Fred Foldvary's Editorial
The War on Drugs and Steve Kubby
The War on Drugs and Steve Kubby
One of the battle grounds of the war on drug users being waged by the government of United States of America is the trial of Steve Kubby in Placer County Superior Court in Auburn, California. According to his attorneys, "the prosecution's strategy will be to use profiling to show that since our activities looked like those of a drug dealer, we must have been engaged in those activities, even if there is no evidence to directly support these allegations."
by Fred E. Foldvary, Senior EditorThis shows how the war on drug users is destroying the legal process itself. In proper law, there must be evidence of actual acts that violate the law. But in the war against drug users, there need not be any direct evidence. All that is required is the prosecutor's opinion that activities look like that of a dealer.
An attorney told Steve Kubby that "sheriffs and prosecutors up and down the state" have all told him they are waiting to see what happens in the Kubby case. "They want your hide nailed to a wall."
This case therefore has far-reaching importance for the drug wars. Kubby adds, that the "prosecutors intend to provide a long line of police 'experts' who will tell the jurors that we match the profile of drug dealers and that some of our plants were the same strains as those sold in clubs. With a conservative jury like ours, who are very inclined to believe everything police say, and with so many police testifying against us, the prosecutors expect to convince the jurors that we must have done something wrong and therefore deserve to be punished, regardless of the evidence. Several attorneys have warned us about this kind of reverse jury nullification being used against us by the prosecutors."
The trial has begun. The defense attorneys are pursuing the argument that the trial of Steve Kubby and his wife is politically motivated. The Kubbys say the marijuana they grew in their garden in Squaw Valley was for their medical needs, legal under California's Proposition 215. Kubby, 53 years of age, is a cancer patient. The couple had a key role in the campaign for the proposition in 1996. Steve Kubby also was the Libertarian Party candidate for governor in 1998.
Besides being put on trial, the Kubby's home was ransacked by the police. Their magazine business was ruined. Rather than give in, the Kubbys have fought back. They formed the American Medical Marijuana Association.
The police in California continue to arrest sick and dying people, even if they have medical recommendations for marijuana. The US and California governments are ignoring the law, as voted by the people in Proposition 215. Government's prime responsibility is to enforce law, yet here government is the law breaker. According to a Sacramento, California, newspaper investigation, Placer County's anti-marijuana police officers have conducted illegal searches, some of which were thrown out due to police misconduct.
The Republican and Democrat candidates for President advocate greater government support for medical care, yet they also deny needed marijuana medicine for those suffering from AIDS, cancer, and other diseases. The American public evidently think they will not get cancer and need cannabis to ease their pain.
But as more and more people live to older ages, Americans' cruel treatment of the sick and dying will catch up with them. By supporting candidates who favor the prosecution of Kubby and others needing medical marijuana, Americans are shortsightedly inflicting pain and suffering on their own future selves.
For more on Kubby, see The Kubby Files.
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Copyright 2000 by Fred E. Foldvary. All rights reserved. No part of this material may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, which includes but is not limited to facsimile transmission, photocopying, recording, rekeying, or using any information storage or retrieval system, without giving full credit to Fred Foldvary and The Progress Report.
