Posted on 11/30/2002 7:47:35 AM PST by Wolfie
Stockbroker Using Uncle Sam's Medical Marijuana for 20 Years
A breeze billows the pungent smoke from the marijuana cigarette around his face, and Irvin Rosenfeld immediately feels better. A stock broker, Rosenfeld deals with millions of dollars while smoking up to 12 joints daily - marijuana he gets from the federal government to treat a rare bone ailment.
"It has made my life much easier to live and kept my condition in check," Rosenfeld said Wednesday, 20 years to the day he received his first marijuana shipment from the government under a program which today has only six other members.
Marijuana in any form is illegal in the United States, though dozens of states have passed or considered laws directed at marijuana reforms.
Rosenfeld, 49, suffers from two rare conditions which cause tumors to grow on his long bones. They cause severe muscle spasms, internal bleeding and unbearable pain. He would be unable to walk at any time because his muscles would give out.
He spent more than 15 years taking prescription drugs, including morphine. But they couldn't prevent late night spasms and the constant pain which made his life a nightmare.
"He would scream out in the middle of the night and I would wake up, and he'd be dragging himself on the floor," said his wife, Debbie. (Marijuana) has given us a better life together."
Rosenfeld, with his doctor's support, was placed in Uncle Sam's medical marijuana program in 1982. The program stopped accepting new patients in 1992.
He says he hasn't had a new tumor since and plays softball once a week, though he uses a designated runner. He gets 11 ounces of marijuana, rolled in cigarettes, delivered monthly to a local pharmacy, and he only pays courier costs. Marijuana is now his only medicine.
"I could never pay enough taxes to repay the government for what it has done for me," Rosenfeld said, estimating it would have cost $800,000 to keep him on various conventional medications.
In the next breath, Rosenfeld chastises the government for failing to recognize cannabis as a medicine, and letting people "suffer needlessly."
"There are hundreds of thousands of people who want marijuana to feel better, not to get high," said Rosenfeld. "People who are using it for medicine are being put in jail."
Marijuana law easements failed in three states in November, though eight states have approved medical marijuana and 35 states have passed legislation recognizing marijuana's medicinal value despite the federal prohibition.
In the past year, DEA agents have raided several medical marijuana providers in California, mostly without support from local law enforcement.
Rosenfeld wants the federal government to begin compassionate care programs where universities would provide marijuana for those suffering from AIDS, multiple sclerosis, cancer and other debilitating diseases, while researching its effects.
He claims he never has gotten high from the weed.
"If I want to feel euphoria, I'll drink a little Jack Daniels," he joked. "I'm not some drug crazed hippie."
Rosenfeld has had run-ins with police and other legal battles. He was arrested in Orlando in 1983 for smoking in a restroom during a business convention. The charges were eventually dropped and his record cleared.
He's been stopped by officers while smoking in his car, but he's let go once he displays his prescription. People give him funny looks when smoking in airports or other public places, and some have asked to bum a drag. He doesn't let them.
Rosenfeld also is suing Delta Airlines, saying an employee told him he could not board the plane with his canister of legal cannabis. A trial has not been scheduled.
Dr. Ethan Russo wrote an article on Rosenfeld after giving him a battery of tests over a two day period. Russo, a neurologist in Missoula, Mont., said Rosenfeld has normal lung capacity and a functioning immune system.
"The cannabis he receives acts as a muscle relaxant and an analgesic," Russo said. "It reduces pain at the tissue level, and the spinal cord and brain levels."
Rosenfeld exhibits none of the lethargy, lack of short term memory or other common effects of marijuana. He makes sure to tell every one of his new clients about his treatment.
Rosenfeld smoked marijuana as a treatment for several years before joining the federal program, buying from dealers on the street. If the president should decide to stop providing the cannabis, then he would be forced to get it illegally, he said.
He gets support from his family and members of his synagogue, and is vehement that science, not politics or big business, should determine what medicine is legal.
"It's up to the patient to decide his quality of life," he said.
... He claims he never has gotten high from the weed.
12 joints a day and he has never gotten high?
Sounds to me like Uncle Sam has been sending this guy Oregano.
He has probably developed a resistance to the euphoric effects. It happens with most mood-altering substances: nicotine, alcohol, caffiene, etc....
Lets do some math - at 11 ounces/month that means 2.25 ounces/week and at ~30 grams/ounce that is ~75 grams/week which is ~10 grams/day. He is doing up to 12 joints/day which would be ~1 gram/joint which would make Bob Marley spliffs - hard to imagine him not catching a buzz.
Of course, reality and science have nothing to do with the War on Drugs. At the peak, there were 10 patients in this program, some have died and they are not allowing new ones in, no matter what the medical situation.
They have ignored several comprehensive reports over the decades, most recently the March 1999 report from the Institute of Medicine that was commissioned by previous Czar Barry McCaffrey. When it did not say what he wanted to hear, he dropped it into the memory hole. Now the new Czar is using the same trick. He commissioned a study and insists that we make patients suffer until it is released.
Sorry but that trick only works once with people who know what happened. The majority, that depend on the main line media do not know and can be continually fooled.
The War on Drugs is a crime against humanity and the drug warriors are war criminals who need to be punished.
And you'd lose, and end up paying his legal fees. It's a prescribed medicine in his case.
That doesn't preclude him from developing a resistance.
The original poster asked how he could not be affected by smoking up to 12 marijuana cigarettes a day. The article says only that he started 20 years ago, not how much he started with. If he is only using what he needs to relieve the symptoms, he may have started with a much lower dose.
When I take prescribed medicine for pain, I only take it when I'm hurting. As a result, I rarely feel any side-effects. Only once did I do so, and that was because I had a serious problem. The dentist ultimately met me that morning (on a Sunday) to deal with it right away.
There's also another possible explanation: I read long ago that the US government's marijuana farm was considered a joke by the "professionals". They continued to produce a relatively low-grade (i.e. low in the active ingredient, THC) product, while the rest of the "industry" had used modern breeding techniques to produce a more potent strain. If that is still the case, it would be difficult to make a direct comparison.
Would you sue your broker if he drank enough wine or beer to get drunk?
From the article: "He makes sure to tell every one of his new clients about his treatment."
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