Can any kind macruby experts help me get sqlite3 gem working with macruby?

sqlite3-ruby-1.2.4 ruby gem works in ruby 1.9.0. So I think it should work in macruby also...

From macirb I added the path to the gem:

$: << "path/to/the/sqlite3-ruby-1.2.4/lib"

require 'sqlite3.rb'  # => true

$db = SQLite3::Database.new("/path/to/x.db.rsd")

RuntimeError: no driver for sqlite3 found
the error comes from the load_driver method near line 621 of the sqlite3/database.rb file.

   def load_driver( driver )
      case driver
        when Class
          # do nothing--use what was given
        when Symbol, String
          require "sqlite3/driver/#{driver.to_s.downcase}/driver"
          driver = SQLite3::Driver.const_get( driver )::Driver
        else
          [ "Native", "DL" ].each do |d|
            begin
              require "sqlite3/driver/#{d.downcase}/driver"
              driver = SQLite3::Driver.const_get( d )::Driver
              break
            rescue SyntaxError
              raise
            rescue ScriptError, Exception, NameError
            end
          end
          raise "no driver for sqlite3 found" unless driver
      end

      @driver = driver.new
    end
    private :load_driver

Macruby enters the method with driver set to NSNull, and the driver fails to load. In ruby (1.9.0) the driver loads via the Native driver.

irb19 session:
>> db = SQLite3::Database.new("/Users/Tim/Desktop/newdb")
=> #<SQLite3::Database:0x5cba48 @driver=#<SQLite3::Driver::Native::Driver:0x5c4784 @callback_data={}, @authorizer={}, @busy_handler={}, @trace={}>, @statement_factory=SQLite3::Statement, @handle=#<SWIG::TYPE_p_sqlite3:0x5c470c>, @closed=false, @results_as_hash=false, @type_translation=false, @translator=nil, @transaction_active=false>

Can anyone offer an idea about how they might try to patch this to work with macruby?  I know an alternative would be CoreData--but it is too cumbersome for me.
Thanks,
Tim