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
Amazing how non-WOD thread people are responding. LOL! Aren't they always telling us how the majority of freepers agree with them?
BTW, how is the anecdotal evidence about pro-potters FR, "lying".
You stated that “99.9% of the die hard Libertarians on FR blamed the tragedy on the paint thinner.” You’re claiming as fact that for every 1,000 responses, only a single Libertarian failed to blame the paint thinner for the deaths. That’s a lie. It is an obvious and asinine lie. You know it and everybody on this thread knows it.
Like I said before, I will let lurkers make up their own minds on my vercity.
I’m sure they have. Probably long before this latest lie.
There are at least ten new names on that other thread, all coming down against the doper despite some interdiction efforts from the usual suspects.
There are at least ten new names on that other thread, all coming down against the doper despite some interdiction efforts from the usual suspects.
Amazing how non-WOD thread people are responding. LOL! Aren't they always telling us how the majority of freepers agree with them
Just checked it out. And you were correct, the vast majority of posters were anti-drug. There was one pro-drug Libertarian and he got shot down.
The following replies on this thread should be interesting. The cries of "post a link" will be screeching amongst the pro-drug Libertarians, so that they can after reply #40 of that thread, reply with their usual knee jerk vitriol over the people who sided on the anti-drug side, IMO.
The majority of freepers want the WOD to end...or so we've been told. Do you think the usual suspects have been stretching the truth?
The majority of freepers want the WOD to end...or so we've been told. Do you think the usual suspects have been stretching the truth?
JMO, but someone at Libertarian/NORML central is going to get the equivalent of hell for letting such a thread without the normal(NORML) Libertarian vitriol get through on a FR thread.
Woe is going to come to the person who was asleep at the switch at Libertarian/NORML central on 10/31/03, when that article was posted on FR.
Perhaps you can get in there and turn their opinions around.
JMO, better you shake your head in disgust at CWO, than in reverance towards a Tommy Chong bong.
I never wanted to criminalize butane! You're the one who brought it up to begin with!
Geez. You build up this "butane criminalization" strawman just to make fun of it and to tear it down? Hey, knock yourself out.
But I consider that to be a big waste of time.
We pro-druggies refuse to believe that pot causes white women to sleep with negro jazz musicians, much to your chagrin as well, Henry.
Let's make a pool about how long it takes LeRoy to join the "show" at the BB over at LP.
How about a six pack of either Seattle's or Pittsburgh's best brew. No wait a minute we can't have that. LeRoy will get all upset over that. How about a pound of Seattle's best coffee against Pittsburgh's. Whoops, can't have that, caffeine is the spawn of satan according to a lot of Libertarians on FR.
How about a Seahawk's cap against a Steeler's cap, although Cowher's ass is grass in Pittsburgh, due to that embarassing loss in Seattle yesterday. Whoops, wait a minute, I used the word "grass" in derogatory terms, the PC LIbertarians on FR will be in an uproar over using the word "grass" in such derogatory terms.
How about a Mariner's cap against a Pirate's cap. Sheesh even the Libertarians can't get mad over the Pirate's.
My bet about LeRoy, 3 weeks.
Why do you think that will happen. LeRoy agrees with the owner of this site when it comes to the Federal WOD, while you guys are disgusyted at comments such as these...
"I'm in favor of ending the war on drugs at the federal level." - Jim Robinson, 05/03/2003
"if we didn't arrest so many drug users, maybe the prisons wouldn't be so full" - Jim Robinson, 8/27/2003
"I do not support the federal war on drugs. I don't think it passes constitutional muster. Crime fighting, including drug crimes (other than international smuggling, etc) should be left to the states and local jurisdictions. I also do not support no knock raids, asset forfeiture, unauthorized wire taps or snooping into bank accounts, etc. All unconstitutional." - Jim Robinson, 10/03/2003
Pittsburgh beer is horse piss anyway.
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