U.S. POT ACTIVIST WAITS ON APPEAL

A pot activist who uses the weed to cope with cancer - and who once
shared a bong with Edmonton-born Tommy Chong - will stay in Canada,
for now. "I was very happy to get lost in the court system," Steve
Kubby, 57, said yesterday.

Kubby and his family, all born in the United States, are still waiting
to see if a Canadian Federal Court will hear their appeal after
Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board denied their refugee status
application in December 2003.

Steve wanted Canada to grant him refugee status because he claims he
would be persecuted for his medical pot use in the United States.

His wife, Michele - with whom he has an eight- and a four-year-old
daughter -- appealed their case to the Canadian Federal Court on the
grounds that U.S. federal law doesn't recognize the use of medical
marijuana. "We're in legal limbo land," said Michele. "I really don't
mind."

Steve was granted a Canadian federal exemption to smoke and grow
marijuana in 2002 to help treat his adrenal cancer.

That makes him one of the 781 people in Canada currently allowed to
possess marijuana for medical purposes.

Steve was also in Edmonton in 2002 to receive radiation treatment at
the Cross Cancer Institute, but it wasn't effective.

The Kubbys still don't know when or even if the Federal Court will
hear their appeal.

"It's on a judge's desk," said Michele.

Steve has said he was Richard "Cheech" Marin's college roommate in
California. He got to know Chong in the late 1960s and early 1970s.