JUDGE REJECTS POT ACTIVIST'S REQUEST FOR JAIL SENTENCE HEARING

AUBURN, Calif. - A Placer County judge rejected a request for a
hearing to modify a 120-day jail sentence for a medical marijuana
activist who fled the country.

The attorney for Steven Wynn Kubby had asked Superior Court Judge
John Cosgrove to revisit the sentence because Kubby was in Canada in
2003 when an appeals court reinstated his misdemeanor drug conviction
as a felony and imposed a new sentence.

"I don't see why Mr. Kubby wants another sentencing just because he
absconded (to Canada)," Cosgrove said Friday.

A Placer County jury convicted Kubby of possession of psilocyn and of
mescaline, the second as a felony, but he moved to Canada in 2001,
claiming he would die in jail without access to the marijuana he uses
to treat adrenal cancer.

Cosgrove later reduced the felony to a misdemeanor and imposed the
120-day jail sentence with three years' probation.

Kubby was deported from Canada on Jan. 26 and starting serving his
sentence the following day. He still faces a charge of violating his
probation for fleeing to Canada.

Kubby's attorney, J. David Nick, said his client has lost 25 pounds
during his 37 days in jail, where he is being treated with another
drug to relieve symptoms of his illness.