CANADA ARRESTS THIRD POT ACTIVIST

Ex-Petaluman Who Won Prop. 215 Case Faces Federal Charges

Canada appears to be cracking down on Americans seeking sanctuary from
drug-related charges in the United States.

On Thursday, Canadian immigration authorities arrested former Petaluma
resident Kenneth E. Hayes.

Hayes, 34, fled north in January, shortly before U.S. prosecutors charged
him with marijuana trafficking -- charges similar to those a Sonoma County
jury acquitted him of last year.

He used a Proposition 215 medical defense in the Sonoma County case but
federal law doesn't recognize any legal uses for marijuana.

Hayes was the third American medical marijuana activist facing drug charges
in the United States arrested in as many days in British Columbia for
alleged immigration violations.

The charges are "specifically having to do with having criminal convictions
in the United States," said Angela Battiston, a Canadian immigration
spokeswoman.

U.S. officials who want Hayes returned here to stand trial applauded the
action.

"We commend the Canadian authorities," said Richard Meyer, a U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration spokesman. "It's unfortunate that many people
are viewing Canada as a haven to avoid U.S. justice."

Humboldt County pot grower Steve Tuck and 1998 Libertarian Party
gubernatorial candidate Steve Kubby were arrested Tuesday on the Sunshine
Coast, north of Vancouver.

Kubby also was charged, along with his wife, Michele, with marijuana
cultivation.

Tuck and Kubby are out on bail. Hayes is in detention in Vancouver. They
all face deportation hearings.

Battiston couldn't provide details about the criminal convictions Canadian
immigration police cited in arresting Hayes.

His attorney -- who also represents Tuck and Kubby -- said he was unaware
of any convictions for Hayes.

Hayes also is awaiting trial in Canada on pot cultivation charges, stemming
from a February arrest in Vancouver.

In the United States, he faces far more serious charges.

U.S. prosecutors say he heads an organization that dealt hundreds of pounds
of marijuana through a San Francisco medical pot club he operated.

He and three co-defendants face possible prison sentences ranging from five
years to life.

All three of the Americans arrested in Canada last week have said they
would seek political refugee status in Canada if the United States asked
for their extradition, or if Canada attempted to deport them.

None of them deny growing or smoking pot but they say it's for medical
reasons, which is allowed under Proposition 215, a ballot initiative
approved by California voters in 1996.

Hayes, Kubby and Tuck have prevailed in marijuana cases in California. But
all three face other charges; in Hayes' case, federal pot charges where a
medical defense isn't an option.

Tuck, 35, faces six felony pot trafficking charges in Humboldt County where
authorities reject a medical use claim they had accepted from him in a
separate case two years ago.

Kubby, formerly of Placer County, is locked in a legal battle over a 2000
conviction for peyote possession that prosecutors want to raise to a felony
from a misdemeanor.

Ten days ago, a California appellate court ruled that Kubby must return to
California within 30 days or lose his right to argue that case.

The Canadian arrests follow a burst of media attention in the United States
and Canada on a small but growing number of Americans who have fled or
moved north of the border leaving drug-related legal trouble in the United
States.

"Immigration probably got annoyed at all the publicity and said, 'We'll
show them that there's consequences,'" said John Conroy, the Vancouver
attorney representing Hayes and the others who were arrested.

He said Hayes couldn't be deported while the pot charges he faces in Canada
are undecided, but "a concern is that (Canada) will drop the drug charges
and just ship him to the border."