MarijuanaNews.com : Steve Kubby Is the Only One In This Story Who Has NOT Broken The Law, But He Faces the Death Penalty.

Posted December 30, 2005

Analysis by Richard Cowan

People in the US and around
the world are properly disturbed by allegations that the American government has
violated the civil liberties of various persons accused of terrorist activities.
The concern generally is not so much about the rights of the accused, who are
not particularly sympathetic, but for the potential abuses of power that
endanger everyone. There has been great concern regarding “domestic spying” by
the government.

Similarly, there was a
great outcry around the world protesting the execution of a convicted murderer
in California. Again, the protests were largely based on opposition to the death
penalty. Indeed, so many people on death row have been proven innocent, that
even those not philosophically opposed to executions have ceased to trust the
criminal justice system with matters of such finality.

Both of these concerns would seem to be more than justified in the case of Steve
Kubby, but – if the US and Canadian governments have their way – he will be sent
to die in the US in less than two weeks.

Two of the leading cancer
specialists in the US and Canada have confirmed that Kubby has malignant
pheochromocytoma, a very rare form of adrenal cancer, and that only cannabis has
kept him alive for decades longer than is typical in such cases.
From 1999, see

Prominent Cancer Specialist Says Steve Kubby Should Be Studied, Not Jailed;His
Case Has Major Medical Implications.

Nonetheless, he is under a Canadian departure order that will deliver him to the
US authorities on January 12, 2006, unless a stay is granted in a hearing on
January 9th. He will be jailed on a “no-bail warrant” and eventually
transported to Placer County, California. Of course, he could also be held on
federal flight charges and the US government does not even recognize the
existence of medical cannabis, and denies that there is even a right to mention
it in a US federal court.
See

Facing January 12th Expulsion From Canada, The Kubbys Launch Legal Assault On
Refugee Process. Now Is The Time For Kubby’s Supporters — And Friends Of
Freedom Everywhere — To Rally Behind Them.

Consequently, within hours
of being taken by the US, Kubby will suffer excruciating headaches, nausea and
other symptoms of soaring blood pressure caused by unpredictable spikes in his
adrenaline levels.
See

A Critique of the Kubby Refugee Ruling: What Is It About Dead That You Don’t
Understand?

Within a few more days – or
perhaps just hours – he will suffer irreversible kidney damage, and/or blindness
and a stroke. Then, if he is lucky, he will die. Steve Tuck, another medical
cannabis patient who was delivered to US authorities and held a week without any
medication, said that he would rather have died than endure even a few more
weeks of such torture, and his need for cannabis is not as absolute as Kubby’s.

And yet, no one seems to care, because Kubby is a medical cannabis patient, and
serious people simply cannot allow themselves to be seen taking the cannabis
issues seriously. Otherwise, their status as “serious people” might be in
danger.
For an improbable exception, see

WorldNetDaily Continues Its Critique of the Drug War with An Article by Steve
Kubby: “Bill Of Rights Is The Cure For Government Disease.” Outstanding!

Cynical?

How else can one explain
such indifference to the extraordinary violations of the laws of the US and
Canada that have been committed by law enforcement and the bureaucracies in two
advanced countries?

We have had a serious debate over whether it is ever
justifiable to torture a suspected terrorist to save lives, but there is no
debate about torturing medical cannabis patients in order to save cannabis
prohibition.

Kubby’s case has hardly
been a secret, but it is still not “an issue”, and that is all the more
remarkable when one considers that Kubby himself is a very political person,
having been one of the principal backers of Prop 215, California’s Compassionate
Use Act for medical marijuana, in 1996.

When it became apparent
that the medical marijuana laws were being defied by California law enforcement
Kubby decided to become the Libertarian Party candidate for governor of
California in 1998.
From 1998 see

California Libertarian Gubernatorial Candidate and Medical Marijuana Activist
Kubby Denounces Jailing McCormick

In
short, he did not become political after he was arrested. Rather, he was
arrested after he became political. Thus, his case would appear to be that
ultimate American taboo, a political prosecution.

Why then is this case not a political issue? Because it involves
cannabis?

Lawless law enforcement,
rotting from the top.
See

After Lockyer Says He Won’t Fight To Support Rights Under Prop 215 Former
California Libertarian Party Gubernatorial Candidate And Medical Marijuana
Patient Steve Kubby Arrested On Cultivation And “Conspiracy” Charges!
and

California Narks Lie to Justify Disobeying Prop 215. And They Lie About Me In
The Process.

In July of 1998, while
Steve was running for Governor of California on the Libertarian Party ticket,
an anonymous letter was supposedly sent from Long Beach to the Placerville
Sheriff’s Department.

An officer there forwarded this anonymous letter to neighboring Placer County,
where they lived, with a note which said, “…The
information is weak and non-specific, but I wanted to pass the letter
along in the event your narcotic enforcement team is interested…”

Even though the author did not even know where the Kubbys actually lived,
within 24 hours an investigation was opened involving
agents in four counties and two states.

This letter was also crafted to elicit interest from the U.S. Federal
government, because of the large number of plants mentioned, and it even
claimed that the Kubbys fed their 2 year old daughter cannabis on a regular
basis! No one has ever claimed responsibility for this letter and the Kubbys’
attorneys believe it was actually written by the police somewhere in
California.

In addition, the letter alleged that Kubby funded his governor’s race with
“pot money,” even though his election finances were audited and no violations
of the election laws were ever found.

The multi-state taskforce continued its investigation
for six months, placing the Kubbys’ home under surveillance, spying and even
taking pictures through their windows, and sorting through their garbage.

The Kubbys were tipped that they were being watched and started putting notes
in their garbage informing the police that they were growing medical cannabis
in accordance with state law.

No violations of any laws were ever established by the six months of spying,
but the police were still able to get a warrant. How?
On the warrant to
search the Kubby home and arrest them, a DEA report was cited which supposedly
claimed that a (blond, fair-skinned) journalist who was visiting the Kubbys
was a Jamaican drug smuggler. When the journalist later wrote the DEA and
asked for a copy of this report under the Freedom of Information Act -
the DEA denied having any such report. The Kubby trial
judge refused to require the prosecution present the report, and denied the
defense motion for a full evidentiary hearing on the issue.

Without this supposed DEA Report, the authorities had no basis for their
warrant. (Amendment IV in the Bill of Rights: The right of the people to be
secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable
searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no
Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or
affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the
persons or things to be seized.)

Instead, the search warrant and probable
cause information to obtain it acknowledges that the police were aware
that Kubby was an “outspoken advocate” for the medical use of marijuana.
Within their probable
cause information the arresting officer had stated that he had observed Steve
(through Kubby’s window) bringing a potted plant into his living-room and
displaying it to the supposed Jamaican drug dealer, who touched it. That was
cited as evidence that Kubby was distributing marijuana, but the police never
stopped the journalist or anyone else leaving the Kubbys’ home, and never
found any evidence of sales. The domestic spy also
claimed that Michele Kubby was visible at that time, but it was proven that
she was in Orange County at the time.
On January 19, 1999,
twenty heavily armed officers from North Lake Tahoe, the State of Nevada, and
the DEA stormed the Kubbys’ home at gunpoint. They wore flack jackets and had
laser guided assault rifles which they shoved into the Kubbys’ faces, even
though the Kubbys had no weapons and offered no resistance.

Kubby’s indoor medical garden was completely destroyed by the police, and they
were told that Prop 215 did not apply in Placer County. Both Kubby and his
wife Michele were taken into custody and held for three days, during which
time Steve received no medical treatment of any kind, and certainly no
cannabis. Despite his having the legal right to grow and use medical cannabis,
the courts and the police refused to return even a gram of his medicine.
The Placer County
authorities charged them with a combined total of 19 criminal counts which
would get them 25 years to life in prison. They were originally held on
$200,000 bail, but were released on their own recognizance after Placer County
officials were swamped with protests.
The police also claimed
that they found remnants of four peyote cactus buttons as well as .058 grams
of a psilocybin mushroom in a film canister in a guest bedroom. Kubby had
written a book on psychedelics, so it was at least plausible that they were
his, but he was actually charged with (and ultimately convicted of) possession
of mescaline and psilocin, the active ingredients which the police extracted
in their lab. However, the presence of mescaline and psilocin does not prove
that the remnants from which they were extracted were actually the prohibited
items.

Long before he was convicted, Placer authorities even
sent a spy to record a speech Kubby made to a Libertarian convention in
Missouri. What did that have to do with his marijuana
garden or the psychedelics in his guest room?
After a four month
trial, a jury of 12 people voted 11-1 to acquit the Kubbys of all marijuana
charges, and the DA recognized that he could not get a conviction on the
marijuana charges in a retrial. In short, the original basis for the
investigation, raid, and arrests was completely discredited.
As noted, Steve was
convicted for possession of the psilocin and mescaline, even though those two
substances had been extracted in a lab and were not what the police actually
seized. The result was a felony conviction that the judge reduced to
misdemeanor. However, because Steve needs cannabis to live, even misdemeanor
probation would leave him vulnerable to another illegal raid, and he would
have no recourse if charged with a violation of probation. Given their
experience, they were unwilling to trust Steve’s life to the good will of
California law enforcement, so with the court’s permission, they moved to
Canada. This turned out to be a wise move, at least for the time being.
On May 25, 2001, the
Placer County District Attorney filed an appeal in the Superior Court
Appellate Division of Placer County against the trial judge’s decision to
turn the convictions into misdemeanors. This appeal, even if it were proper
was filed three weeks after the 30 day limit for filing a misdemeanor appeal
had expired.
The Peoples Notice of
Appeal is Untimely.
To fix this problem, instead of requesting an extension of time from the
Superior Court appellate Division, two judges who had been recused for cause
and disqualified from the case, covered up the errors of the prosecutor. The
first judge, Roeder, (recused specifically for bias and prejudice), did of his
own motion, and without advising either Kubby or his appeal of conviction
lawyer, altered the People’s erroneous and untimely appeal to the status of
a felony appeal.

This appeal should have never happened in the first place. He was formally
convicted of misdemeanors and given probation. If the prosecution was unhappy
about the probation, its recourse by law was confined to filing an application
for review under writ of mandate.
On July 20, 2001,
without sending the Kubbys any notice to show up in court on July 20th, either
from the court or from the public defender, Judge Cosgrove holds a probation
violation hearing. Not being present, he puts out a no-bail bench warrant
for Steve’s arrest as a “felony fugitive.”
Consequently, the probation appeal should never have ever been entertained or
considered by any appellate Court, but because of the type of appeal and
Roeder having labeled Kubby a felon, the California Third District Court of
Appeal then ruled Kubby was a “felony fugitive” – and would not let him
appeal any aspect of his case, especially its illegal conversion to a felony,
unless he appeared in person, which would result in his death.
Catch 22 was never more
deadly. Despite their having provided extensive evidence of illegal acts by
judges and prosecutors, Kubby cannot get a hearing in California courts –
because the very illegal actions that he has exposed have made him a “felony
fugitive”. How convenient for the real criminals!
Placer County
authorities then fraudulently tell Canadian Officials that Kubby is a “felony
fugitive,” and Canadian Immigration arrests Kubby, forcing him to file for
protection as a refugee. Even in the refugee hearings, Placer County officials
continued to flout California laws.
On April 11, 2003,
Chris Cattran, the Assistant DA from Placer County, who prosecuted the Kubbys
testified by phone, and offered an insight into how arbitrary Placer’s medical
cannabis policies remained. The county still had no written guidelines on the
amount of cannabis a patient may have, so patients could never know if they
were in compliance. If the police have decided that the patient has too much
they will simply arrest him and let a jury decide. In the meantime, the
patient is without medicine and has to pay for a criminal defense, which most
patients cannot afford.
Cattran explained that
they had arranged for two “specialists” to fly in and testify at the trial
about Steve’s condition and his use of cannabis, but, at the last minute, the
judge decided not to allow them to challenge to Steve’s doctors.

Perhaps one reason that the judge decided not to allow
this challenge was because the prosecution’s doctors had never examined Steve.
Immigration Canada’s attorney asked Cattran if he knew what these two doctors
– who had never even seen Kubby – were going to say.

Yes, he replied. They were going to say that Steve
didn’t have cancer, but if he did, cannabis was contraindicated and would just
make his condition worse!

These are the people to whom Canada wants to return Steve Kubby!
See

Placer County, Still Murderous After All These Years. Kubbys Find Secret
“Death Warrant” Signed by Disqualified Judge. Key To Canadian Refuge, If Not
Justice In California.

Meanwhile in Canada, the
so-called “refugee protection system” is arbitrary and capricious, and its
officials act as though they are above the law.

When Steve’s refugee hearings first began, Immigration Canada insisted that he
be examined by the leading cancer specialist in BC, to determine if he really
has cancer and cannabis really helps him. Of course, they were expecting the
doctor to say just what Cattran’s quacks were prepared to say, but he confirmed
both the diagnosis and the effectiveness of cannabis. So what did Immigration
Canada do next? It pretended that their doctor’s opinion simply did not matter.

They also refused to consider massive evidence of judicial and prosecutorial
misconduct by California officials.

Finally, in an absurdly misnamed farce called the “Pre-Removal Risk Assessment”
an utterly unqualified bureaucrat flatly lied when confronted with sworn
affidavits from two Washington State attorneys about the treatment of Steve Tuck
when he was renditioned to the States. She claimed, “I am unable to find any
trustworthy and independent sources to corroborate that the individual concerned
was not given proper medical attention while jailed.”

She was NOT UNABLE. She was UNWILLING EVEN TO LOOK at the consequences of their
own actions. She could easily have contacted the lawyers and obtained the
verification that she clearly did not want. Does it matter that a Canadian
bureaucrat lied about a matter of life and death?

We may find out on January
9th. We will also find out between now and then if the people who
oppose violating the rights of terrorists and the execution of murderers care
about the rights of the innocent and the “technicalities” of the rule of law in
two countries.

If Steve Kubby dies, the
real murderers will be those who remain silent.
See

Cannabis Prohibition Is “Low-Intensity Warfare” Against Social Peace, Individual
Freedom and the Rule of Law. Be very afraid… Three Lessons.