Vancouver, British Columbia: The Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board this week denied refugee status to American Steve Kubby and his family, and ordered their return to California where Kubby is expected to be sentenced to four months in jail for drug-related charges. Kubby has said he will appeal the ruling.
He and his wife Michelle and two children will be allowed to remain in the country while awaiting their appeal.
Kubby fled to Canada in 2001 rather than serve time in jail, where he would be denied access to medicinal marijuana, which he requires to treat symptoms of a rare, life-threatening form of adrenal cancer known as pheochromocytoma. Kubby was diagnosed in 1968 with the disease – which he’s managed since the early 1980s exclusively by smoking cannabis – and given six months to live. (Life expectancy of a person with pheochromocytoma is typically three to five years.) Today Kubby is recognized as one of the longest living survivors of the disease.
Though the Board recognized that “marijuana continues to be the best treatment available to Mr. Kubby,” and that he could potentially suffer a heart attack or stroke without cannabis, it nevertheless ruled, “The claimant is not a person in need of protection in that his removal to the United States would not subject him personally to a risk to his life.”
The Board based this decision, in part, on the premise that Kubby would likely have access to medicinal marijuana while in jail. However, California law does not compel the state to allow inmates access to medical cannabis, stating: “Nothing in this article shall require any accommodation of any medical use of marijuana … on the property or premises of any jail, correctional facility, or other type of penal institution in which prisoners reside or persons under arrest are detained.”
While living in Canada, Kubby had been one of fewer than 600 individuals to receive a federal exemption from Health Canada to legally cultivate and use pot for medical purposes.
NORML Foundation Executive Director Allen St. Pierre called the Refugee Board’s decision unfortunate and puzzling considering the government’s prior acknowledgement of Kubby’s medical need to use cannabis. “This decision makes little sense in light of the fact that the Canadian government has already approved Steve Kubby’s medical use of marijuana by granting him a special exemption from prosecution,” he said.
“Why they couldn’t extend that same thinking to his asylum request seeking protection for his health from America’s policy of strict marijuana law enforcement is puzzling. This decision does not bode well for the other Americans who have sought refuge status in Canada for their physician-sanctioned use of medical marijuana.”
Since 1989, the Immigration and Refugee Board has heard nearly 1,000 refugee cases from the United States, including 268 pending cases. So far, none of those individuals have been granted asylum.
For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre of The NORML Foundation at (202) 483-8751. Full text of the Immigration and Refugee Board’s ruling is available online at:
http://www.irb.gc.ca/en/decisions/kubby/va2_01374_e.htm