WEEPING WIFE MAKES PLEA TO CANADIANS

Steve Kubby, Who Uses Medical Marijuana, Has Been Ordered Out of Canada

VANCOUVER - The wife of a California man who uses marijuana to ease
his cancer symptoms wept outside Federal Court Monday after pleading
her family's case to prevent his deportation.

"I need to ask the Canadian people for help, because I'm losing the
battle against saving my husband's life," Michele Kubby cried.

Kubby argued on behalf of her husband, Steve, who was too ill to
attend the hearing.

"To remove him from Canada is like removing a diabetic from his
insulin," Kubby told Justice Yvon Pinard.

Kubby, his wife and two young daughters, had been told to voluntarily
leave Canada by Thursday or they will be forcibly removed.

Pinard reserved his decision on the application for a stay of the
deportation order without giving a date for judgment, but he confirmed
the family wouldn't be removed from the country before he made his
ruling.

The Kubbys' application is the culmination of a lengthy legal and
refugee claim process the family has been through since arriving from
the U.S. in 2001.

Steve Kubby, who has adrenal cancer, was allowed to smoke medical
marijuana in California and was acquitted in a U.S. court when caught
growing more than 260 marijuana plants at his home.

However, he was convicted of possessing a small amount of mescaline
and one stem from a magic mushroom. He was sentenced to three months
of house arrest.

Kubby escaped to Canada shortly after the conviction and made an
unsuccessful refugee claim to stay in the country.

Michele Kubby said her husband won't get the care he needs in jail,
and certainly won't be able to smoke marijuana while serving his time.

"Protect us from the zero-tolerance policy of the United States that
will remove his medicine from him," she said.

Keith Reimer, a lawyer for Citizenship and Immigration Canada, told
the court the case comes down to the refugee board's decision.

"It found ... there is protection for medical marijuana users in the
U.S." he said.

"For him to say, 'I would be thrown in jail and allowed to die' is
speculative."

Michele Kubby said the penalty for fleeing could bring a mandatory
three-to four-year jail sentence, on top of his current sentence.

"He will not survive in jail that long. And I am terrified, terrified
for my family."

Lawyer Douglas Wiatt, who has defended many medical marijuana patients
in Washington state, attended Monday's hearing.

Outside court, he said a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision has
changed the tone around medical marijuana use.

"The fact that anyone up here in Canada thinks that a medical
marijuana patient is going to be treated well in the United States,
it's a myth," Wiatt said.

"My prediction for Mr. Kubby is he's a dead man if he winds up going
back to the United States, because I don't think they'll get him out
of jail fast enough."

One of the couple's two daughters, nine-year-old Brooke, sat in the
court gallery while her mother argued before the justice.

Brook was surrounded by a dozen of Kubby's supporters, including Marc
Emery, who is fighting an extradition proceeding to the U.S. where
he's charged with operating a marijuana seed-growing company.