MEDICAL MARIJUANA CRUSADER BOARDS PLANE TO RETURN TO CALIFORNIA TO
FACE JAIL SENTENCE

RICHMOND - Medical marijuana crusader Steve Kubby reluctantly
returned to the United States on Thursday to face a jail sentence.

Kubby's supporters and family were at Vancouver International Airport
as he boarded a flight to California escorted by his American lawyer
Bill McPike who said, "The officials in Canada might be sending him
back to a death sentence."

Kubby said he was concerned about heading back to a place that
doesn't understand his medicinal need for pot. "The thought of people
having an open animosity towards me, people that want to harm me,
that want to bury their mistakes, that's very distressing," he said.

Kubby, 58, and his wife Michele had been fighting to stay in Canada
almost since they arrived from the U.S. in 2001.

Kubby attempted to claim Canadian refugee status on the basis of
persecution, both for his political opinion and his medicinal use of
pot, which he said he smokes to alleviate symptoms of a rare adrenal cancer.

In rejecting the refugee claim, Paulah Dauns of the Immigration and
Refugee Board said she didn't believe his life was at risk if Kubby
was returned to the United States.

Michele Kubby is also subject to deportation but was granted an
extension to move their family.

Michele plans to return to Kamloops and leave this weekend by car
with the couple's children to meet her husband in California.