AUBURN -- Medical marijuana activist Steven Kubby is appealing to a Placer County judge to let him use cannabis while he serves a 120-day jail sentence for drug possession.

Kubby, 59, appeared Tuesday in an Auburn courtroom, days after he was deported from Canada and arrested when he arrived in San Francisco.

His attorney, William McPike, said Kubby relies on the medical marijuana to treat a rare form of adrenal cancer. He also asked Placer Superior Court Judge Robert McElhany to let Kubby serve his sentence under home detention in Marin County.

Kubby was arraigned Tuesday on a charge that he violated probation when he sought refuge in Canada in 2001. He pleaded not guilty.

The Kubby family had tried to stay in Canada, but the government rejected their bid for protection on Dec. 9 and ordered them to leave the country.

A jury convicted Kubby in 2000 on charges of possession of mescaline and psilocybin for peyote buttons and a hallucinogenic mushroom found at his Lake Tahoe-area home, but acquitted him on marijuana charges. The sheriff's department said it found 265 marijuana plants growing at the home.

Kubby helped author Prop. 215, California's Compassionate Use Act approved by voters in 1996 and was the Libertarian Party's gubernatorial candidate in 1998.

The Placer County Sheriff's Department opposes Kubby's request to use an edible form of marijuana in jail, but the district attorney's office said it has not made a recommendation.

Deputy District Attorney Christopher Cattran said outside the courtroom that Kubby already had the option of serving his sentence under house arrest, but instead chose to flee to Canada.

McPike said it appeared that Kubby had lost 15 or 20 pounds since he was jailed last week. About 30 supporters rallied outside the courtroom Tuesday, saying their friend could die without the medicinal marijuana.