Kubby was one of the authors of California's medical marijuana law, Prop. 215, and ran in 1998 as a libertarian candidate for the governor of California. Kubby fled California in 2001 after he was sentenced to four months of house arrest and probation on state felony narcotics charges stemming from the discovery of a psilocybin mushroom stalk and a peyote button in the guest bedroom of his Squaw Valley home. Kubby was also charged for having 265 marijuana plants in his home but those charges were dismissed when he was able to prove that the cannabis was for medicinal use.

Kubby was deported from Canada where he had sought asylum. According to McPike, Kubby was met at the airport at Vancouver, British Columbia by Canadian officials who spoke with him privately for at least an hour. McPike said Kubby wanted to return to the U.S. and face the warrant against him instead of fleeing to another country. "He just wants to get it over with," said McPike.

But McPike noted that Kubby's detention has been hard on his family and supporters.

"I'm worried about his health it would be a death sentence if he can't get his medicine," said McPike after he got off the phone with Kubby's wife Michele. "She's crying and worried about his health."

"Steve Kubby is someone who really relies on marijuana forhis life," said Gieringer. "And it would really be a crime for Placer County to deprive him of his marijuana."

McPike says state law allow for the use of medical cannabis in jail, not just Marinol. He says he will file a motion to let Kubby use cannabis while locked up.

"San Francisco is a sanctuary for medical marijuana, but that is a symbolic gesture," said activist Shona Gochenaur, who brought a dozen medical cannabis patients to the airport to greet Kubby last night, "I wish the city could lift up her skirts and shelter Kubby who is a person with cancer and has a condition that could get worse without life saving medical cannabis."

Medical cannabis patient Mira Ingram, who was there at the airport to greet Kubby in her wheelchair along with two dozen other supporters, said Kubby's arrest at the airport is intended to send a message to medical cannabis patients. "Medical cannabis helps us when other medicines don't work, but they want to come and take it away from us," says Ingram "The government wants to murder him."

As the San Francisco police were describing Kubby's detention, someone from the crowd yelled, "Welcome to the land of the free and the home of the dead."