Posted on 11/01/2003 9:04:19 AM PST by 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
No doubt, that conspiracy theory will be bandied about by the NORML/LP crowd on FR.
Didn't you know that the neo-cons and Halliburton are much more evil than saddam hussein.
Huh????
It's very simple---read slowly if you need to, or ask a grownup to explain it to you. You want us to say marijuana caused the death of Don Appleby because he died while trying to create usable marijuana; should we also say alcohol caused the death of a person who died while trying to create alcohol?
Microscopic THC sensor in butane lighter, a small detonator...whooosh!
Actually you and your comrades in the pro-pot camp do something much worse than taking joy, IMO.
You try to gain some sick poltical advantage about Appleby's stupidity and blame it on me.
But what the hey, after almost three years of posting on drug threads on FR, I shrug off your demo tactics.
BTW, I find no joy in Appleby's death. The true sadness is in you basically blaming me for his death.
Nor I. So what was the point of your crack about 'no joy in NORMLville'?
The true sadness is in you basically blaming me for his death.
Provide evidence that I have done so.
BTW, how is the anecdotal evidence about pro-potters FR, "lying".
Like I said before, I will let lurkers make up their own minds on my vercity.
There is no joy in NORMLville. After all, Mr. Applebey, that saint of cannabisdom, got shot down by that evil butane. How could the 44 year old Mr. Applebey know about the dangers of butane. It was that evil government that made him mess with butane.
Didn't he get the word?
Why would there be?
I know, but it still gets under the "cannabis uber alles" craw.
It kinda of reminds them that there is a real world that doesn't revolve around pot and Tommy Chong.
And they get very mad when that reality is punched through their looking glass world, IMO.
I call it shock therapy.
Thanks for the baseless and worthless opinion.
Sheesh. And the pro-druggies refuse to believe that marijuana use kills brain cells. This guy is proof positive that it does.
It's not just an interesting read, the posting by non-traditional WOD lurkers is enlightening.
Didn't he get the word?
Seems not, but what the hey the first rule of the pro-potters on FR, is that never ever can pot be blamed.
After all it is the most benign and happy plant in the world.
It was that evil butane that caused Mr. Applebey's death, according to the NORML/LP disciples on FR.
Welcome to Liberaltarian dope world. Kinda of like the world view Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank helped bring about.
Paramedics report that Mr. Appleby's last words were "Wow! That's some really good shit man!!!"
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.