Medical Pot Refugee May Be Returned to California

An internationally known medical marijuana activist has been ordered to leave Canada, where he sought refuge after he was convicted in Placer County of possessing peyote and magic mushrooms in 2000.

Steve Kubby helped write and pass California’s Proposition 215 medical marijuana law -- approved by voters in 1996 -- was the Libertarian candidate for governor in 1998 and served as national director of the American Medical Marijuana Assn.

Kubby said he would suffer and could die of a rare form of adrenal cancer if he returns to Placer County and isn’t allowed to smoke marijuana daily while serving a 120-day jail sentence. He could face more jail time for fleeing the country.

The conviction came after Placer County deputies said they found small amounts of mescaline and psilocybin, along with 265 marijuana plants, while raiding Kubby’s Olympic Valley home in 1999.

Canadian Border Services last month ordered Kubby and his family to leave by Thursday. He goes back to a Canadian court Monday to seek a delay.

“I must confess that I really fear for my husband’s life,” Michelle Kubby told the Auburn Journal by telephone.

Placer County Deputy Dist. Atty. Chris Cattran said Kubby would be detained at the U.S. border and returned to the county.

“I’ll probably be talking to you through a cell in Placer County jail if I’m able to speak,” Steve Kubby told the paper. “We’re not very encouraged by the outcome.”