American Medical Marijuana Refugee Ordered To Return To United States

[IndianaToker]

By Penne Usher, Journal Staff Writer
Source: Auburn Journal

California -- The topic of jailed medical marijuana activist Steve Kubby is gaining popularity on the Internet as he reports failing health and poor medical attention in Placer County Jail.
Placer county law-enforcement officials say they are treating Kubby humanely as they do all inmates. Kubby, 59, has reportedly spoken with supporters since his Friday incarceration.

Fred Colburn, of Meadow Vista, has been friends with Kubby since the activist ran as the Libertarian candidate for governor on the 1997/1998 ballot. He said he spoke to Kubby early Monday morning.

"Steve's thinking they are deliberately punishing him (in jail)," Colburn said. "He's only had one blanket, is vomiting and can't keep food down."

Kubby, who fled Placer County to Canada to avoid incarceration in 2000 was arrested on a no-bail warrant Thursday and transferred to Placer County Jail Friday.

Kubby contends he must have marijuana daily in order to survive and stave off the affects of a rare form of adrenal cancer. He credits a Canadian doctor who agrees with him, but UC David cancer specialists said there is no scientific evidence to support Kubby's claim that marijuana is keeping him alive.

Dr. Fred Meyers, professor and chair of the Department of Internal Medicine for UC Davis Medical Center, has said there is no medical proof that smoking marijuana cures or alleviates the symptoms of the adrenal cancer that Kubby is said to have.
Kubby's Canadian doctor said cannabis alleviates the symptoms of Kubby's adrenal cancer.

"(Kubby's) kind of cancer, metastatic pheochromocytoma, releases adrenaline into the blood and these drugs speed up your heart making your body run faster," said Dr. Joe Connors, a medical oncologist for British Columbia Cancer Agency in a telephone interview Monday.

Connors said that too much adrenaline keeps Kubby's body in a constant state of "flight or fight."

"The marijuana he had been smoking helped," Connors said.
Despite reports posted on numerous Web sites and blogs about Kubby's physical condition, jail official's report that he appears to be doing well.

"He's been seen by the medical staff and he's being taken care of," Capt. John Fitzgerald, of the Placer County Sheriff's Department said Monday. "I can't elaborate because medical records are confidential."

Technorati.com, a Web site that reports it tracks 26.7 million sites and 1.9 billion links, lists Kubby as its most searched topic Monday above Ted Koppel and Ipod.

Many of the postings are duplicates of press releases posted on Kubby's own Website Kubby.com.

In one posting, Michele Kubby said she was able to get a prescription for the drug Marinol for her husband.

Marinol has been approved by the Federal Drug Administration to treat "nausea and vomiting associated with cancer chemotherapy for patients who have failed to respond adequately to conventional treatments," according to the Marinol.com Web site.

"When Steve first entered the jail, his blood pressure had risen to 170 over120. The jail medical staff were concerned and administered the Marinol," Michele Kubby wrote in an e-mail. "Steve says he feels his blood pressure lowering, but he can tell that Marinol is not going to be effective in the long run."

E-mails and blogs report that Kubby is in "solitary confinement," and allowed only one blanket. Jail personnel say Kubby is separated from other inmates for his own safety.

"He's in N-tank in a private cell, not in the general population," Fitzgerald said. "He classifies to be in a private cell for numerous reasons including his safety."

Michele Kubby, who remains in Canada with the couple's two children, said she plans to be in California soon but will not make today's court appearance.

"I will not be able to make the hearing time on Tuesday. I hope anyone who goes tells him I am thinking of him and love him very much," Michele Kubby wrote in an e-mail sent to the Journal.

The Kubby family had been seeking to stay in Canada, however, the Canadian Border Services rejected the family's bid for protection Dec. 9 and ordered them out of the country.

Kubby fled to Canada with his family in an effort to avoid incarceration after a 2000 conviction in Placer County on charges of possession of mescaline and psilocybin.

He was transported to Placer County jail Friday afternoon and is scheduled to be arraigned at 1 p.m. in Dept. 13 of Placer County Superior court today.

Kubby will most likely have to serve his custody time of 120 days and address his probation violation, which could give him additional time behind bars.

He was also one of the authors of Prop. 215, the compassionate-use act passed by the voters of the state of California in 1996.

Note: Marijuana activist to appear in court today.

Source: Auburn Journal (CA)
Author: Penne Usher, Journal Staff Writer
Published: Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Copyright: 2006 Auburn Journal
Contact: ajournal@foothill.net
Website: http://www.auburnjournal.com/
Link to article: http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread21539.shtml

[IndianaToker]

By Anthony Gregory
Source: LewRockwell.com

USA -- Speak out too loudly against the drug war, and you might be targeted. Peter McWilliams had AIDS and cancer and was dependent on marijuana to stay alive. It turns out that the people who had been using the stuff medicinally for thousands of years were onto something. No one has ever been recorded as dying from the physiological effects of marijuana. But the federal government wouldn’t let McWilliams, a vocal anti-prohibition activist, have his medicine. They threatened to take his mother’s house away if he used the substance that was keeping him alive. He was found dead in his home in June 2000. The drug war killed him directly.

And now Steve Kubby is in jail, being deprived of the medical marijuana that has kept him alive. About a quarter-century ago, he was diagnosed with an exceedingly rare strain of adrenal cancer that no one else has been able to survive for more than five years. He was expected to die within the same timeframe. His physician, Dr.Vincent DeQuattro, an expert on this rare condition, has credited marijuana with saving his life. Several years ago, Kubby was forcefully deprived of his medicine for three days in jail, during which he suffered extreme vomiting and shivering and went temporarily blind in one eye. In U.S. custody again, after having taken refuge in Canada and being extradited back to the Land of the Free, he now has a good chance of dying, of being murdered by the state, all so it can make an example of this courageous anti-drug war activist.
For Kubby, as was the case for McWilliams, prohibition of life-saving medicine could prove a cruel and unusual execution, all for the non-crime of self-medication, the right to which all humans are born with. Apparently, he has been allowed to use some Marinol, but the synthetic THC simply isn’t a replacement for the complex mixture of cannabinoids in marijuana. Smoking about twelve grams of pot a day has worked for him, allowing him to live a healthy life; the government’s approved version does not quite do the trick, though it might barely be keeping death away. It is very uncertain at this point what will come of his health and legal situation.

The drug war is misdirected. It is foolish. It is stupid, unworkable, disastrous, tragic and sad. But beyond all that it is evil.

The drug war is grounded in an evil premise: that people do not own their bodies, that they have no right to control what they do with their own lives and their own property, that it is appropriate to lock them in cages if they produce, distribute or consume chemicals in defiance of the state.

This is a monstrosity. As long as America has the drug war, it is not a free country. Politicians who support it and expand it, knowing the evils it entails, have no business lecturing us on morality.

The ideology of the war on drugs is the ideology of totalitarianism, of communism, of fascism and of slavery. In practice, it has made an utter mockery of the rule of law and the often-spouted idea that America is the freest country on earth. The United States has one of the highest per capita prison populations in the world, second only to Rwanda, thanks largely to the drug war, all while its federal government imposes its drug policies on other countries by methods ranging from mere diplomatic bullying to spraying foreign crops with lethal poison, from bribing foreign heads of state to bankrolling and whitewashing acts of mass murder conducted by despots in the name of fighting drugs.

Like so many other wars, the drug war is constructed on a mountain of lies. Politicians have lied over and over about the dangers of specific drugs, the percentages of drug offenders in prison, the success of various anti-drug programs, and the motives they have for waging the war. But even if it weren’t for these acts of brazen dishonesty, the drug war would still be evil.

The war on drugs is murderous. Militarized police forces frequently raid homes and assault or even slaughter innocent people – some of whom did not even break the unjust drug laws. And those laws are just that – unjust. Remember it always. The war on drugs is an unjust war of aggression. Its agents are in the wrong. Under the current system, if you defend yourself against this homegrown war of aggression, you might be killed instantly or put on death row like Cory Maye. The authorities will get away with it.

The war on drugs is not a program that should be reconsidered, reformed, or reinvented. It needs not a different set of priorities or a restructuring. It needs to be repealed completely. Its prisoners need to be released without an instant of hesitation. Its greatest victims should be compensated as much as possible out of the pockets of the aggressors. Those at the top of this war must be held responsible for their illegal and immoral acts.

I am sometimes told that libertarians are too obsessed with the war on drugs. I disagree. I think that people in general, including many libertarians, should be more concerned with it. We are talking about the longest war in American history, one that has hundreds of thousands of innocent people locked in cages, many of whom are raped and beaten by convicted brutes as the prison guards laugh, all at an exorbitant cost in tax dollars and liberty. We are talking about a program that has decimated every article in the Bill of Rights. We are talking about a modern-day witch-trial and inquisition, all wrapped up into one, and multiplied in its evil effects and destructiveness many times over. We are talking about the precedent for so many other evil policies, from prohibitions on so-called "money laundering" and the criminal enterprise known as civil asset forfeiture to the egregious civil liberties violations conducted today under the guise of combating terrorism.

They often say that all they want in the war on terror are the tools they’ve been using in the drug war for years. There is some truth to this. But they should have never had such sweeping powers to begin with, not for investigating crime, not for fighting terrorism, and especially not for a war on victimless activity.

The practical complaints against the drug war have been repeated ad nauseam: Black market violence escalates, more people die of drug impurities, and so on. These are compelling enough to end the whole crusade. But the most fundamental reason to end it is it’s evil, very evil. It treats sick people like criminals. It wrecks millions of lives. It puts young people in jail, sometimes for a lifetime, only for engaging in activities that some of our presidents engaged in when they themselves were young. It criminalizes speech between doctors and patients, and producers and consumers. It starts wars in other countries. It’s one of the greatest social evils in America. Unfortunately, a distinct political class profits immensely off the oppressive program, and has succeeded in bamboozling the public into thinking the program is a necessary evil or even a positive good.

Several years ago, drug warriors mistook some missionaries flying to Peru for a plane of drug dealers, and so shot them down. Lew Rockwell asked, "Isn’t it time the Christian Right begin to rethink the drug war, which has now taken two of their own?"

Sadly, most of the Christian Right, as well as most of the rest of the right and all too much of the left, still believes in the evil drug war. They are afraid of what will happen if drugs are made legal. Will more people do drugs?

Maybe. I don’t personally think the long-term increase would be so dramatic, if there were one at all. At various times, heroin, cocaine, marijuana, LSD, ecstasy, and amphetamine were legal. The problems associated with legal drugs many years ago still exist today, but at least we didn’t also have a deeply immoral war on drugs tearing society apart.

Even if some problems did increase, the drug war simply cannot be justified. It is rotten and immoral to the core. To put someone in a cage, or to kill someone, for engaging in private behavior or mutually voluntary trade is purely evil. That is the first and most important argument against the war on drugs.

Anthony Gregory: is a writer and musician who lives in Berkeley, California. He is a research analyst at the Independent Institute. See his webpage for more articles and personal information.

Source: LewRockwell.com (U.S. Web)
Author: Anthony Gregory
Published: February 01, 2006
Copyright: 2006 LewRockwell.com
Contact: lew@lewrockwell.com
Website: http://www.lewrockwell.com/
Link to article: http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread21542.shtml

[IndianaToker]

By Shannon Kari
Source: Globe and Mail

California -- Steve Kubby is asking prosecutors in Placer County, Calif., to show compassion and let him serve a 2001 sentence for drug possession under house arrest instead of in custody.
The medical marijuana advocate made a brief court appearance yesterday. He was arrested by police last week as soon as he arrived in San Francisco on a flight from Vancouver.

Mr. Kubby, 59, faces a maximum of three years in jail for alleged probation violations as well as the 120 days imposed by a California court in 2001 for possession of a minute amount of mescaline and psilocin.

He was joined by his lawyer, Bill McPike, in a courtroom in Auburn, Calif. More than 50 supporters were also there, Mr. McPike said in a phone interview after the hearing.

"The important thing is for everyone to turn the clock back," the lawyer said. "We are trying to get this resolved."

Mr. McPike is asking Placer County not to prosecute Mr. Kubby for the alleged probation violations.

Mr. Kubby, his wife, Michele, and their two daughters fled to British Columbia in the spring of 2001. Mr. Kubby, who suffers from a rare form of adrenal cancer, said he feared being targeted by authorities in Placer County because of his high profile as an advocate for medical marijuana.

The family fought a much-publicized battle to stay in Canada during nearly five years in the country. In January, Mr. Justice Yvon Pinard of the Federal Court of Canada rejected a request for an emergency stay of a removal order. He dismissed suggestions that Mr. Kubby would be put in jail and unable to receive the marijuana he says he needs to control his cancer.

In the five days that Mr. Kubby has been in jail since flying back to the United States, he already appears to have lost a significant amount of weight, his lawyer said.

"He looked really bad," said Mr. McPike, although he added that his client's spirits were lifted during the hearing because of the number of supporters at the courthouse.

Friends of Mr. Kubby managed to obtain a short-term supply of the prescription drug

Marinol, a synthetic form of THC that is legal. It costs about $1,000 for a nine-day supply.

Michele Kubby said yesterday that her husband has been required to sign a waiver that absolves the Placer County jail of responsibility for any health problems, because he is using non-conventional medical treatment.

Mr. Kubby will be back in court on Friday and could hear from prosecutors in Placer County about whether they will proceed with the probation violation charges and seek to keep him in custody.

Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Author: Shannon Kari
Published: Wednesday, February 1, 2006 Page S3
Copyright: 2006 The Globe and Mail Company
Contact: letters@globeandmail.ca
Website: http://www.globeandmail.com/
Link to article: http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread21546.shtml

[IndianaToker]

By Penne Usher, Journal Staff Writer
Source: Auburn Journal

California -- Incarcerated medical-marijuana activist Steve Kubby slowly entered an Auburn courtroom Tuesday afternoon and took his seat next to other inmates as he smiled to a crowd of supporters in the audience.
Kubby, 59, was in court with his attorney Bill McPike for arraignment on a charge of violation of probation after his arrest Thursday in San Francisco. Kubby's attorney entered a plea of "not guilty" on behalf of his client. He said outside the courtroom that he will ask the court for alternative sentencing.

"Michele (Kubby) is relocating (from Canada) to Marin County and we're going to motion for house arrest," McPike said. "I have no idea (if it will be granted)."
Chris Cattran, deputy district attorney for Placer County, said outside the courtroom that house arrest was offered to Kubby after his 2000 conviction for possession of mescaline and psilocybin.

"He was given the option of house arrest, but chose to flee," Cattran said.
At this point it is not clear if additional charges will be brought against Kubby, who began serving his 120-day sentence Friday.

Although he appeared to weigh less than he did when his booking photo was taken, Kubby looked pleased that the courtroom was nearly filled to capacity with those wanting to wish him well, many who had never met the former gubernatorial candidate and co-author of Prop. 215, California's Compassionate Use Act.

Clark Sullivan, 45, of San Francisco and the Hemp Evolution Web site, said he came to Auburn, as did about 30 others, to champion Kubby's reported need for medical marijuana.

"I'm an advocate for a lot of medical marijuana users and don't always know who they are," Sullivan said. "I'm here to support Steve and to demand that the Placer County authorities allow him to use medical cannabis as his doctor has prescribed."

In light of the attention the case has received and the number of medical-marijuana activists expected, Placer County Sheriff's Department added deputies outside the jail facility, courtroom and inside during the brief proceeding.

Members of the Compassionate Coalition.org, Hemp Evolution and other medical marijuana advocates held signs in front of the jail Tuesday that read "Healing is not a crime, free Steve Kubby, Don't jail the Ill," and "Stop terrorizing patients."

Many voiced their concern that without his daily doses of marijuana, Kubby will not survive his jail time.

Kubby contends he must have marijuana daily in order to survive and stave off the effects of a rare form of adrenal cancer. He points out a Canadian doctor who agrees with him, but a UC Davis Cancer specialist has said there is no scientific evidence to support


Kubby's claim that marijuana is keeping him alive.

To the Kubby faithful, it's a life-or-death situation.

"They are going to let him die in there," said Kubby supporter Essie Mormen, of San Francisco.

Jail officials are forbidden to answer direct medical questions, but have said Kubby is receiving medical treatment as necessary and is being cared for as all inmates are.

Kubby is scheduled to appear at 8:30 a.m. Friday in Dept. 13 of Placer County Superior Court.

Michele Kubby was not in the courtroom for Tuesday's appearance.

The Kubby family had been seeking to stay in Canada, however, the Canadian Border Services rejected the family's bid for protection Dec. 9 and ordered them out of the country.

Note: Activist's attorney to ask for alternative sentencing.

Source: Auburn Journal (CA)
Author: Penne Usher, Journal Staff Writer
Published: Wednesday, February 1, 2006
Copyright: 2006 Auburn Journal
Contact: ajournal@foothill.net
Website: http://www.auburnjournal.com/
Link to article: http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread21547.shtml

[IndianaToker]

Tahoe World Editorial
Source: Tahoe World

California -- Placer County and Tahoe have had a five year reprieve, but last week the Kubby circus rolled back into town.
After being deported from Canada, where Steve Kubby and his family were living after he was convicted on drug charges in 2000, the medical marijuana activist and former gubernatorial candidate is serving his 120-day sentence in the Placer County jail in Auburn.

He contends he will die if not given marijuana to keep his adrenal cancer at bay. So he and his wife and attorney are urging his supporters to call the Placer County Sheriff's Office and District Attorney's office so he can get the "proper medical treatment."

Kubby's lawyer has also asked that Kubby be allowed to serve his sentence under house arrest in Marin County.

We say enough is enough.

The court allowed Kubby to serve his sentence at home with electronic monitoring in 2001, but he opted instead to flee to Canada stating at the time he believed his sentence was a "direct threat to my life." He also acknowledged that he may face jail time as a result of his decision.

Kubby has been given ample opportunity to serve his sentence at home and we believe that he could have been done with this ordeal five years ago if he followed the court's orders.

Although we sympathize with Kubby's medical condition, it seems that his antics are more about self promotion than advocating for medical marijuana. It seems that he really believes he will die if not given cannabis while in jail, but one look at his Web site -- http://www.kubby.com/ -- and it is clear this is more about the Kubby crusade than an effort to advance medical marijuana.

On Friday, the spectacle that has become hopefully the last chapter in Kubby's case continues in Auburn at the Placer County Court House at 8:30 a.m. when the judge decides whether Kubby may serve his sentence under house arrest, again.

Already this past week protestors turned up outside the courtroom advocating that Kubby be allowed to use marijuana while in jail. However, deputies are treating Kubby like any other inmate in their custody - as they should. On Friday at least, the community has one more opportunity to watch the show.

We recommend bringing some popcorn along in case one gets the munchies.

Complete Title: Is Kubby's Fight About Medical Marijuana, or Self Promotion?

Source: Tahoe World (Tahoe City, CA)
Published: February 1, 2006
Copyright: 2006 Tahoe World
Contact: editor@tahoe-world.com
Website: http://www.tahoe-world.com/
Link to article: http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread21553.shtml

[IndianaToker]

By Kara Fox
Source: Tahoe World

California -- 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 nine-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.”

However, Deputy District Attorney Chris Cattran said Kubby was not to leave the state of California.

“He mentioned [five years ago] he wanted to go to Canada to visit friends and he had a turn-in date,” Cattran said. “He failed to turn himself in.”

Medical marijuana patients and advocates from the California Marijuana Party, Libertarian Party, California National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, Axis of Love San Francisco and the El Dorado County chapter of American Alliance for Medical Cannabis formed a prayer circle before Friday’s hearing and held up quilts and signs in support of Kubby.

Steven Tuck, 39, was deported from Canada on a medical marijuana case in October and traveled from Oregon to support Kubby.

“I have to show Steve I support him,” Tuck said. “Out of all the people here, I know what he is going through.”

Kubby ran for governor in 1998 as a member of the Libertarian Party and co-authored Prop. 215, the initiative approved by California voters in 1996 for the legalization of medical marijuana.

A hearing is scheduled for Feb. 15 at 1 p.m. in Auburn.

Note: Former Squaw Valley resident in Auburn.

Source: Tahoe World (Tahoe City, CA)
Author: Kara Fox
Published: February 3, 2006
Copyright: 2006 Tahoe World
Contact: editor@tahoe-world.com
Website: http://www.tahoe-world.com/
Link to article: http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread21562.shtml

[IndianaToker]

By Michelle Miller, Journal Staff Writer
Source: Auburn Journal

California -- The attorney for incarcerated medical marijuana advocate Steven Kubby pulled his client's motion to have the substance administered to him in jail Friday.
Kubby, who has been in Placer County Jail since Jan. 27, filed a motion requesting marijuana-laced food be served to him in jail. Kubby contends he must have marijuana daily in order to survive and stave off the affects of a rare form of adrenal cancer.

However, at a hearing in a Placer County courtroom Friday, Kubby's attorney Bill McPike told Judge Robert McElhany that he was dropping the motion.

"His blood pressure has stabilized so we're asking to take the motion off the calendar for today," he said.

Kubby's request for marijuana could be put back on the calendar at a later date, McPike said.

The Sheriff's Department, which operates the jail, has opposed that motion in documents filed in Placer County Superior Court. County counsel maintains that Kubby has not provided any support to his claim that only medical marijuana will treat his medical condition and that Kubby is asking the courts to "simply take his word for it."

They also contend existing law does not require medical marijuana be provided to jail inmates.

Kubby is currently receiving the drug Marinol from jail medical staff, who are available to him around the clock.

Kubby, who is currently serving a 120-day sentence for a 2000 drug conviction on charges of possession of mescaline and psilocybin, fled with his family to Canada to avoid incarceration. He now faces increased penalties for violating probation.

His wife, Michele, arrived at the jail Friday with their 8- and 6-year-old daughters. The family made its first appearance in court since being forced out of Canada, where Canadian Border Services had rejected the family's bid for protection.

Michele Kubby hugged supporters outside the jail Friday before addressing numerous TV, print and radio reporters.

She said she saw her husband Thursday night and was encouraged to hear his blood pressure was under control with his Marinol treatment. He looked thin, she said, but his eyes were clear and he was in good spirits.

"This is an experiment that has been forced upon us and I'm grateful it's working," Michele Kubby said. "It is cruel and unusual punishment for a family to have the father die over a minute, innocent crime."

She said her husband's treatment by the Placer County Sheriff's Department was "clearly retaliatory." Sheriff's Department officials have said they are treating Kubby humanely.
Although Friday's court proceedings were very brief, they drew supporters from as far away as San Francisco.

Compassionate-use supporters held a prayer vigil for Kubby before the hearing. Some displayed memorial quilts of people they said died from being denied access to medical marijuana.

The next pre-trial hearing, scheduled for Feb. 15, would set a date for his trial on probation violation charges, Kubby's attorney McPike said.

Kubby could admit to violating his probation and be offered two options for sentencing, said prosecuting Deputy District Attorney Chris Cattran. He did not want to elaborate further on those options Friday.

"If he doesn't want to admit we would have another hearing, which he is entitled to," Cattran said. "The burden of proof would be on my office to present sufficient evident that he in fact violated probation."

Note: Steve Kubby's attorney says symptoms subsiding for now.

Complete Title: Jailed Medipot Activist Withdraws Request To Be Served Marijuana

Source: Auburn Journal (CA)
Author: Michelle Miller, Journal Staff Writer
Published: Sunday, February 5, 2006
Copyright: 2006 Auburn Journal
Contact: ajournal@foothill.net
Website: http://www.auburnjournal.com/
Link to article: http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread21567.shtml

[Alphå]

All I have to say is good luck to this man, and WAKE UP AMERICA. This is a plant, not a drug. This is a way of life, not a crime.

Its time for us to step up.

Whos the criminal? This man for serving his country as a paratrooper until he couldnt? And then planting and smoking this plant so he can stay alive?

Or the US 'Justice' system for wanting to throw him in a cell for trying to live?

Wake up man... Its about time for a change.