MEDICAL MARIJUANA ACTIVIST RETURNS TO STATE, IS ARRESTED

Steve Kubby, Who Fled to Canada in 2001, Planned
to Surrender Tuesday but Is Taken From Plane.

AUBURN, Calif. -- Five years after fleeing to Canada to avoid jail,
medical marijuana activist Steve Kubby returned here in handcuffs
Friday facing an uncertain future and a stint behind bars that his
doctor contends might prove a death sentence.

Law enforcement officers whisked Kubby off a commercial jet at San
Francisco International Airport on Thursday evening, and friends said
he soon began to feel the effects of his rare form of adrenal cancer
while in custody.

"I got a call from Steve from jail, and he said he was suffering,"
said Dale Gieringer, director of California NORML, a cannabis advocacy
group. "It doesn't have to work this way."

Several physicians who have examined Kubby, a former Libertarian
candidate for governor and a driving force behind California's
victorious 1996 medical marijuana initiative, contend the drug blunts
the worst symptoms of his cancer, which can be fatal.

Kubby, who last week exhausted his final appeals to remain in Canada,
had expected to voluntarily surrender to authorities in Auburn, the
Placer County seat, after a court hearing scheduled for Tuesday.

Bill McPike, a Fresno attorney who accompanied Kubby on his flight
from Vancouver, said the arrest after the Alaska Airlines flight took
them by surprise.

"Maybe they didn't trust he'd show up," said McPike, who plans to
argue in court for Kubby to be allowed cannabis in jail. "But why
would he buy a $900 plane ticket to come back to surrender and then
not appear?"

Placer County officials said police in San Francisco were following
through on an arrest warrant issued years ago for Kubby, who failed to
appear to serve 120 days in jail on drug charges when he fled in 2001.

"For some time he's had a felony warrant out," said Dena Erwin, a
Placer County sheriff's spokeswoman. "We notified San Francisco and
left it up to them how they'd make the arrest."

Kubby's oncologist in Canada expressed worries Friday that his rare
form of cancer, pheochromocytoma, could threaten his life if he isn't
allowed to continue using cannabis. Since the cancer was diagnosed a
quarter century ago, Kubby, 59, has smoked up to a dozen marijuana
cigarettes a day.

"The possibilities of what might happen are of a wide range, either
from nothing much at all to that he might become sick and die," said
Dr. Joseph Connors, an oncologist and University of British Columbia
clinical professor.

Connors said there was no reason to subject Kubby to that risk. The
cancer specialist has examined Kubby extensively and said he believed
marijuana has kept the worst symptoms of his cancer in check.

"There's no other reasonable explanation for how he's done so well for
so many years," Connors said.

Connors said a tumor in Kubby releases dangerous levels of substances
called catecholamines -- colloquially known as adrenalin -- into his
blood. Results can range from heart palpitations and shortness of
breath to heart attack, stroke or even death in a "catecholamine
storm," Connors said.

But Erwin said Kubby would not be allowed to use marijuana in jail,
adding, "We're a no-smoking facility."

Kubby was sentenced in March 2001 to four months in jail for
possession of a peyote button and one hallucinogenic mushroom after
jurors acquitted him of more serious charges of selling pot grown at
his home near the Squaw Valley ski resort.

Amid wrangling with authorities over the sentence, Kubby moved with
his family to British Columbia in May 2001 and tried to fight from
afar.

Around the time Kubby left, judges in Placer County ordered his
original misdemeanor conviction for possession of the peyote boosted
to a felony. Kubby has called the ruling a miscarriage of justice
pushed by law officers bent on punishing him for championing the
state's medical marijuana law.

Christopher Cattran, a Placer County deputy district attorney, noted
that an appeal by Kubby of the stiffer sentence was rejected by the
state's 3rd District Court of Appeal.

"He keeps bringing all these things up, and there's nothing to base it
on," Cattran said.

The appellate court declared Kubby a fugitive, and he now could face
three years in prison for felony possession of mescaline, a
hallucinogen found in the button of mescal cactus, or peyote. Kubby
has maintained that the peyote discovered during a raid of his home
was left in a guest bedroom by a visitor.

"I really do fear for the worst for Steve," said his wife, Michele,
who remained in Canada with the couple's two young daughters. "Things
are grim. I'm struggling to find hope in this situation."

The family wanted to stay in Canada, she said. But an attempt to win
refugee status by Kubby and several other medicinal marijuana users
who fled the U.S. flopped in the immigration courts.

Out of options, Kubby left Canada amid a festive atmosphere and mob of
supporters Thursday afternoon at Vancouver International Airport.

McPike said the flight was uneventful, but after pulling up to the
gate the pilot told passengers to remain seated and Kubby was called
forward.

McPike then walked to the front of the plane, where he met police
officers and U.S. Customs Service agents.

They warned him to return to his seat and ordered Kubby off the
plane.

Kubby was rushed by police to San Mateo County Jail, where he spent
the night. Placer County sheriff's deputies picked up Kubby on Friday
morning and took him to Auburn.