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-$2,000 of aids medication Mr. Appleby needed, they wouldn't pick up the cost of the marijuana. Nausea was a side-effect of the pills, and without the drug, he couldn't keep them down.
Forced to buy marijuana himself and pay rent, his friends say Mr. Appleby was reduced to scrounging through dumpsters to find the food he could no longer afford. He would go searching behind restaurants late at night so nobody would see him. At the same time, he wasn't shy about asking people with marijuana gardens to help him.
"You do what you have to do to survive, whether it's beg, borrow or steal," Mr. Whelan said. If one had a bag of dry macaroni from the food bank, he would often go to the other's place to share.
Mr. Appleby decided to try and save some money by growing his own marijuana, and after two failed gardens, things were starting to work out for him. Still, the cost to grow was still high. With no other source of medicine, he resorted to the butane method. He never recovered from the burns that covered 75 per cent of his body and his scorched lungs.
Mr. Whelan said although Mr. Appleby experienced difficult times in the past, he really blossomed after meeting people similar to him. He loved participating in marijuana rallies, and helping others.
"The world needs more people like Donny," he said. "He was there for the underdog, and it's a terrible loss for everyone who knew him."
Mr. Whelan said he doesn't blame the government for what happened to his friend, but said it should take more responsibility and provide for people like him.
© Copyright 2003 The Ottawa Citizen
Then get a f#$%ing job where you can sit down ..... god leeches like this and the liberal press pi$$ me off.
...but obviously the guy could afford to buy butane. Sheesh, this story is about as objective as Dan Rather kissing Castro's ass.
Another worthless hophead bites the dust. Pity.
Damn that Patriot Act, bring back Janet Reno as the Libertarians on FR will say.
Forced to buy it???? How cruel. The government should just confiscate more money from the working so that drug addicts aren't forced to buy their own drugs.
"Okay, I'll take a dozen of these. Two packs of those...and hey, how about a half dozen of those libertarian patriot rockets back there."
"Stand back kids. Sometimes their heads explode early."
"Stand back kids. Sometimes their heads explode early."
Especially if the vocal phrase spoken in the vincity of the rockets is "marijuana is not the wonderweed".
That phrase will light those rockets off, spontaneously.
No. None have ever said that. You silly silly man.
Now that's some powerful marijuana!
Whether an AIDS patient or a dopehead, I find it hard not to have sympathy for someone with burns over 75% of his body. There but for the grace of God...
Actually I posted a thread two and half years ago, where a former marine and Allegheny county employee(Pittsburgh, PA) caused a fire, killing 2 innocent people, while smoking marijuana and huffing paint thinner.
I used to post that link on pro-pot threads and 99.9% of the die hard Libertarians on FR blamed the tragedy on the paint thinner. The marijuana was totally innocent and benign, according to the Libertarians on FR.
It's kind of hard for me to have that much sympathy when someone burns 75% of their own body themselves. It's Darwin maybe a little late --- and these guys will beg, borrow, and steal --- but they won't find a job and even though taking $3000 a month each from taxpayers, are full of self-pity that the government doesn't buy their pot for them too.
Apparent Rocket Man didn't get the word about the free weed.
Different subject. I'm talking about a human being lying around for a few weeks slowly dying from severe burns. You, on the other hand, are concentrating on taxes and the costs of drug dependency and individual stupidity to society and its greater good, which I can agree with. I believe the punishment should fit the crime.
Having lurked around here for several years I know you are usually thoughtful and constructive in your commentary. This, however, reminds me of a junior high school student council meeting.
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