Marijuana activist dies following explosion

Don Appleby died of his injuries suffered in an Oct. 12 explosion while he was trying to make a concentrated oil using marijuana and butane.

Don Appleby's fight against the aids virus that was sapping him was made more difficult by a tragic paradox. While the Ottawa man was one of the few Canadians who could legally smoke marijuana for medicinal purposes, he could rarely afford it due to his minuscule disability pension.

In the end, he was killed in the struggle to produce the drug that was helping him survive.

On Oct. 12, Mr. Appleby was in the bathroom of his Blake Boulevard apartment, trying a dangerous method to get some use out of the non-smokable parts of his marijuana plants.

By injecting butane into a plastic container with the plant in it, he hoped to make a concentrated oil he could use. Friends suspect he then tried to light a joint, igniting an explosion that blew the bathroom door off its hinges.

Residents of the apartment above his heard the explosion, and rushed him to the Ottawa Hospital's General campus. It's where he remained in intensive care since the incident, and where he died Thursday morning.

Ron Whelan was Mr. Appleby's close friend, and was living under the same circumstances. He said yesterday that Mr. Appleby never should have died the way he did.

Both 44, they received about $900 a month on disability, not nearly enough to pay for both marijuana and food. While the government would pay for the $1,500-$2,000 of aids medication Mr. Appleby needed, they wouldn't pick up the cost of the marijuana. Nausea was a side-effect of the pills, and without the drug, he couldn't keep them down.

Forced to buy marijuana himself and pay rent, his friends say Mr. Appleby was reduced to scrounging through dumpsters to find the food he could no longer afford. He would go searching behind restaurants late at night so nobody would see him. At the same time, he wasn't shy about asking people with marijuana gardens to help him.

"You do what you have to do to survive, whether it's beg, borrow or steal," Mr. Whelan said. If one had a bag of dry macaroni from the food bank, he would often go to the other's place to share.

Mr. Appleby decided to try and save some money by growing his own marijuana, and after two failed gardens, things were starting to work out for him. Still, the cost to grow was still high. With no other source of medicine, he resorted to the butane method. He never recovered from the burns that covered 75 per cent of his body and his scorched lungs.

Mr. Whelan said although Mr. Appleby experienced difficult times in the past, he really blossomed after meeting people similar to him. He loved participating in marijuana rallies, and helping others.

"The world needs more people like Donny," he said. "He was there for the underdog, and it's a terrible loss for everyone who knew him."

Mr. Whelan said he doesn't blame the government for what happened to his friend, but said it should take more responsibility and provide for people like him.

"and more to do with the system of medical care that Canada has chosen for itself."

Nah. This guy would have received the same treatment for his burns in the U.S. (ie. the TAXPAYERS would have footed the bill for his medical care.)

And you would favor all drugs being legal such that the rest of us would foot the hospital bill for even more Darwin Award-types.

Maybe we should even provide "shooting galleries" with clean needles, "free" drugs, and a medical staff on stand-by? "Free" detox centers? "Free" rehab centers?

Of course, when I say "free", I mean paid for by the TAXPAYER.

"...All Scripture is given... as instruction in righteousness..."

I spent three years in a Bible college, and learned many things. Much ado is made of the "Law", but few observe it, in reality. God knew that and provided for it by spending time on earth.

I am a Christian, and believe that God really did make the world. I think Moses walked between the waters, and I believe in a virgin birth. I believe that Jesus lived and died FOR ME!

He offers the same deal to "whosoever will". The will is the part most people ignore. To most readers, it seems an open invitation to follow the cross... but it is more the will part of the statement that gives life. By allowing our will to be subjugated to His Holy spirit, we grow closer to His throne.

But, it is our will that He desires. It is not something imposed on us, but rather our desire to give up our self authority. This is the most common threat, used by cults and mystery religions, to absorb us into their mire of strict adherence to "the Law" (the way they interpret it) and to abide within that group, supporting it, and proseletyzing for it.

The dietary laws were mostly manmade, just like the admonitions about working on the Sabbath. (Do you know what a blue law is?) The rulers of the jewish priesthood conspired together, not out of malice, but out of a sincere desire to be what God requires, Holy. But man is incapable of Holiness. We are not God. But we can have Him abiding wih and within us.

God knew what He was doing when He made man. He made woman next (and we all know what a blessing, and curse! ; ), and then quit. He knew our brains were devious, probing, curious, dull, and any other adjective you can use. He knew. He made us! He still knows what He is doing.

In spite of the lessons of Sodom and Gomorrah, we have Denmark and Thailand... where children are regularly traded for sex, and slavery. Where any drug, booze, slut, kink, or fantasy will be fulfilled.

Here in the US, we have a queer community numbering less than one percent, but smart enough to keep their causes in the forefront, with a willing press. This group of deviates get pandered to, while the Ten Commandments monument is removed from the PEOPLES' COURTHOUSE.

I quote and use the Bible as a history lesson. It has been around longer than me, and many friends put a lot of "faith" in its worth.

Faith is what saves us from eternal separation from God. Works are worthless... and the silly debates that go on are worthless... What is worth everything is eternity... and it is by faith, nothing else, that you can have eternal life.

If you drink a martini, toke a bong, puff a cigar, or hit a punching bag out of anger, you may be guilty of something. But it is the ernest desire of the heart to follow God that will override any noxious behavior. But, it happens only after the will is surrendered. It does not happen overnight. It happens gradually. God is easy. His Spirith will guide our every step to keep us from stumbling, only as we will it!

Jesus did endorse drinking to excess. There is sufficient evidence to prove my statement, but the statement is made more to provide fodder for another point, that He was not condemnatory....

I have supposedly literate, psychological critics, here on this thread. At least it seems so from statements made. I have only pointed to hypocracy. Theirs is noted.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.