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Posted on 03/07/2006 3:55:12 PM PST by Wolfie
MARIJUANA ACTIVIST IS FREED FROM JAIL
SACRAMENTO -- Steve Kubby, a California medical marijuana pioneer who was forced to return from Canada earlier this year and was thrown into jail, earned his freedom Monday after serving a third of the four-month sentence his doctor predicted might kill him.
Placer County jail officials said Kubby's release after 40 days behind bars came because of his good behavior in custody and their need to reduce crowding under a federal court order.
Kubby has spent the last six years vociferously fighting Placer County authorities over his conviction for possession of a peyote button and a psychedelic mushroom. But his early release underscored a sudden shift in his once bitter attitude toward law enforcement authorities.
In jail, Kubby lost 25 pounds, yet said he gained respect for his jailers and the medical staff who tended to the rare, and typically terminal, form of adrenal cancer he has been treating with marijuana for three decades.
"I realized the taunting and skepticism about my condition that I experienced when I was first jailed here in 1999 was not present with any of the jail staff this time," said Kubby, a one-time Libertarian gubernatorial candidate and early backer of California's watershed 1996 medical marijuana initiative. "I realized that these guys were getting heat over me, and they didn't deserve it."
The first days of his incarceration were marked by loud criticism of Placer County officials by medical marijuana activists worried that Kubby might die in jail without access to marijuana. His blood pressure, normally 120 over 80, jumped to 170 over 120 and blood appeared in his urine.
But soon after he arrived in Placer County jail, Kubby started using Marinol -- a legal synthetic form of marijuana's psychoactive THC -- to thwart blood-pressure spikes that his doctors say can turn lethal.
His condition stabilized, and Kubby wrote to his jailers and the medical staff apologizing for negative publicity during the first days of his incarceration. In the letter, Kubby said he had "developed a profound respect for the professional and highly dedicated staff and officers here."
Kubby's travails date back to the weeks right after his failed run for governor in November 1998. Spurred by a tip that Kubby had been selling marijuana to finance his gubernatorial campaign, a drug enforcement task force raided his home near the Squaw Valley ski area.
Kubby beat the marijuana sales charges after his attorneys argued his 265-plant basement garden was necessary to produce the abundant cannabis crop he needed to control the cancer.
But the jury convicted Kubby on two counts of possessing a psychedelic mushroom and a single peyote button.
Before his sentencing in 2001, Kubby moved to Canada with his wife and two young children. Kubby failed to win a bid to become a political refugee and he flew back to California on Jan. 26 and was whisked off the jet by police at San Francisco International Airport.
Although a free man Monday, Kubby still faces a March 14 hearing for failing to appear at his original sentencing five years ago.
IB4TBL
Ping
Libertarian ping.To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here
im sure your dressed all in black and are flying your flag at half staff on this sad day for american society :-)
I wonder how much the gubmint spent on a single mushroom and a single cactus bud? The WODdies make me sick and amuse me all at the same time.
Sad news for Mojave and RP. Great news for us.
Hooray!
Placer County jail officials said Kubby's release after 40 days behind bars came because of his good behavior in custody and their need to reduce crowding under a federal court order.
What a waste of jail space. Now they have room for a REAL criminal.
In before the bootlickers?
You made it!
Via the libertarian ping list.
Viva the list!
It's a first step. If he turns away from the libertarians and the dope, maybe there's hope for him and his family.
I think I'm gonna use that in the future. If you don't mind.
Be my guest.
ping
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
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