LONGTIME POT-SMOKER SEEKS TO BE GOVERNOR

Libertarian candidate trying to shake up race

He is against the death penalty and for the legalization of marijuana,
which he smokes every day for health reasons.

He is against any form of gun control, even if that means allowing people
to walk the streets with military-style assault weapons.

And he wants to phase out California's income tax, thereby cutting state
government spending in half within four years.

He is Steve Kubby, the Libertarian candidate for governor.

An author, magazine publisher and outdoorsman who brims with
self-confidence, Kubby played a key role in the successful 1996 campaign
for Proposition 215, which legalized marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Now, Kubby hopes to shake up the governor's race, saying that the major
party candidates, Republican Dan Lungren and Democrat Gray Davis, agree on
almost every issue and offer stale solutions to the state's problems.

"I think voters are spoiling for a real fight and they haven't got that
yet," said Kubby, a 51-year-old Tahoe City resident. "The debates have been
like watching Tweedledee and Tweedledum. You haven't had the loyal
opposition up there."

Like all minor-party candidates, Kubby is struggling to attract media
attention. But he is also doing a few novel things to distinguish himself
from the rest of the field. For example, half of his ballot pamphlet
statement is written in Spanish, a not-so-subtle effort to woo Latino
voters.

The statement concludes with a bang: "Kubby opposes such governmental
agencies as the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) and the IRS
(Internal Revenue Service), which terrorize the citizenry; government
welfare agencies, which destroy people's independence; and the war on
drugs, which disproportionately punishes Hispanics."

Kubby, who has written two books on his political views and publishes
Alpine World, an on-line recreation magazine, said he joined the
gubernatorial race because the Libertarian Party of California asked him to
run.

He said the only office he previously sought was membership on the board of
the Northstar ski resort. He served from 1986 to 1988.

A Libertarian Party official confirmed that Kubby was recruited, even
though he has been a dues-paying party member for only a few years. "He
seems to have a good head on his shoulders," said Mark Hinkle, chairman of
the Libertarian Party of California. "He communicates well, and is firmly
grounded in Libertarian principles."

Kubby said many of his political views stem from his experience with the
medical use of marijuana during the past two decades.

That experience began in 1975, when Kubby was diagnosed with cancer of the
adrenal glands. After two major operations to remove tumors in his abdomen,
he said he was told in 1976 that he had only six months to live.

During that period, he said, friends gave him some marijuana to cheer him
up. To his surprise, he said, it stabilized his blood pressure and heart
rate.

Today, Kubby's cancer is in remission. Although doctors have been unable to
explain a connection between marijuana and control of the disease, Kubby
said he is convinced that smoking marijuana regularly has kept him alive.

"This medicine moderates my blood pressure and allows me to pursue an
active lifestyle," he said. "When I go off this medicine, the symptoms of
my disease return."

Since he began using marijuana, Kubby said, he has lived in constant fear
that his home would be raided by police, and he would be arrested and sent
to prison. It has never happened, but Kubby said he resents that the
government has the ability to prosecute him for trying to stay healthy.

"I have had to spend 23 years as a well-respected member of the community,
knowing that at any time police could kick down my door and take my child
away," he said. "It has sensitized me to what minorities have to deal with
on a daily basis.

"We've got to grow up and realize that drugs are here to stay, and it is
better to deal with them the same way we deal with alcohol -- by regulating
them instead of trying to prohibit them."

Kubby said the United States should emulate England and Switzerland. The
crime rates in those countries dropped, he said, after their governments
decided to provide heroin addicts with the drugs they craved.

Kubby's criticism of the U.S. government's "war on drugs" figures
prominently in two books he has written: the Politics of Consciousness,
published in 1994, and Why Marijuana Should be Legal, published in 1996.

Kubby said his central belief that people should be allowed to do anything
they want as long as it does not harm others extends to possessing weapons.

"Every year, more and more guns are seized, and more laws are passed
against ownership of guns," he said. "But communities that have gun control
are more likely to have burglaries and crime. . . . These feel-good laws
end up entrapping law-abiding citizens and they get hurt."

Asked if he would be willing to allow people to carry assault weapons in
public as long as they don't fire them, Kubby paused for a moment, and then
answered "yes." But he added that juveniles should not have that right.

Although he believes in tough sentences for violent criminals, Kubby said
he opposes the death penalty -- at least in the hands of the government.

He noted that both Lungren and Davis have touted their strong support for
the death penalty. But he claimed they are "wimps because the death penalty
they call for hardly ever gets instituted and has no deterrent value."

"The death penalty is appropriate when someone breaks into your house and
tries to rape your wife," Kubby said. "I'd like to see citizens empowered
to use lethal force to defend themselves."

Kubby also is a strong believer in vouchers for public school students,
saying that market forces will improve teacher performance and rid schools
of drugs and violence. "A centrally-planned, government-run school system
like we have here is more appropriate for Russia or North Korea."

Among his goals is to phase out the state's income tax, which generates
about $27 billion a year, or half of the state's general fund budget. Kubby
said he could still balance the budget by eliminating all state "prevention
programs" and clearing most non-violent criminals out of prisons.

Despite running a full-time campaign, Kubby is realistic about his
political prospects, saying he would be "thrilled" to get 5 percent of the
vote on Nov. 3. Hinkle, the party chairman, said he would be pleased if
Kubby gets at least 2 percent, which would exceed the 1.7 percent received
by Richard Rider, the 1994 Libertarian candidate for governor.

Checked-by: Joel W. Johnson