POT ACTIVIST WHO CLAIMED REFUGEE STATUS OUT OF JAIL

US pot crusader Steve Kubby out of jail, has fond memories of Canada

21 hours ago

VANCOUVER — An American medical marijuana advocate who tried to claim refugee status in Canada is out of jail in California and says he wants to come back here - at least for a visit.

Steve Kubby served a total of 40 days of a 120-day sentence for possessing drugs found in a police raid almost a decade ago.

Last week, California Superior Court essentially erased the conviction under legislation that allows the move when defendants have fulfilled the terms of their probation.

"This was such a tempest in a teapot," Kubby, a 61-year-old former ski magazine publisher and pot activist, said in an interview from his home in Mendocino, Calif. "This whole thing was so absurd. It's finally gotten straightened out."

Kubby suffers from a rare form of adrenal cancer that he says can only be kept in check by using marijuana. Without it, he says his body over-produces adrenaline, which can spike blood pressure, causing heart attacks and strokes.

He said his work on a 1996 voter initiative that set up California's medical marijuana licensing system brought him enemies in the anti-drug establishment.

Kubby and his wife Michele were arrested in 1999 by police in Placer County, near Sacramento, on allegations they were running a major marijuana grow-op. He was convicted of a misdemeanour drug possession of peyote and a magic-mushroom stem.

While appealing the conviction, Kubby and his family came to Canada in 2001, setting up house on British Columbia's Sunshine Coast and later near Kamloops.

He claimed refugee status, arguing that he'd be deprived of life-saving pot in jail in the U.S.

An adjudicator with the Immigration Refugee Board in 2003 rejected Kubby's claim that he was being persecuted and ruled he would not face cruel and unusual punishment in the U.S.

After losing a court appeal, he complied with a voluntary departure order in 2006, flying back to the United States to turn himself in.

In the end Kubby served only 20 days of the 120-day term in Placer County jail, plus 20 more for a probation violation in coming to Canada.

It was gruelling nonetheless, he said.

"They pulled me off the plane and roughed me up, treated me like a criminal, like a terrorist," says Kubby.

"They nearly killed me. I was peeing blood. I scared the hell out of the hospital staff, I was having such a rough time."

In prison Kubby was given Marinol, a synthetic form of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.

Kubby applied to have his guilty verdict set aside under a section of the California Penal Code that allows a conviction to be expunged if the defendant has fulfilled conditions of his probation or it was terminated early.

Mendocino County prosecutor Katherine Houston said the application was granted last week in a brief court proceeding.

But it's not a full pardon.

"Criminal cases still stay on the record and on the rap sheet," she said, noting they must be disclosed in certain situations.

"Ultimately I expect to get a pardon from the governor but at this point it's good enough," says Kubby.

Kubby retains fond memories of his time in British Columbia, despite RCMP charges - later dropped - that he was running a grow-op and trafficking pot.

Without a full pardon, Kubby would still need a rarely granted special permit to enter Canada. Anyone with a criminal record must show they have stayed out of trouble for at least five years after completing their sentence in order to be admitted.

Kubby says with the drop in American tourist traffic into Canada, making it easier for those convicted of minor offences to visit would help reinvigorate tourism.

But he says his friends are afraid that Canadian border officials will turn they away.

"I'd like to see Americans going up to Canada. I think they need exposure to Canadian culture, I really do, because it's such a straight-jacket down here."