cannabisnews.com: Kubby No Longer Seeking To Use Marijuana in Jail Kubby No Longer Seeking To Use Marijuana in Jail Posted by CN Staff on February 03, 2006 at 18:15:53 PT By Kara Fox Source: Tahoe World California -- Medical marijuana activist and former Squaw Valley resident Steve Kubby is no longer seeking to use cannabis for his cancer while in jail, his lawyer told a Placer County judge Friday.Kubby’s attorney, Bill McPike, said his client’s blood pressure had stabilized and he was in better health. Michele Kubby noted that her husband has been taking two pills three times a day of Marinol, a synthetic drug that contains THC, the main substance in marijuana. On Tuesday, McPike asked the judge if Kubby could take an edible form of marijuana while in jail. He removed that motion Friday.“I talked to the [jail] doctor and health program director and his blood pressure has stabilized and gone down,” McPike told a crowd of supporters and media after the hearing Friday morning in Auburn. “It’s pretty miraculous. He was smiling and happy. Hopefully we did the right thing.”Kubby is charged with violation of probation after fleeing to Canada in 2001. The Placer County district attorney’s office and McPike are working out a plea agreement that may allow Kubby to serve his 120-day sentence at home in Marin County. McPike said he was expecting to see an offer from the district attorney’s office Friday afternoon and that it may involve a longer sentence for Kubby. Kubby, 59, was convicted in 2000 with felony drug possession of psilocybin and mescaline, but was acquitted of possession of marijuana for sale charges. Placer County deputies found 265 marijuana plants, peyote buttons and a hallucinogenic mushroom in the Kubby’s Squaw Valley home during a 1999 raid. He sentence was 120 days of house arrest and three years of formal probation.In 2001, Kubby and his family fled to Canada to seek asylum. For five years they have sought protection from that country, but was denied it in December and ordered back to the U.S. Kubby was taken into custody from San Francisco International Airport Jan. 26 and transported to Placer County Jail in Auburn the next day, where he started his sentence.Kubby and his supporters say he needs marijuana to keep adrenal cancer in remission and that he will die without it. He was diagnosed with the disease 30 years ago and has been smoking marijuana for it ever since, according to Kubby’s ex-wife, Rebecca Maidman, of Truckee.Clark Sullivan, Web master for the Hemp Evolution Web site who traveled from San Francisco to support Kubby, said supporters are putting in 60 calls a day to the jail nurse and the sheriff’s office to make sure Kubby is getting the proper medical treatment.“He said that if I didn’t have Marinol waiting for him, he would have died,” Michele Kubby said to a crowd of supporters and media gathered after the hearing. “It is cruel and unusual punishment for the family to have their father die. The punishment does not fit the crime. The drug war punishes women and children. Me and my children are suffering.”Michele Kubby, who attended the hearing with their nine-year-old daughter Brooke, said she has documentation to prove that a judge allowed them to go to Canada five years ago.“We are lawmakers, not lawbreakers,” she said. “We never tried to break the law unless it is political, and this is political. We have the truth on our side. I have been very frustrated with Placer County. I haven’t heard a thing about Placer County’s intentions with my husband.” However, Deputy District Attorney Chris Cattran said Kubby was not to leave the state of California. “He mentioned [five years ago] he wanted to go to Canada to visit friends and he had a turn-in date,” Cattran said. “He failed to turn himself in.”Medical marijuana patients and advocates from the California Marijuana Party, Libertarian Party, California National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, Axis of Love San Francisco and the El Dorado County chapter of American Alliance for Medical Cannabis formed a prayer circle before Friday’s hearing and held up quilts and signs in support of Kubby.Steven Tuck, 39, was deported from Canada on a medical marijuana case in October and traveled from Oregon to support Kubby.“I have to show Steve I support him,” Tuck said. “Out of all the people here, I know what he is going through.”Kubby ran for governor in 1998 as a member of the Libertarian Party and co-authored Prop. 215, the initiative approved by California voters in 1996 for the legalization of medical marijuana.A hearing is scheduled for Feb. 15 at 1 p.m. in Auburn.Note: Former Squaw Valley resident in Auburn.Source: Tahoe World (Tahoe City, CA)Author: Kara FoxPublished: February 3, 2006Copyright: 2006 Tahoe WorldContact: editor tahoe-world.comWebsite: http://www.tahoe-world.com/Related Articles & Web Site:The Kubby Chronicleshttp://www.kubby.org/ Is Kubby's Fight About Medical Marijuana?http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread21553.shtmlSupporters Flock as Kubby Appears in Courthttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread21547.shtmlPot Advocate Requests House Arrest http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread21546.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #19 posted by Hope on February 05, 2006 at 09:52:54 PT Absoultely. "We need a live hero more than another dead martyr." [ Post Comment ] Comment #18 posted by JoeCitizen on February 05, 2006 at 09:47:35 PT Whig, divinetribe, Had Enough - good points all. Just wanted to thank you all for making an important point about Steve Kubby. He is in a deathtrap right now, his life could be easily forfeit.He needs to say and do whatever it takes (short of ratting out current growers or users) to survive this period. If he can get out of the grip of Placer County and the California penal system, he will be a free man. Free to travel to less hostile counties or countries, free to speak his mind and write his devastating critiques of the War on Human Rights, and most of all, free to take whatever medicine or food he needs to survive and be healthy.Pay as little attention to what Kubby says while in jail as you would to POWs being forced to make propaganda films, POWs who you know are being tortured and threatened with death. No difference. Kubby may be forced to mouth some heinous lies in the coming months. We won't believe them, and we won't hold him culpable for saying them. We know he's just gaming the Pigs, just biding his time until he is free and the time is ripe to strike back.Hang in there, Steve Kubby. We need a live hero more than another dead martyr.JC [ Post Comment ] Comment #17 posted by Hope on February 05, 2006 at 09:47:33 PT "everyones kitchen table" I used those exact words in a stand off argument with a police officer in Memphis years ago, while we were waiting for the drug dogs, he wanted my new car so bad he could taste it...I happened to have a little soapbox with me...and he forced me to pull it out and stand on it and tell him my point of view on the entire matter. We were "conversing" about the drug war. I told him it would be changed...it would be changed by people who would talk about and realize the wrong of it at their kitchen tables and in their living rooms...one kitchen table at a time...one living room at a time...all across this country...that's where the change would come from...and he could watch it happen. I hope he has and I hope he remembered what I said. He was probably one of the Memphis cops that was busted a year or so ago for corruption.Whig, I love your advice. "Children, DEFER, DEFER, DEFER. Always DEFER.Then do what you want." [ Post Comment ] Comment #16 posted by whig on February 05, 2006 at 08:23:48 PT Steve Kubby and Marinol Keep in mind he is at the mercy of his jailers. If he speaks badly of them when they give him Marinol, if he says it is not good enough, they could withdraw even this. He is fighting for his life here.Another thing is that he is still hoping to get house arrest and not spend years in a penitentiary. If he takes a defiant attitude to the judge and the system and says that he absolutely must have cannabis, they will want to break him. They will make him suffer until he says Uncle.So it is best, in my opinion, to do what he is doing, which is to ask for only the very least that he can live with for now, to defer, to seem harmless, to let them feel he is already tamed.Children, DEFER, DEFER, DEFER. Always DEFER.Then do what you want.You are not to challenge the powers when they have you in their grasp. You are not to martyr yourselves. They will not blink to kill you. Enough have died already.There is a season, turn, turn, turn. [ Post Comment ] Comment #15 posted by FoM on February 05, 2006 at 07:36:50 PT Marijuana and Bladder Cancer Hello Everyone,I'm setting up a couple articles and have CNN Headline news and they are showing that study that we know is really wrong. I hope someone sends an e-mail to CNN to get this story straight because it could be very damaging.As far as Steve Kubby and Marinol, I understand the need for Steve to back down a little. I get upset that newspapers try to spin this Marinol issue into more then it is. It is a substitute for Steve. Steve does not have control of what the writers and newspapers write. [ Post Comment ] Comment #14 posted by Had Enough on February 05, 2006 at 07:36:20 PT divinetribe “it's time to make it the talk in everyone’s kitchen table "news at 6"”It is time. [ Post Comment ] Comment #13 posted by divinetribe on February 05, 2006 at 07:31:22 PT: NORML is 250 strong at HSU this year working with a big group up here in norcal things will happen [ Post Comment ] Comment #12 posted by divinetribe on February 05, 2006 at 07:23:30 PT: They wanted me to do 7 years in the STate PEN I knew when it was time for me to step off the front line and choose a better place in the battlefield. I was driving a bus in Tahoe that said "stop the stupid drug war" I had dreadlocks down my back and I had plans to get marijuana to everyone that needed it or at least create a strong grassroots network where people can find medicine and obtain it safely. my lawyer told me there was a 20% chance I would lose my case for intent for sale of marijuana. He said the judge might instruct the jury they have to find me guilty if they saw that I provided to more than 3 people. I provided to hundreds. if guilty they would ask for the maximum sentence 7 years in the pen with whitepower gangs and the whole bs that goes with prison. I was thirty at the time and they offered a deal of no more that a year, which I got 6 months about. So now I have a hemp clothing business. and what I do about the medical marijuana part of my life I have had to take a major step back . I still want the information to get out there . but now I know what steve KUBBY is going through and he is being very smart, to give them a little, make them feel like they won this little battle cause that is all it is .. We all know steve will be a frontline hero to many .. He has been one of my favorites along with peron, dr. molly, and a bunch of others who have been unselfishly putting themselves in harms way to make a change for society.I can't wait till he is out of custody and smoking the best purps, or kush or whatever his favorite medicine might be. I know he will live to see the change in his lifetime. for me I am creating a new campaign up in northern calif that will be the most thought out plan to bring the truth out to mainstream america, it's time to make itthe talk in everyones kitchen table "news at 6", The healing plant will lead me to great places I know it and I will try to organize one of the biggest movements yet. I feel it, its what i was born to do .... [ Post Comment ] Comment #11 posted by Had Enough on February 05, 2006 at 05:54:47 PT Wild Blue Yonder Well now let’s give Kubby a little slack here and give him the benefit of doubt. This man is extraordinary. He truly follows his own way. He has done many things for others in his time. He has also attended Top Gun flight training. To even be considered a candidate for that, you have to be the best of the cream of the crop. What I mean is not only in the ability to operate the aircraft, but the ability to think and respond appropriately, and you have to have a certain mindset uncommon to standard thought patterns. Your IQ has to be high, your personality has to be in line with a TEAM effort, no me, me, crap. People die when small mistakes, and big attitudes get in the way. Kubby was able to do all this without problems. Now if the Marinol helps him so be it. Meanwhile is he still thinking (part of flight training is survival tactics, not only physically but mentally too)? When captured and considered a POW it is your place to disrupt your captors, generally do anything you can to reverse the situation. However you must do it in a way that will not get more punishment sent your way than you can handle. Could Kubby be using his mental survival tactics taught to him by the very best flight school in the world? Yes, I will give the man the benefit of doubt, and wait for his next Top Gun maneuver. If the world had more Kubbys, it would be a better place.Maybe a couple of thousand more checks for $4.20 are in order here.I wish Steve and his family, all the luck and prayers I can present. And I thank him for his unselfish contributions to mankind, his efforts has made the world a little bit better place. I just hope that the cost of this one doesn’t make him pay the ultimate price, his life. [ Post Comment ] Comment #10 posted by afterburner on February 04, 2006 at 23:43:45 PT RE Kubby's Marinol Remember the pressure and threats that the jailers put on Tommy Chong when he was in their grasp and what he said after he was finally released. Typical jail brainwashing gets people to assert that they have not been "good citizens." [ Post Comment ] Comment #9 posted by museman on February 04, 2006 at 18:33:28 PT Behind the walls of 'justice' I surely do hope that this is a sign that Mr. Kubby is getting what he needs, and not just a compromise with the establishment -via the jailers- to get anything close.If you have ever experienced the outright lying attitude of our police, and the way they treat each and every individual while in their grasp and jurisdiction (except their masters, and their own) as lowlife criminals, regardless of their proven or unproven innocence or guilt, you would understand that no matter how much you respect the need for some kind of 'law and order' in our society. the breeding of such legalized predatory behavior is grossly unacceptable.Being behind bars means you no longer have rights, and if you don't have someone on the outside making sure you get what you need those guards will just laugh and laugh at your pain and misery.I speak from experience.I sure wouldn't trust the apparent turn-around specially since Kubby went to all that trouble to try to get asylum in Canada, and fight for his right to self medicate. No something's not quite right about that report. But of course the 'wag the dog' scenario is getting a lot of use these days. [ Post Comment ] Comment #8 posted by charmed quark on February 04, 2006 at 16:27:09 PT Marinol Yes - that's what I would say, too. Marinol does help my spasms and pain. But it is much more sedating and gives more "high" then the amount of cannabis I would need. It also gives me anxiety attacks at times, I problem I don't have with cannabis.The delivery method id a problem, also. You can't titrate the dose and it takes about 2 hours to reach effectiveness. [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by Sam Adams on February 04, 2006 at 12:08:18 PT good news Very glad to see that Steve Kubby is doing better, who cares if it's Marinol or not. I've only taken it a couple of times, I didn't like the effects, it felt more heavy and sedating than inhaled cannabis. Maybe for Steve it can be an effective medicine for him, I hope it gives him enough relief to make it through the 4 months.I guess as a patient I'd have to say that Marinol did work on my chronic pain, but with more side effects than inhaled cannabis. When you're dealing with a long-term, chronic health problem, the ability to finely control the timing & dosage of your medication is critical. When I took a couple Marinol, I felt knocked out mentally for the rest of the night, and even into the next day I felt groggy, compared to using vaporized cannabis.I have vaporized strains of cannabis that give me relief & actually make me feel more awake and alert - probably sativa strains, though it's very difficult for me to find that type of herb. [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by PainWithNoInsurance on February 04, 2006 at 06:49:00 PT Not Snake Oil? I guess this is proof that THC truely is helping his condition in contrast to the snake oil story Mr. Souder claims. Speaking of Mr. Souder, he looks very tired to me these days. He looks like he needs to get more sleep at night. It must be a strain on a person who is constantly trying to damn people's lives just because they want to try an herb that has always has been so popular throughout history. [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by FoM on February 04, 2006 at 06:26:58 PT I Don't Understand Either I hope that the writer took something he might have said casually and made something else out of it. My son didn't use his Marinol. He said it was too powerful and he didn't like it. How much does Marinol cost since so many people can't afford insurance and a plant costs practically nothing if it could be grown in your regular vegetable garden and it is natural not synthetic. [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by charmed quark on February 04, 2006 at 06:09:10 PT Why did he withdrawl the motion? Even if Marinol is currently working, in the past he has said it stops working after a while and that he needs the other cannabinoids to keep it working.So why did he withdraw the motion? Givent he seriousness of his disorder, if the Marinol stops working he'll only have a couple of days to live. If it was me, I'd want to proceed with the edible cannabis request just to have a backup.I really don't understand this. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by BGreen on February 04, 2006 at 01:10:41 PT So, Steve Kubby is all better 'cause of Marinol Well, the entire MMJ movement must have all just been a sham, because those expensive little pills that don't seem to work very well for anybody else have made Steve a new man.I thought Steve had used Marinol in the past without any kind of good results?Maybe the Marinol is working for the time being because he was deprived of ANY medicine for days?I can't believe Steve would say he feels better than he has in years, seeing that he's in a JAIL CELL!This just plain sucks for the thousands of MMJ patients who CAN'T AFFORD TO BUY MARINOL, but could grow a few plants for free to use in a vaporizer.I'm happy for Steve, but they've turned him into a pawn for the drug companies unless he sets the record straight IMMEDIATELY.The Reverend Bud Green [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by FoM on February 03, 2006 at 22:57:36 PT Snipped Source: LA Times Synthetic Pot Aids Jailed ActivistSteve Kubby said he needed marijuana for his cancer, but THC pills are doing the trick.By Kelly-Anne Suarez, Times Staff WriterFebruary 4, 2006A 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. Complete Article: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-pot4feb04,0,2556936.story [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by FoM on February 03, 2006 at 18:17:25 PT Good Luck Steve & Michele Herbdoc215 thank you for being there for them. [ Post Comment ] Post Comment