guardian that the task force, which had placed him under surveillance for
six months, made the two arrests after observing Kubby -- through the
window of his home -- showing Brady some marijuana buds.

Kubby said he was only showing Brady what he had grown and did not sell
Brady any marijuana. Both Kubby and Brady are medical marijuana patients
under Proposition 215, the California Compassionate Use Act.

Brady's arrest for possession of about an ounce of marijuana came on the
last day of his five-year probation term for possession. Consequently his
case will not get a regular court hearing -- only a probation revocation
hearing, at which his original sentence of five years could be reinstated.
The hearing is scheduled for Feb. 22 in Chico. Brady was released after
posting $12,000 of his own money as bail.

Brady declined to comment for this story, saying his attorney had advised
him not to speak to the press. Butte County officials could not be
contacted by press time.

Details of the Kubby and Brady cases can be found at www.norml.org and
www.marijuananews.com