Marijuana activist dies following explosion

Ottawa Citizen ^ | November 1, 2003 | James Gordon

[Loyalist]

CREDIT: Jonathan Hayward, The Canadian Press

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.

© Copyright 2003 The Ottawa Citizen

[At _War_With_Liberals]

What? You never smoked a rope of hemp?

[TheRedSoxWinThePennant]

because taxpayers shouldnt be forced to pay for it. or are you for federally funded marijuana programs?

[Conservative til I die]

I may have missed that particular story on Rush. Did he commit a crime? Has he even been charged with a crime? What crime is it, exactly, that I'm to be calling for 15 years? Where in the f$%^ do you get off with a statement like that?

OK, let me qualify this (even though I know all you're doing is trying to obfuscate) statement, and then I'd like you to answer it, assuming Limbaugh is in fact charged with a crime over his actions during his period of painkiller addiction, which Limbaugh has voluntarily admitted to, over the airwaves, can we assume you'll be calling for that "junkie" to do 15 years in prison (or whatever the penalty is) for his crime?

Nazi 'til you die is more like it.

Way to "bitch up," as they say in prison-slang.

I'm not fooled by your squawking though. You know exactly what I was getting at, and you're trying to turn it around on me is not going to work, because I don't fall for such childish tactics.

So now answer the question, Robby, if Rush should be charged and convicted of a crime involving prescription painkillers, what will your response be?

[fat city]

Amen. Guess this young e-generation can't be expected to find their daily mental exercise from a bottle-cap rhebus. Worked for me. And, jeeze, those spool-tables. Ugh.

[robertpaulsen]

"So you feel that there will be an epidemic of desperate stoners blowing themselves up if indistrial hemp is legalized?"

If you could guarantee that this would be the result, I'd vote for hemp.

To answer your question, no, I don't. But until I read this article*, I was unaware that butane could be used to extract THC from even the weakest plants into concentrated hash oil form.

Ban butane? C'mon. Ban hemp.

* previous link was bad.

[Conservative til I die]

Did you read my linked article? It appears that you can.

That's the problem.

You can also get high off of paint thinner, white-out, those really smelly color marker pens, cans of whipped cream, and glue. Can we assume you'll be leading the charge to illegalize these dangerous substances?

[Conservative til I die]

Of course there will be an epidemic of normal people trying to get stoned by smoking hemp ropes. Don't you know? People are just savage wild animals with no impulse control. It'll be Reefer Madness!

[Conservative til I die]

I'm going to buy a hemp sweater so I can smoke it while I wear it. Very convenient. It'll be like an outtake from Reefer Madness, d00d~.

[Major_Risktaker]

Don Appleby's fight against the aids virus that was sapping him was made more difficult by a tragic paradox.

is a pain in the Arse!

[Conservative til I die]

Fine nonviolent drug dealers? This will deter them?

I agree. Throw them in prison, because as we all know, you can't buy drugs there.

[ellery]

You're changing the subject. Your argument was that decriminalization or legalization would cost taxpayer money. Your willingness to have all of us foot the bill for free room, board and medical care for nonviolent drug offenders seriously undercuts this argument.

If you oppose decriminalization or legalization "for the greater good," then say so. It's disingenous to oppose it based on a cost-to-taxpayer argument then change the subject when confronted with the truth about the massive drug-offender welfare program that our prison system provides.

[ellery]

I don't believe hemp legalization has been introduced in my home state of Pennsylvania. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[Conservative til I die]

You're changing the subject.

Dude, this is the normal tactic of the drug warrior. Obfuscate, obfuscate, obfuscate. And when that doesn't work, just toss out ad hominem after ad hominem.

[ellery]

Who said anything about deterrence? That's quite a leap you've made.

[Ditter]

There are legal drugs to combat nausea. I wonder if he tried them?

[ellery]

You still haven't answered my question about why you're against criminalizing butane, as it can be used to produce drugs.

[ellery]

Should nonviolent drug offenders be given 100% free room, board and medical care, all at taxpayer expense?

[GeekDejure]

Don Appleby's fight against the aids virus that was sapping him was made more difficult by a tragic paradox. AIDS is a pain in the Arse!

He learned an important lesson... Don't squat with your spurs on !!!

.

[At _War_With_Liberals]

Maybe the dye in the sweater will bump your buzz.

[At _War_With_Liberals]

40% of my income is taken away and redistributed anyway.

To make this a conservative tax issue is a joke.