CANADA'S CHANCE TO SHINE

RE "Oddball refugees and curious claimants" (Nov. 14): If Steve Kubby
is truly among the least deserving U.S. claimants of refugee status
within Canada, as columnist Greg Weston smirkingly implies, then
Weston has just demolished his own case.

It's easy to mock a "convicted California pothead and jailbird" for
daring to seek refugee status, especially if one fails to mention that
this particular ne'er-do-well is a former gubernatorial candidate who
played a key role in passing his country's first medical-marijuana
initiative -- and whose liberty quite clearly was targeted as a result.

It's also easy to write off another person's plight as "oddball" and
"curious" until one has been forced by a rare form of cancer to walk a
mile in his shoes. Do the life-threatening changes in Kubby's vital
signs, when he has been deprived of cannabis during his brief periods
of incarceration, not suggest that his American and Canadian doctors
just might be correct in their assessments?

What does Weston know that the U.S. Institute of Medicine does not,
when he puts the word "medicine" in sarcastic quotes?

Dear Canada: Look, I'm sorry. We haven't entirely managed to translate what
our scientists know into humane policy just yet. We're working on it, but in
the meantime, we may need to send you a few people. Steve Kubby is likely to
die if he is sent back here. It is as simple as that. This is Canada's
chance to shine. I pray that it will.

Ethan Straffin

Palo Alto, Calif.

(Fine, but as we understand it, Kubby's U.S. convictions arise from
convictions for the possession of peyote and magic mushrooms, not pot)