POT-SMOKING FUGITIVE WON'T CROSS BORDER

A marijuana fugitive says a Canadian immigration court ruling won't see him
returned to the U.S. to face home imprisonment on drug charges any time soon.

Steve Kubby, his wife and children live at Sun Peaks Resort near Kamloops.
They arrived in B.C. four years ago after he was charged in California with
possession of peyote and a magic-mushroom stem.

Kubby, who suffers adrenal cancer, claims marijuana is the only drug that
helps his disorder.

He received a 120-day sentence which the U.S. court said he could serve at
home because of his medical condition.

He is now considered to be a fugitive for failing to return to the U.S. He
applied for refugee status in Canada, saying he could die if forced back to
the U.S., where he cannot receive the drug he claims he needs.

"I could be held without access to my medicine and die. I don't plan on
crossing the border, even when this is all cleared up," he said.

A Canadian federal court judge ruled Friday Kubby cannot claim refugee
status and should be returned to the U.S. Kubby said the order, however,
gives him 30 days to present himself to the border.

"We have 30 days to calmly and peacefully make any arrangements we want,"
he said.

But Kubby said he will seek a stay of the deportation order pending a
further appeal of the court's ruling. He said he believes the judgment was
in error and will not survive an appeal.

Kubby said he plans to show the most recent judgment was in error, or the
law itself is unconstitutional.

"We are headed for the Supreme Court," he said.

Kubby said even if he loses the court battles, he still has options that
could allow his family to stay in Canada, including an appeal to the
federal immigration minister on humanitarian grounds.

The issue might prove academic anyway -- Kubby said lawyers will appear in
a courtroom in California next week, to argue the original conviction
should be quashed.

He said some of the evidence used by the state in its prosecution of him
was manufactured.

"The prosecutors lied to get me convicted because of my support for medical
marijuana," he said. "We're in the right down there, we're in the right up
here.

"I am the victim of a political witch hunt because of my efforts to to make
an exception in the (U.S.) drug war for sick people," he said.