MEDICAL MARIJUANA: Kubby Case to Test Proposition 215
Just two years after voters legalized medical marijuana under Proposition 215, a pending criminal case could limit how much marijuana patients can grow and use. In a preliminary hearing scheduled for today in Tahoe City, prosecutors plan to argue that the 265 marijuana plants confiscated from the home of Steve Kubby, the 1998 Libertarian Party candidate for governor and a leading proponent of Proposition 215, exceed what is allowed under the law. "Our contention is that he was simply growing more than necessary," said Deputy District Attorney Christopher Cattran. Kubby insists that he and his wife "were within the guideline of 144 plants per person set by the Oakland City Council in the only law of its kind last year." He said, "Yes, it would have produced more than our immediate daily needs. But that was because we didn't want to have to grow year-round. We planned to freeze some of it and set it aside so we could travel and promote our business and not be full-time growers." Kubby offers letters from "two prestigious physicians" declaring that marijuana controls his adrenal cancer, and he maintains he has never bought or sold the drug. "This may be the perfect case to test Proposition 215," he said (Elias, Washington Times, 2/21). Click here for recent coverage of medical marijuana.
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