cannabisnews.com: Refugee Hearing for Pot Advocate





Refugee Hearing for Pot Advocate
Posted by CN Staff on April 08, 2003 at 14:13:58 PT
By CBC News Online Staff
Source: CBC
Vancouver - An American user of medical marijuana says he will die if Canada sends him back to the United States. Steve Kubby is testifying in his own defence at a refugee board hearing in Vancouver. Kubby, who has cancer, says U.S. federal law does not permit the use of medical marijuana. But Kubby says doctors in both the U.S. and Canada say he needs pot to keep his illness in check.
He says he has to smoke marijuana several times a day to prevent blood pressure spikes, rapid heart beat and other problems brought on by producing too much adrenaline."It's the nature of my illness, cancer of the adrenal gland, that I could suffer a heart attack or stroke at any time without warning unless I'm protected," he says.Kubby says only marijuana offers him the protection he needs.He says he has tried radiation treatment and chemotherapy, but nothing works as well.Kubby is the founder of the American Medical Marijuana Association. He has been living in B.C. for more than a year.Police raided Kubby's home in Lake Tahoe, Calif., in January 1999 and laid charges after seizing hundreds of marijuana plants.A jury found Kubby not guilty on those charges, but he fled to B.C. to avoid jail time on a lesser conviction.After Canadian immigration officials attempted to deport Kubby, he filed for refugee status.The refugee hearing is expected run during the next two weeks. Source: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Published: Tuesday, April 8, 2003Copyright: 2003 CBCWebsite: http://www.cbc.ca/Contact: cbcinput toronto.cbc.caRelated Articles & Web Sites:Pot TV Newshttp://www.pot-tv.netThe Drug War Refugees http://freedomtoexhale.com/smk.htm American Medical Marijuana Associationhttp://www.americanmarijuana.org/Immigration Hearing Halted After Three Days http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15770.shtmlU.S. Pot Advocate Seeks Refugee Status in Canada http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15662.shtml
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Comment #2 posted by Virgil on April 08, 2003 at 15:21:58 PT
The bigger Picture
The artiticle failed to mention how long a decision would take. How long it takes the Supreme Court to rule on their cases will take months from what I gather. anyway there is going to be some high powered testimony on the Police States of America in person and by phone with Ed Rosenthall being one of them. Loretta Nall was Michelle's guest on Monday's pot-tv and she is still a ball of fire ready to burn any prohibitionist's position. Michelle recently said she was a MMJ(You know it seems like there needs to be an acronym for Medical Marijuana Patient) user for irritable bowel disease. This is a big deal though and it should get a lot of media attention before the big showdowns come with the Supreme Court.Here is a link to Michael Moore's website where Mike's Message for April 7th is about the fiction some people are living in- http://www.michaelmoore.com/There is an article by Paul Harris at Yellowtimes.org that has a similar slant in that it talks of leaders as liars and they could not have gotten there without lying. It has some good insight and a few good lines. The title of the article is , "Truth is not the first casualty of war" - http://www.yellowtimes.org/article.php?sid=1216&mode=thread&order=0Its opening paragraph reads- Truth is not the first casualty of war; it is the first casualty of politics. It is out of politics, or the failures of politics, that war arises; but the truth has died long before the war started.The last paragraph reads- So while the conventional wisdom has it that the first casualty of war is the truth, the reality is that we never had any truth to lose. It is hard to accept that we actually want all our leaders to lie to us, but it's even harder to accept that we would so willingly tolerate this stuff unless we were happy with it. So if they continue to treat us like idiots, perhaps they are right. I am going to include three paragraphs out of the article for those that might be interested in the thoughts about all the lies. We know the government continually lies and we have got to shame them out of public office for telling them. It is intolerable and its own form of oppression while laughing in our faces.In recent years we have come to know the meaning of "spin." Astonishingly, many of us seem to have accepted that if we call it "spin," it isn't really the same thing as lying through your teeth. But let's call a shovel a shovel: there is a huge difference between "interpreting" a set of facts in a way that shows your side most favorably and simply telling falsehoods. We mostly get the falsehoods, and then give it the cute little name of "spin" to make it more palatable. Now that the latest war has actually started, of course, the truth is only an idea in the mind of God; we are treated to daily lies from all sides. Towns that allegedly fell to the invading forces within a few hours were still hotly contested a week later; innocent victims keep popping up from the "pinpoint accurate" weaponry being fired by the Americans (even to the point of hitting people in a whole other country!); Scud missiles are fired by the Iraqis with only a very quiet admission later that they weren't really Scuds after all; a chemical weapons factory is discovered only to be some other kind of facility that never quite gets explained. It's a never-ending litany. The propaganda war is a fantastic thing to watch; the nonsense that all sides seem to think people are willing to swallow is astounding. There is a creative fury that goes into propaganda that puts to shame the most imaginative minds of fiction writers. Unfortunately, people are willing to swallow this stuff or at least those who choose willfully to suspend disbelief out of some patriotic fervor are able to swallow it. I am not trying to address the Iraq massacre only the lies of government that tell us it is corrupt. I must again raise the excellent work by Richard Cowan calling the prohibitionists a cult- http://www.marijuananews.com/news.php3?sid=659 It is similar to the article that went up at CEDRO in march, but more pwerful to me. The CEDRO article likened prohibitionist to a Church. It was very good also.Here is the first paragraph of the CEDRO article, titled" The drug prohibition church and the adventure of reformation" by Peter Cohen- http://www.cedro-uva.org/lib/cohen.church.htmlWhatever the origin of the UN Drug Treaties, and whatever the official rhetoric about their functions, the best way to look at them now is as religious texts. They have acquired a patina of intrinsic and unquestioned value and they have attracted a clique of true believers and proselytes to promote them. They pursue a version of Humankind for whom abstinence from certain drugs is dogma in the same way as other religious texts might prohibit certain foods or activities. The UN drug treaties thus form the basis of the international Drug Prohibition Church. Belonging to that Church has become an independent source of security, and fighting the Church's enemies has become an automatic source of virtue.
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on April 08, 2003 at 14:33:30 PT
Steve & Michele
I hope that the hearings go well for them and I hope that Steve is feeling better now.
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