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US: Inmate pulls request for dope (Kubby)

Kara Fox

The Union

Saturday 04 Feb 2006

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Medical marijuana activist and former Squaw Valley resident Steve Kubby
is no longer seeking to use cannabis for his cancer while in jail, his
lawyer told a Placer County judge Friday.

Kubby's attorney, Bill McPike, said his client's blood pressure had
stabilized and he was in better health. Michele Kubby noted that her
husband has been taking two pills three times a day of Marinol, a
synthetic drug that contains THC, the main substance in marijuana.

On Tuesday, McPike asked the judge if Kubby could take an edible form of
marijuana while in jail. He removed that motion Friday.

"I talked to the (jail) doctor and health program director and his blood
pressure has stabilized and gone down," McPike told a crowd of
supporters and media after the hearing Friday morning in Auburn. "It's
pretty miraculous. He was smiling and happy. Hopefully we did the right
thing."

Kubby is charged with violation of probation after fleeing to Canada in
2001. The Placer County district attorney's office and McPike are
working out a plea agreement that may allow Kubby to serve his 120-day
sentence at home in Marin County. McPike said he was expecting to see an
offer from the district attorney's office Friday afternoon and that it
may involve a longer sentence for Kubby.

Kubby, 59, was convicted in 2000 with felony drug possession of
psilocybin and mescaline, but was acquitted of possession of marijuana
for sale charges. Placer County deputies found 265 marijuana plants,
peyote buttons and a hallucinogenic mushroom in the Kubby's Squaw Valley
home during a 1999 raid. He sentence was 120 days of house arrest and
three years of formal probation.

In 2001, Kubby and his family fled to Canada to seek asylum. For five
years they have sought protection from that country, but was denied it
in December and ordered back to the U.S. Kubby was taken into custody
from San Francisco International Airport Jan. 26 and transported to
Placer County Jail in Auburn the next day, where he started his sentence.

Kubby and his supporters say he needs marijuana to keep adrenal cancer
in remission and that he will die without it. He was diagnosed with the
disease 30 years ago and has been smoking marijuana for it ever since,
according to Kubby's ex-wife, Rebecca Maidman, of Truckee.

Clark Sullivan, Web master for the Hemp Evolution Web site who traveled
from San Francisco to support Kubby, said supporters are putting in 60
calls a day to the jail nurse and the sheriff's office to make sure
Kubby is getting the proper medical treatment.

"He said that if I didn't have Marinol waiting for him, he would have
died," Michele Kubby said to a crowd of supporters and media gathered
after the hearing. "It is cruel and unusual punishment for the family to
have their father die. The punishment does not fit the crime. The drug
war punishes women and children. Me and my children are suffering."

Michele Kubby, who attended the hearing with their 9-year-old daughter
Brooke, said she has documentation to prove that a judge allowed them to
go to Canada five years ago.

"We are lawmakers, not lawbreakers," she said. "We never tried to break
the law unless it is political, and this is political. We have the truth
on our side. I have been very frustrated with Placer County. I haven't
heard a thing about Placer County's intentions with my husband."

 

 

 

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