FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For more information contact:
August 28, 2006 Steve Kubby or Sam Clauder, (909) 338-8215
STEVE KUBBY ANNOUNCES CANDIDACY FOR PRESIDENT
Seattle, Washington
Steve Kubby announced his candidacy for the Libertarian Party nomination for President to more than 50,000 cheering fans on Sunday, August 20, at the 15th annual Seattle Hempfest in Seattle, Washington\. More than 150,000 attended the event held in Myrtle Edwards Park on the shores of Puget Sound\.
"I'm running for President because I'm fed up with bad government, corrupt politicians, and arrogant officials," Kubby said\. "Like you, I'd like the government to support my liberty, protect and serve my family, respect my personal property, and stop passing and enforcing laws that assume Americans have the intelligence of a child\."
Kubby lost a close race in 2000 for the Libertarian Party nomination for Vice President after he was the Libertarian Party candidate for Governor of California in 1998\. He has been a businessman, publisher, author, and adjunct college professor, and is married with three children and one grandchild\.
Kubby was born on December 28, 1946, in El Paso, Texas, to Seymour Kubby, an aerospace engineer and his housewife, Roberta\. The Kubby family moved to the Los Angeles area in 1948 where Steve graduated from James Monroe High School in 1964\.
He received a B\.A\. in Psychology in 1968 from the California State University, Northridge, where he continued working towards an M\.A\. in psychobiology\. He taught at Shasta Junior College where he received a lifetime teaching credential\. He also participated in the Top Gun Naval Weapons School\.
In 1968, at the age of 23, Kubby was diagnosed with malignant pheochromocytoma, a rare, fatal form of adrenal cancer\. He had tumors surgically removed in 1968, 1975, and 1976, by which time the cancer had metastasized to his liver and beyond, and he was given less than five years to live\.
After continuing chemotherapy, and another surgery at the Mayo Clinic in 1981, Kubby began treating his cancer solely with medical cannabis, and by maintaining a healthy diet\.
From 1981\-1986, he ran a property management company in Lake Tahoe, and from 1986\-1991 he founded and published "Ski West," the number one selling ski magazine in the U\.S\., Canada, the U\.K\., Italy, Australia, and Japan\.
Kubby authored "The Politics of Consciousness" in 1995, and co\-authored "Why Marijuana Should be Legal" in 1996\. He was instrumental in the drafting and passage of Proposition 215, "The Compassionate Use Act of 1996," which led to the legalization of medical cannabis in California and 11 other states\.
Two months after his 1998 Libertarian campaign for California Governor concluded, the Sheriff of Placer County raided Kubby's home and found 265 cannabis plants that were being grown in compliance with California state law\. In a guest's room the sheriff also found some peyote and a mushroom stem for which Kubby and his wife were arrested and charged with possession of controlled substances\.
Kubby's wife was acquitted of all charges while Kubby's jury hung 11\-1 in favor of acquittal, resulting in the cannabis charges being dismissed\. However, the jury convicted Kubby of possession for the peyote and the mushroom stem and he was sentenced to 120 days in jail\.
Fearing that his cancer would kill him if he was denied medical cannabis by his jailers, Kubby and his family moved to Canada where he fought extradition for five years\. When the Placer County Sheriff's Office agreed to allow Kubby to use marinol, a pharmaceutical derivative of cannabis, to treat his cancer, he returned from exile on January 26, 2006, and turned himself in\. On March 6, he was released early for good behavior, and subsequently served 22 days of a 60\-day sentence for refusing to return from Canada\.
Kubby's announcement of his Presidential candidacy was endorsed by an all\-star cast of cannabis activists including Jack Herer \("The Emperor Wears No Clothes"\), Ed Rosenthal \("Ask Ed"\), Chris Conrad \("Hemp For Health"\), NORML Founder Keith Stroup, Eddy Lepp \(Eddy's Medicinal Gardens\), Seattle Hempfest producer Vivian McPeak and federally approved cannabis patient Elvy Musikka\.
More information is available online at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Kubby and http://www.kubby.com/, or by calling Steve Kubby or Sam Clauder at \(909\) 338\-8215\.
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