LIBERTARIAN CANDIDATE FOR GOVERNOR ARRESTED IN MARIJUANA INVESTIGATION

TAHOE CITY, Calif. (AP) -- The 1998 Libertarian Party candidate for
governor and his wife were arrested after authorities found some 300
marijuana plants in their home.

Steve and Michele Kubby were detained Tuesday at their Olympic Valley
home near Tahoe City for investigation of cultivation of marijuana,
possession of marijuana for sale and conspiracy.

They were being held Wednesday at the Placer County jail in Auburn in
lieu of $100,000 bail each, and were scheduled to be arraigned
Thursday in Tahoe City.

Lt. Mike Allen of the North Tahoe Task Force, a law enforcement unit
made up of investigators from Placer and Washoe counties and the
Nevada Division of Investigation, said officers found about 300
marijuana plants at the Kubby residence.

Officers said the plants are capable of producing five ounces to a
pound each of marijuana and have a street value of about $420,000.

The couple's attorney, Dale Wood of Truckee, said the marijuana
officers found at the Kubbys' home was being legally grown for medical
purposes and that the amount of bail was ``insane.''

``You find people who committed robbery, crimes of violence who have
lower bail settings than that,'' Wood said. ``It's like they have some
heinous criminal that has hurt someone. In fact, what they are growing
is medical marijuana.''

Proposition 215, approved by California voters in 1996, attempted to
allow seriously ill patients to grow and use marijuana to ease pain
and nausea with a doctor's recommendations.

But efforts to implement the measure have largely failed because
opposition from former state Attorney General Dan Lungren and the
federal government.

Lungren's successor, Democrat Bill Lockyer, says he wants to make the
proposition work.

Wood said Steve Kubby uses marijuana as part of his treatment for
cancer and hypertension.

``Marijuana is the only thing that has been able to assist him,'' Wood
said. ``He has been advised by more than one physician to use
marijuana.''

Wood said Michele Kubby also uses marijuana for a medical condition
but he said he didn't know any details about her illness.

Steve Kubby, 52, publisher of an online recreation magazine, ran
fourth in the race for governor last November, taking nearly one
percent of the vote.

Mark Hinkle, chairman of the California Libertarian Party, called the
arrests ``an outrage and a slap across the faces of California voters.''

``Steve and Michele Kubby are law-abiding citizens and the police have

no authority to raid their home, throw them in jail and jeopardize
Steve's health,'' Hinkle said in a statement.

``How long will the state of California continue violating the will of the
voters? How many people will have to suffer or die before the government
realizes the extreme harm it is causing medical marijuana patients who are
denied their rightful medicine?''