Synthetic Pot Aids Jailed Activist

A medical marijuana activist who long argued that he needed the drug to cope with his cancer surprised a judge and supporters Friday morning by announcing that a synthetic substitute provided to him in jail has proved an effective replacement.

Thanks to Marinol, a pill form of THC, the primary psychoactive ingredient in pot, Steve Kubby is “smiling and happy,” lawyer Bill McPike said. “In fact, he said it’s the best he’s felt in years.”

Kubby had asked that he be allowed to consume cannabis while in jail, and a judge in the Placer County town of Auburn had been set to consider that request Friday. Instead, McPike withdrew the request.

Kubby, 59, returned to California last month after spending the last five years in Canada dodging a 120-day prison sentence. On Tuesday, McPike asked that his client be allowed to continue using cannabis.

Kubby and his physicians had said that without pot to regulate the adrenal cancer’s symptoms, which may lead to heart attack or stroke, his health would be jeopardized.

Since his diagnosis a quarter-century ago, the activist has smoked up to a dozen marijuana cigarettes a day.

So no one was more surprised than Kubby by his reaction to Marinol, McPike said in a telephone interview.

Kubby’s positive response to the drug wasn’t immediate. Upon arriving in Auburn on Jan. 27, shortly after a Canadian court denied his request for refugee status, the drug caused vomiting and nausea, McPike said. But since then, Kubby’s condition stabilized, spurring his decision to stick with the synthetic.

A physician will continue examining Kubby daily to ensure the drug’s effects persist, he said.

Dale Gieringer, director of California NORML, a cannabis advocacy group, said Kubby’s decision to forgo pot will not affect the fight for medical marijuana.

“Some [medical] conditions respond to THC and some don’t,” he said, “so what’s right for Steve won’t necessary work for everyone.”

Kubby, who helped draft California’s medical marijuana law, is awaiting trial for a March 2001 conviction for possession of a peyote button and a hallucinogenic mushroom. A Placer County jury acquitted him of the more serious charge of selling pot grown in his basement garden.

Fear of jail time without access to marijuana propelled Kubby to flee the country two months later with his wife, Michele, and two young daughters. The family has resided in British Columbia ever since.

Around the same time, Placer judges bumped up his original convictions from misdemeanors to felonies. Kubby appealed the rulings, declaring them a miscarriage of justice.

Kubby now faces up to three years in prison -- nine times his original sentence. But McPike said he hopes to resolve matters before trial.

A hearing to discuss Kubby’s case is set for Feb. 15.

“I must say, following Steve is like being on a ship that rocks back and forth all the time,” Gieringer said. “You never know what’s going to happen.”