cannabisnews.com: Ex-Candidate Defends Drug Use!





Ex-Candidate Defends Drug Use!
Posted by FoM on February 15, 1999 at 11:48:36 PT
Kubby says marijuana was used only for medicine!
Locked arm-in-arm, Steve and Michelle Kubby told an appreciative Sunday evening crowd in San Jose about how their surveillance and arrest for growing medicinal marijuana in their basement has changed their lives.
Ironically, the Libertarian candidate in last year's governor's race may end up attracting more attention for his arrest in Olympic Valley last month than he did during his campaign. The Kubbys, who publish an online magazine, were among a handful of prominent speakers over four days at the Libertarian Party's 1999 state convention, which ends today at the San Jose Doubletree Hotel. They were greeted Sunday night with a standing ovation, then hushed the crowd with details of being charged with cultivating marijuana, conspiracy and possession with intent to sell. There were no sales,'' Kubby said; the 256 marijuana plants that were seized were for their own use.``There was no way economically we could stop growing his medicine,'' Michelle Kubby said.The Kubbys had more marijuana ``than necessitated by a medical condition,'' Placer County prosecutor Christoper Cattran has been quoted as saying.Now the Kubbys' supporters are talking about mounting a recall against Placer County District Attorney Bradford Fenocchio, who is prosecuting the couple. ``We are looking into all our legal options,'' Priscilla Falconi, the Placer County Libertarian Party chairwoman, said after the Kubbys spoke Sunday.Both Kubbys use medicinal marijuana; they call it their ``medicine.'' Michelle Kubby said she uses it as an anti-spasmodic for irritable bowel syndrome. Steve Kubby has a rare form of adrenal cancer. The marijuana helps control his blood pressure, helping protect against stroke and aneurysms, his wife said. Steve Kubby helped qualify Proposition 215 for the ballot, and in 1996 California voters approved the measure allowing distribution of marijuana to seriously ill patients. But the Clinton administration, and the state under former Attorney General Dan Lungren, claimed the proposition conflicts with federal drug laws.Kubby turned over most of his time Sunday to his wife, who talked with emotion about what their family has been through. She began her tale with the Jan. 19 raid on the couple's rented home in Olympic Valley.Authorities began their investigation after receiving an anonymous letter last fall saying Kubby was growing thousands of plants and selling marijuana to finance his campaign. It culminated in the search of their home. ``We have no business anymore,'' Michelle Kubby said of their online magazine. They have taken our computer, our printer, our digital scanner. They took all our plants, all our (plant growing) lights. They've taken a lot from us. . . .They've destroyed our business and our life.''Michelle Kubby said she'd had a miscarriage in September, ``perhaps because of the terror and stress from surveillance.''Steve Kubby said he was tipped to the investigation almost immediately and would leave notes to investigators in the family trash, which was being searched.``Whoever wrote that letter put us and the Libertarian Party on the map,'' Kubby said.Michelle Kubby said she believes that the person who wrote the letter ``was close to us,'' and thus sees it as a ``betrayal.''The worst part of their ordeal, she said, was time in the Auburn jail, where she could hear her husband vomiting but she was not allowed to see him. ``This medicine (marijuana) is what keeps him alive,'' she said. Without it, she said, ``they almost killed him.''
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on February 15, 1999 at 15:30:19 PT
That's so true!
That's so true. It is a sad day for our country when people like the Kubby's, who truly are compassionate people, have to go thru this over a medicinal herb. The issue is personal moral freedom and acountability for our own actions, not locking people up so it seems like we've gotten rid of them. We don't live in a Democracy anymore.Thanks for the comment, Murt!
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Comment #1 posted by Murt on February 15, 1999 at 15:09:23 PT:
The Kubby's
Our country gets sadder and sadder everyday. Those who should be found guilty aren't and those who aren't guilty are. How sad.
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