cannabisnews.com: Medical Marijuana Advocate Hails Trial!





Medical Marijuana Advocate Hails Trial!
Posted by FoM on August 09, 1999 at 11:16:58 PT
Ex-candidate sees courtroom as forum!
Source: Sacramento Bee
As a judge and four attorneys questioned a panel of Placer County citizens, looking for jurors qualified to hear a drug cultivation and possession trial, Steven Wynn Kubby discreetly left the courtroom to medicate himself.
Kubby's "medicine" is marijuana. He smokes it about 10 times a day, he says, to stay alive.His doctor says Kubby's life has been "improved and extended" by the therapeutic use of marijuana, and an initiative passed by California voters says it's permissible for him to grow and possess pot for "personal medical purposes."But authorities in Placer County contend that Kubby and his wife, Michele, stepped over the line in January when they cultivated an in-house nursery of 265 marijuana plants, 110 of them fully grown and budded females, at their Squaw Valley home.That's too many to be used strictly for personal medical needs, prosecutors reasoned.So the Kubbys are on trial in Auburn, charged with two counts of conspiracy, possession for sale, cultivation, and possession of various controlled substances and ingestion devices.Jury selection began Wednesday, continued Thursday and is expected to extend into midweek, when opening statements and the presentation of evidence will be brought before Judge Robert G. Vonasek, a visiting retired Glenn County judge from Orland.Kubby, a Libertarian gubernatorial candidate who garnered 65,113 votes in 1998 and has declared that he intends to run again in 2002, said he welcomes the trial as "an opportunity to educate a largely disbelieving society that considers this (medicinal use of marijuana) to be some kind of hoax."Kubby said he uses the drug to control hypertension associated with malignant pheochromocytoma, a usually fatal cancer diagnosed 15 years ago.But prosecutors Eugene S. Gini Jr. and Christopher M. Cattran contend that the issue isn't really medical marijuana. It's about growing the drug for profit, they say.To law enforcement, the large number of plants being grown, the Kubbys' connection to a cannabis club in Oakland and a substantial flow of cash to the couple prove that the crop was not for personal use.At a preliminary hearing in March, Special Agent Mick Mollica of the Department of Justice testified that the Kubbys' pot was "definitely possessed or cultivated for the purpose of sale."He estimated that each of the plants seized at the Kubbys' home in January, when harvested, would produce 3 ounces of pot, a total of 49 pounds, 11 ounces, much more than is necessary to maintain a medicinal regimen for two.Mitch Pier, one investigator who testified at the preliminary hearing, conceded that searchers found no "dime baggies," no "pay/owe sheets," no cellular phones or pagers, instruments usually associated with drug sales, in the Kubby home.But they did find a daily planner that appeared to contain wholesale prices for various marijuana hybrids, Mollica testified.According to investigator Edward C. York, the North Tahoe Narcotics Task Force started looking at Kubby, 52, an electronic magazine publisher, after receiving an anonymous tip.Intercepting the Kubbys' trash, investigators in July 1998 found among the refuse partial marijuana cigarettes and three fliers, signed by Kubby, that led with "Attention law enforcement" and went on to describe Kubby's need for medicinal marijuana to treat a "terminal cancer medical condition."That didn't deter the investigators. Six months later, the task force served a warrant on the Kubbys' home, and both Steven and Michele, 33, were arrested.Kubby claimed they had been targeted for political reasons. Long an outspoken critic of government intrusion, Kubby had written a letter to the editor of The Bee in July 1993 decrying "government-sponsored terrorism" and calling for the abolition of the Internal Revenue Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and the Drug Enforcement Administration.Jailed Jan. 19 without access to his "medicine," Steven Kubby said he became extremely ill and lost 15 pounds in three days. Michele Kubby said she came down with pneumonia.Kubby's physician, Dr. Vincent DeQuattro of the University of Southern California School of Medicine, wrote a letter to the court asking that Kubby be permitted "sufficient supplies of his specific marijuana product in order to control his life-threatening disease."DeQuattro explained that Kubby's tumor is manufacturing large quantities of compounds that, "in minute quantities, could kill him instantly" if his condition is not controlled.And marijuana contains many substances that neutralize the dangerous compounds in the heart and vascular tissue, DeQuattro wrote.Rejecting the prosecution's request for a six-figure bail, a judge in January released the pair on their own recognizance.Steve Kubby is now legally smoking pot he didn't grow.Michele Kubby hasn't fired up a joint since she learned she is pregnant with what will be the couple's second child.She had been using marijuana, with a doctor's endorsement, to treat a chronic stomach ailment.This is Placer County's second high-profile medical marijuana trial this year.Prosecutors brought a similar case against a Roseville dentist and his wife, Michael W. and Georgia A. Baldwin, and in May received only 11 of the necessary 24 votes to convict the pair of possession for sale.The Baldwins, both of whom had marijuana recommendations from doctors, were arrested after narcotics agents raided their Loomis home and found 146 marijuana plants.Midway through the trial, Superior Court Judge James D. Garbolino acquitted the Baldwins of a separate cultivating count, ruling that the prosecution had failed to prove they were not growing it for their own use.As in the Kubby case, cultivation was only part of the action against the Baldwins.Garbolino let the trial proceed on the possession-for-sale counts because Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, does not apply to such allegations.After the jury voted 7-5 to acquit Georgia Baldwin and deadlocked at 6-6 on the ballot of Michael Baldwin, a mistrial was declared, and District Attorney Brad Fenocchio decided that his office would retry the case in November.By Wayne WilsonBee Staff Writer (Published Aug. 9, 1999) Copyright © The Sacramento BeeMedical Marijuana Noted on Another Front - 8/06/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread2385.shtml
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on August 10, 1999 at 13:10:52 PT:
 Kubby Case Presents Special Opportunity!
Pubdate: Thu, 5 Aug,1999Source: Orange County Register (CA) Copyright: 1999 The Orange County RegisterContact: letters link.freedom.com Website: http://www.ocregister.com/Section: Local News, page 8 2 CASES PUT PROP. 215 UNDER JUDICIAL SPOTLIGHT Two medical marijuana trials-one federal,one local-that are at very different phases this week could have a significant impact on how, or whether, Prop. 215, California's medical marijuana initiative passed by voters in 1996, will ever be properly implemented. B.E.Smith, a patient with a doctor's recommendation, is due to be sentenced in a federal case in Sacramento on Friday for growing marijuana. And Steve Kubby's trial for growing marijuana with intent to distribute is finally under way, with jury selection begun, in Auburn in Placer County. B.E.Smith's case hit the news briefly a few months ago when actor Woody Harrelson exploded in the courtroom, saying to the judge, "I'm wondering why you're keeping the truth from the jury." Mr. Smith, a decorated Vietnam veteran who lives in Trinity County, discovered some years ago that marijuana gave him relief from post-traumatic stress disorder. After the voters turned Prop. 215 into part of the state Health and Safety Code, his doctor wrote him a prescription. In May 1997, after announcing his intentions to the local sheriff, district attorney and Board of Supervisors, he started growing 20 plants in his front yard. Soon he heard from other patients who couldn't grow their own. "He was always compassionate, perhaps to a fault," his wife Mary told us Wednesday. Nine of them designated him their primary caretaker; he eventually had 87 plants. He talked openly about what he was doing. In September 1997 federal agents arrested him and destroyed his plants. His defense attorneys, noting that he was the first person in Northern California ever prosecuted by the feds for fewer than 100 plants, are convinced he was singled out because he was so open and aboveboard. U.S.District Judge Garland Burrell Jr. presided over the trial. He didn't allow the state's Prop. 215 or the term "medical marijuana" to be mentioned to the jury in this federal trial. As far they knew this was just a guy growing a lot of pot without a good explanation for it. They found him guilty. The Smith case demonstrates the unreasonableness the federal judicial system has shown in dealing with the will of California voters as expressed in Prop. 215. Things could go differently, though, in Kubby's case, brought by the local district attorney and in which the judge already announced he will allow a Prop, 215 defense; the case could set important legal precedents and affect attitudes of citizens and officials alike - especially is the jury is allowed to hear the whole story. THE KUBBY FILEShttp://www.kubby.com Monarch Bay Plaza #375Dana Point, Ca 92629DON'T GET LEFT OUT OF THE LOOP: Subscribe: Kubby-Announce-on list.kubby.org Unsubscribe: Kubby-Announce-off list.kubby.org Cannabis News-Medical Marijuana Archives:http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtmlCannabis News Articles On The Kubby Case:http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread2385.shtmlRelated: more articles on medicinal cannabis are available at:http://www.mapinc.org/medmj.htm and on the medmj state initiatives at: http://www.mapinc.org/props.htm
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