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News (Media Awareness Project) - US CA: Kubby No Longer Seeking to Use Marijuana in Jail
Title:US CA: Kubby No Longer Seeking to Use Marijuana in Jail
Published On:2006-02-04
Source:Tahoe World (Tahoe City, CA)
Fetched On:2008-01-14 17:47:06
KUBBY NO LONGER SEEKING TO USE MARIJUANA IN JAIL

Former Squaw Valley Resident in Auburn

Medical marijuana activist and former Squaw Valley resident Steve
Kubby is no longer seeking to use cannabis for his cancer while in
jail, his lawyer told a Placer County judge Friday.

Kubby's attorney, Bill McPike, said his client's blood pressure had
stabilized and he was in better health. Michele Kubby noted that her
husband has been taking two pills three times a day of Marinol, a
synthetic drug that contains THC, the main substance in marijuana.

On Tuesday, McPike asked the judge if Kubby could take an edible form
of marijuana while in jail. He removed that motion Friday.

"I talked to the [jail] doctor and health program director and his
blood pressure has stabilized and gone down," McPike told a crowd of
supporters and media after the hearing Friday morning in Auburn.
"It's pretty miraculous. He was smiling and happy. Hopefully we did
the right thing."

Kubby is charged with violation of probation after fleeing to Canada
in 2001. The Placer County district attorney's office and McPike are
working out a plea agreement that may allow Kubby to serve his
120-day sentence at home in Marin County. McPike said he was
expecting to see an offer from the district attorney's office Friday
afternoon and that it may involve a longer sentence for Kubby.

Kubby, 59, was convicted in 2000 with felony drug possession of
psilocybin and mescaline, but was acquitted of possession of
marijuana for sale charges. Placer County deputies found 265
marijuana plants, peyote buttons and a hallucinogenic mushroom in the
Kubby's Squaw Valley home during a 1999 raid. He sentence was 120
days of house arrest and three years of formal probation.

In 2001, Kubby and his family fled to Canada to seek asylum. For five
years they have sought protection from that country, but was denied
it in December and ordered back to the U.S. Kubby was taken into
custody from San Francisco International Airport Jan. 26 and
transported to Placer County Jail in Auburn the next day, where he
started his sentence.

Kubby and his supporters say he needs marijuana to keep adrenal
cancer in remission and that he will die without it. He was diagnosed
with the disease 30 years ago and has been smoking marijuana for it
ever since, according to Kubby's ex-wife, Rebecca Maidman, of Truckee.

Clark Sullivan, Web master for the Hemp Evolution Web site who
traveled from San Francisco to support Kubby, said supporters are
putting in 60 calls a day to the jail nurse and the sheriff's office
to make sure Kubby is getting the proper medical treatment.

"He said that if I didn't have Marinol waiting for him, he would have
died," Michele Kubby said to a crowd of supporters and media gathered
after the hearing. "It is cruel and unusual punishment for the family
to have their father die. The punishment does not fit the crime. The
drug war punishes women and children. Me and my children are suffering."

Michele Kubby, who attended the hearing with their nine-year-old
daughter Brooke, said she has documentation to prove that a judge
allowed them to go to Canada five years ago.

"We are lawmakers, not lawbreakers," she said. "We never tried to
break the law unless it is political, and this is political. We have
the truth on our side. I have been very frustrated with Placer
County. I haven't heard a thing about Placer County's intentions with
my husband."

However, Deputy District Attorney Chris Cattran said Kubby was not to
leave the state of California.

"He mentioned [five years ago] he wanted to go to Canada to visit
friends and he had a turn-in date," Cattran said. "He failed to turn
himself in."

Medical marijuana patients and advocates from the California
Marijuana Party, Libertarian Party, California National Organization
for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, Axis of Love San Francisco and the
El Dorado County chapter of American Alliance for Medical Cannabis
formed a prayer circle before Friday's hearing and held up quilts and
signs in support of Kubby.

Steven Tuck, 39, was deported from Canada on a medical marijuana case
in October and traveled from Oregon to support Kubby.

"I have to show Steve I support him," Tuck said. "Out of all the
people here, I know what he is going through."

Kubby ran for governor in 1998 as a member of the Libertarian Party
and co-authored Prop. 215, the initiative approved by California
voters in 1996 for the legalization of medical marijuana.

A hearing is scheduled for Feb. 15 at 1 p.m. in Auburn.
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