- VANCOUVER, British Columbia
(Reuters) - A Canadian immigration panel refused political asylum on Monday
to a marijuana advocate who says he fled the United States to escape persecution
in the "War on Drugs."
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- Steve Kubby, an unsuccessful California gubernatorial
candidate, had argued he was a political target of the police because of
his outspoken views in favor of medical marijuana and against U.S. anti-drug
laws.
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- "What Mr Kubby alleges does not amount to persecution,"
Immigration and Refugee Board member Paulah Dauns wrote in dismissing Kubby's
application -- along with those of his wife and two young children.
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- Kubby, 56, is among a handful of "reefer refugees"
who have moved to Canada in recent years to escape U.S. drug laws -- a
movement they liken to the draft dodgers who fled the United States in
opposition to the Vietnam War.
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- Canada allows the medical use of marijuana and has even
supplied government-grown pot for people with illnesses such as AIDS, cancer
or multiple sclerosis.
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- Kubby began smoking pot in the 1980s to offset the effects
of cancer and was active in the campaign that led to California's Proposition
215 in 1996, making marijuana legal for treating some sick people.
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- He was the Libertarian Party's gubernatorial candidate
in California in 1998.
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- Kubby was convicted on drug procession charges in Placer
County, California, in 2001, but moved to Canada before serving his sentence
of house arrest. He now lives in Sechelt, British Columbia, north of Vancouver.
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- Kubby argued in his refugee hearing that his need for
marijuana was the same as a diabetic who requires insulin to stay alive.
He claimed his life would be threatened if he was returned to the United
States and denied the drug.
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- Dauns ruled it appeared pot was helping Kubby cope with
his cancer symptoms, but it was unclear if it was actually keeping him
alive. She noted that he would have access to the drug under the California
law he helped pass.
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- "He argues that a medical marijuana patient should
be protected from persecution. What he has demonstrated is that in fact,
they are," Dauns wrote in her nearly 60-page decision.
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- Dauns noted that the U.S. federal government has opposed
state medical marijuana laws, but Kubby had failed to show the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Agency had any special interest in prosecuting him.
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- Marijuana is a touchy issue in U.S.-Canada relations,
with White House drug czar John Walters warning that Ottawa's plan to decriminalize
procession of small amounts of pot could lead to tighter security on the
border.
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- Marijuana growing is estimated by police and advocates
to be worth more than C$2 billion ($1.5 billion) annually in British Columbia,
with most of the potent "B.C. Bud" eventually sold in the United
States.
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- ($1=$1.30 Canadian)
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