cannabisnews.com: Pot-Smoking Refugee Claimant Would Be Prosecuted





Pot-Smoking Refugee Claimant Would Be Prosecuted
Posted by CN Staff on April 10, 2003 at 17:04:36 PT
By The Canadian Press 
Source: Canadian Press 
Vancouver  -- A man seeking asylum in Canada because he smokes pot to fight a rare form of cancer would do well to stay out of the United States, where the "corrupt system" would prosecute him, a California judge testified Thursday. "His chances would be overwhelming, I regret to say, of being tried and convicted," Judge James Gray of the Orange Country Superior Court said by phone at a refugee hearing for Steve Kubby.
Kubby, a former California resident who now lives in Sechelt, B.C., said between puffs on a joint outside the hearing that he suffers from adrenal cancer and would die within four days if he didn't smoke marijuana. Health Canada granted him permission last August to grow and smoke pot for medicinal purposes. Although California's Proposition 215 allows for the medical use of marijuana, patients are still prosecuted by the federal court, whose laws trump state laws, Gray said. And those who face a judge in federal court can't provide any evidence of medicinal use so the jury doesn't get to hear they aren't drug dealers, Gray said from Santa Ana, Calif. "Mr. Kubby, I believe is in real serious legal trouble if he were to find himself back in California," Gray said under questioning by Kubby's wife Michele, who is not a lawyer but is representing him at the hearing. Kubby was convicted in the United States of possessing peyote and one magic mushroom stem and found not guilty of any marijuana offences. Kubby, who met almost Gray three years ago at a public function, said outside the hearing that he was placed on probation and doesn't want to return home because he'd immediately be arrested and put in jail, where he wouldn't survive. Federal law enforcement officials are getting more "extremist" with medicinal pot users and have gone so far as to arrest dying patients in a hospice, Gray said. In one case, an ill woman who couldn't stand up was handcuffed to her bed, he claimed. "I love my country deeply ... but what I've seen here in the federal government is appalling," Gray said under questioning by lawyer Gordon Starr, opposing Kubby's refugee bid on behalf of Canada's Citizenship and Immigration Department. The federal court makes no distinction between people who smoke pot for medical reasons and those who traffic drugs because marijuana is seen as having no medicinal purpose in the United States, Gray said. The American government is specially keen to convict high-profile individuals like Kubby, the judge said of the man who once ran for governor of California as a Libertarian candidate. Proposition 215, the California initiative that approved medical marijuana use, has made no difference to the federal government. Gray said anyone who profits from trafficking marijuana should be sent to jail, but that there's a place for the medicinal use of cannabis for ill people, the same as in Canada. Angel McClary Raich, a medical marijuana advocate from Oakland, Calif., and one of several witnesses who testified by phone, said she smokes marijuana to combat 15 serious medical conditions including endometriosis and an inoperable brain tumour. But McClary Raich said she fears for her life if she's arrested because without the pot "it would be a torturous death for me." Complete Title: Pot-Smoking Refugee Claimant Would Be Prosecuted at Home: California JudgeSource: Canadian Press Published: Thursday, April 10, 2003Copyright: 2003 The Canadian PressRelated Articles & Web Sites:Pot TV Newshttp://www.pot-tv.netJudge Gray Grayhttp://www.judgejimgray.com/The Drug War Refugees http://freedomtoexhale.com/smk.htm Medical Marijuana User Claims Persecution in UShttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15907.shtmlU.S. Judge Rules Against Medical Pot Patients http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15690.shtmlU.S. Pot Advocate Seeks Refugee Status in Canada http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15662.shtml 
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on April 11, 2003 at 15:16:05 PT
News Brief from The Canadian Press
Expert Says Pot The Best Treatment for KubbyBy The Canadian Press Published: Friday, April 11, 2003Canadian Press Vancouver -- A cancer specialist has told a hearing in Vancouver that medical marijuana is the best treatment for an American man seeking refugee status in Canada. Dr. Joseph Connors says Steve Kubby would have a heart attack, stroke or kidney failure if he did not take pot for medical purposes. He says other treatments would either be too dangerous or ineffective in dealing with Kubby's adrenal cancer. Kubby claims he will die if he is returned to the U.S. because he won't be able to use marijuana to treat his condition. Kubby moved to Sechelt with his wife and two young daughters in May of 2001. Last August, Health Canada granted him a medicinal marijuana permit to grow and smoke pot for his cancer. 
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Comment #1 posted by The GCW on April 10, 2003 at 17:15:43 PT
Talk about an expert witness
The Judge knows.I don't see Cannada sending Kubby to death.But given the chance, I see the incompassionate & mean spirited U.S. Gov. as savoring caging Kubby even if it means instant death. Imagine them foaming at the mouth over the oppertunity.
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