Medical marijuana patients Steve and Michele Kubby entered a “not guilty” plea to the charges of marijuana sales, cultivation, and conspiracy at their arraignment on Thursday, January 28, 1999 in Placer County Superior Court. Their next court appearance will be a preliminary hearing, set for March 2, 1999. They remain free on their own recognizance.
The Kubbys meticulously followed the requirements for legal use of cannabis as medicine under the guidelines of the Compassionate Use Act, passed by California voters in 1996. Steve Kubby has been an outspoken proponent of medical marijuana and was the Libertarian Party’s candidate for governor in 1998. He collected the fourth highest number of votes in the race. The prosecution of the Kubbys is clearly a political vendetta designed to silence the Kubbys and intimidate other medical marijuana patients.
On Wednesday (1/27), a coalition of cannabis reform organizations, including AMMO, Drugsense, and the Media Awareness Project, promoted a National Call-In Day to help put pressure on government officials to drop the charges against the Kubbys. The National Call-In Day, directed at state Attorney General Bill Lockyer and Placer County District Attorney Bradford Fenocchio, was promoted extensively by activists on the Internet. The alert reached several thousand people who support medical marijuana reform. We requested that people send us copies of the letters they faxed or emailed. We received approximately 25 letters that were faxed to Lockyer and Fenocchio. It definitely got their attention, and we would like to thank everyone that participated.
In response to the campaign to stop the prosecution of the Kubbys, a spokesperson for Attorney General Bill Lockyer stated that Lockyer won’t intervene in the prosecution of the 1998 California Libertarian candidate for governor and his wife, who are accused of growing marijuana plants at their home. "Mr. Lockyer voted for Prop. 215 and supported it, but he did not go out and campaign for the measure," press secretary Hilary McLean said. See Jan. 26 AP story at: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n100.a07.html
Many of the people who emailed the Placer
County Sheriffs Department to protest the treatment of the Kubbys while
they were incarcerated received an email in reply that stated that the
PCSD did not arrest the Kubbys, but rather the “North Tahoe Task Force”
was responsible. While this is technically true, the Placer County
Sheriffs Department is a participating member of the North Tahoe Task Force,
a law enforcement unit made up of investigators from Placer and Washoe
counties and the Nevada Division of Investigation. The Kubbys state
that the Placer County Sheriffs in Tahoe were relatively courteous and
professional. However, they say their treatment by the jailers at
the Placer County Jail in Auburn was horrendous. Kubby described
his treatment to the Orange County Weekly (1/21/99):
http://www.ocweekly.com:80/ink/archives/99/21news5-infante.shtml
"After we were booked," says Kubby, "we were forced to march through a blizzard to get to a transport truck. We were freezing and miserable. They took us to Auburn, and that's when it really got bad. I spent the night in an unheated holding tank next to a pool of vomit. For the first time in years, I suffered from horrific blood pressure. It was three hours until they gave my wife a blanket. When they started to process us, I felt so nauseated I couldn't see what I was signing. They told me to continue or they would put me in some kind of painful hold. It was a struggle; I spent the night vomiting and shivering."
"One cop told me, 'Prop. 215 may fly in San Francisco, but not here in Placer County.'"
Steve Kubby released the following statement on January 27, 1999:
"An anonymous letter with vague accusations (information called
‘weak and non-specific’ by Det. Don Atkinson of the El Dorado County Sheriff's
Department) was the 'probable cause' under which four different law enforcement
agencies monitored our every move for the past six months. All evidence
being used against Michele and me come from activities that occurred in
the privacy of our own home and was obtained by spying through our windows,
examining our trash, and monitoring our Internet communications.
Something around half of the documentation provided by government officials
to our attorneys were political documents surrounding my candidacy for
governor last year and the medical marijuana movement.”
“Every aspect of our garden was documented and in compliance with
the Compassionate Use Act of 1996 that the voters in this state approved
overwhelmingly. Absolutely no sales ever took place. Michele and
I broke no laws and should have been protected under the law. Instead,
we are witness to how the legal rights of seriously ill people are routinely
violated. Please help us end this insanity once and for all."