Editor Foreword: The case below originally started when defendant Steve Kubby, suffering from Adrenaline Gland Cancer, started to use marijuana under Prop. 215 to treat his immediate and continuous life-threatening condition:

Laws Against Marijuana Have Fallen in Canada!
By Michele Kubby, spouse May 21st, Vancouver Canada

What is happening to us is that we are in a war, the War on Drugs, or as I like to call it, the War on Individual Rights. While in a war, survival is the first course of action.

As a "movement" I believe that we are being beat up one person at a time, mostly in secret. No one is willing to come forward with their stories because there is so much shame with getting involved in marijuana. We are not just fighting against laws and courts, we are fighting against 60 years of taboo, bias, prejudice, and misinformation. Fighting against people's misconceptions and fear is the hardest battle, one that tests our courage and will.

But I know of no greater battle. It pits individual rights against the might of the state. It makes us question authority and how much we will allow someone else to tell us what to do. I believe we are entering a new era of the individual and respect for their rights.

At every opportunity, Steve and I force the authorities to recognize our rights. Part of this is to hold them accountable for their actions, if they are illegal. Such is the case in California.

On May 16th, our attorney, Bill McPike publicly accused the Placer County District Attorney's office as well as the Sheriffs department of "lying to a magistrate in order to fraudulently obtain a search warrant.'

Bill McPike presented the court with damning evidence from the DEA itself saying that the documents used to arrest Steve never existed. Copies of the DEA letters were sent to the media and are published on-line at:
http://www.kubby.com/00-DEA.LETTERS.html for you to see for yourself.

Everything was on the line for all of us. Our family had this one roll of the dice to clear Steve's name. Bill McPike could have lost his license to practice law by publicly accusing an official such as a D.A. of wrongdoing. But we all took the risk and challenged the Placer D.A. to either produce the alleged DEA report used to convince a judge that Steve was trafficking cannabis to Jamaica, or admit criminal wrongdoing.

Our worst fear was that the D.A. would somehow produce a document to back up their claims on the search warrant or that the judge would simply review our evidence and rule that no fraud or other crimes had taken place.

If the judge had ruled against us based on the evidence, it would have been all over for us. Instead, the judge dismissed the application, without reviewing the evidence and referred us to the Appellate Court.

Such a decision, according to our attorneys, completely flies in the face of case law, which clearly states that the court must hear these kinds of serious allegations.

We were just hoping for a Hollywood ending. I mean we had the evidence, and they didn't. Isn't that easy to figure out? Unfortunately this isn't Hollywood, and endings and wins are harder to recognize and have consequences not planned for.

Now we will have to move onto the next court and pay for filing fees, travel costs, legal brief preparation. The list goes on. What is even more ironic is that Placer took $2,300 dollars from us at the raid in 1999 -- and it has gotten "lost". All of the other evidence collected from that raid has been returned to us, except for this money. This money could go a long way to helping our battle along, but just fighting for the return of our money, costs money.

For six years the courts and authorities have thrown one horrible accusation after another at us. Each time, because we had you backing us, we've proved that we were innocent of wrongdoing only to face new allegations.

The relentless struggle to stand tall under the weight of these accusations and to hold the government at arm's length until this is resolved is exhausting to our family, but with support we will hold the authorities at bay so we can right the injustice done to us and hopefully help many others.

We are not just fighting in California. We also have battles in Canada. Canadian Immigration still believes Steve should be sent back to the United States. We went to court at the end of March and are awaiting a decision by the Canadian Federal Court.

In addition, I am going to the B.C. Supreme Court to argue that according to the court decisions on file, the laws against marijuana here in Canada have fallen. I am doing this so that the authorities will be held responsible for violating the law and causing harm to many Canadians.

So, we have three different legal battles, in two different countries.

This morning I asked Steve, why we, a simple family, have to go into court and battle with hostile, mean-spirited people just to prove law that speaks clearly for itself? I hate having to show up and speak before people in robes enduring their judgmental remarks and institutionalized prejudice. But then Steve reminds me that if we don’t show up, who will? If we don’t stand up to each and every attempt to subvert our freedom, who will? So we keep showing up in court, praying that when we get home there will be checks in the mail to pay for gas, copies and filing fees. For so long as I show up to push the envelope, I hope and pray that there will be those there to lick the stamps.

-Michele Kubby

Please also read: Long Term Exposure To Cannabis