https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/380/kubby.shtml

California medical marijuana activist and former Libertarian Party gubernatorial candidate Steve Kubby fled for his life from California in early 2001 after being convicted of drug law convictions in Placer County, California. To serve time in California jails, where he would not be able to receive medical marijuana, would amount to a virtual death sentence, Kubby has said. He suffers from a rare form of adrenal cancer.

With Canadian authorities having so far rejected all efforts by Kubby and his family to stay in Canada, he has now filed a California motion seeking to overturn his conviction. The motion accuses Placer County of fraudulently obtaining the search warrant that led to his conviction and lying about it in court. A hearing for the motion is set for next Monday, March 28, in Placer County Superior Court in North Auburn.

According to the motion, the North Tahoe Narcotics Task Force began investigating Kubby and his wife after they were denounced in an anonymous letter sent to authorities during his 1998 campaign run. The task force obtained a search warrant for the Kubby home after telling a judge that the DEA had identified visiting journalist Pete Brady of Cannabis Culture magazine as a Jamaican drug smuggler. According to a brief filed by Kubby's attorney, Bill McPike, Brady subsequently attempted to acquire the DEA report of his supposed arrest, but was informed by the agency that no such file existed.

Placer county authorities "willfully and knowingly misled the Magistrate" when they testified about alleged statements from the DEA and FBI, wrote McPike in the brief. The motion also accuses Placer County authorities of failing to provide exculpatory evidence regarding Brady's non-existent Jamaican drug smuggling arrest.

"Unless they can produce the report, then a fraud was committed on the court in order to obtain a search warrant," Kubby said Monday.

Kubby was convicted in December 2000 of possessing old, dried up psilocybin mushrooms and peyote buds. That conviction came after jurors split 11-1 to acquit him on marijuana charges and the presiding judge declared a mistrial. Kubby and his family moved to British Columbia in 2001, but have failed to obtain refugee status. They have appealed in Canadian federal court, but could be deported if they lose. Kubby has also lost an appeal of his conviction in the California appellate courts.

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