cannabisnews.com: Whatever Happened To ...  Medical Pot Recipient?





Whatever Happened To ...  Medical Pot Recipient?
Posted by CN Staff on December 03, 2007 at 05:51:51 PT
By Tony Germanotta
Source: Virginian-Pilot
Virginia -- On November 20, Portsmouth native Irvin Rosenfeld marked a bittersweet milestone. Rosenfeld, 54, opened a tin from his pharmacist and lit up a government-issued marijuana cigarette. It was his 25th year in a rare "compassionate use" program ostensibly studying the efficacy of pot as medicine.
For Rosenfeld, who suffers from a condition that causes painful tumors to grow on all the long bones of his body, marijuana has been a life saver. Because of it, he no longer needs the debilitating narcotics that used to leave him in a stupor but didn't blunt the agony. Although he smokes a dozen of the free marijuana cigarettes a day, he said he has never gotten high from the drug.Rosenfeld sent out invitations to the media last month to "come smoke a federal government 'joint' with Irv" as a way to celebrate his silver anniversary and drum up interest in legalizing medical marijuana use. No reporters or camera people showed up in the board room of the Westin Hotel in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., he said."It shows the apathy," Rosenfeld said from the brokerage firm in Florida where he has worked for more than two decades. These days, he said, there has to be a crisis to get media interest in his cause. Rosenfeld is the longest living of the federal government's medical marijuana recipients. Once there were 13 in the exclusive club; there are only five left. No new participants have been allowed since 1992, but those in the system still are supplied marijuana grown at the University of Mississippi and rolled into cigarettes in North Carolina. Rosenfeld has been campaigning for decades to get the federal government to reclassify marijuana as a controlled substance that can be used by anyone with a doctor's prescription.He was the second person in America to get a federal license to smoke marijuana. The first, Robert Randall, a glaucoma and later an AIDS patient, died in 2001, the only other person to legally cross the quarter-century mark.Rosenfeld is on the board of a group, Patients Out of Time, that advocates a change in federal law, and, as Randall did before him, often speaks on behalf of medical marijuana. On Wednesday, Rosenfeld is scheduled to address a conference in New Orleans by the Drug Policy Alliance. He also has been writing a book on his efforts, tentatively titled "Pot Luck: How I Convinced the U.S. Government to Provide My Medical Marijuana and Started a National Movement."Filmmaker Oliver Stone is interested in optioning the book, which is about 90 percent finished, Rosenfeld said. It begins with his family learning, when he was 10, that he had multiple congenital cartilaginous exostosis and pseudo pseudo hypoparathyroidism. Rosenfeld, who is married and has no children, returns to Portsmouth regularly to visit his 88-year-old father and two sisters."I'm still doing great," Rosenfeld said. "I no longer run the bases in softball. I was tearing muscles." So he utilizes a pinch runner so he can continue playing the field and hitting, he said. Before marijuana, he had been forced to give up all sports.He also teaches sailing to the handicapped and disadvantaged with an organization in Miami. It's a way of giving back, and he gets a lot of pleasure as well."Shake-A-Leg is the greatest," he said of the group. "If you feel down, you go to Shake-A-Leg and you can't feel down." Complete Title: Whatever Happened To ... Medical Pot Recipient From Portsmouth?Source: Virginian-Pilot (VA)Author: Tony GermanottaPublished: December 3, 2007 Copyright: 2007 The Virginian-PilotContact: tony.germanotta pilotonline.com Website: http://hamptonroads.com/pilotonline/Drug Policy Alliancehttp://www.drugpolicy.org/CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml
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Comment #6 posted by afterburner on December 03, 2007 at 23:28:46 PT
Maybe Some Activists with Vests Full of Cannabis..
would get the attention of the media and Homeland Security. On the other hand, enticing federal law enforcement seems highly suicidal, especially in Florida. How about oregano or parsley? Of course, disappearing American citizens under the Patriot [sic] Act would scare most folks.
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Comment #5 posted by FoM on December 03, 2007 at 12:55:59 PT
Breaking News From TheDenverChannel.com
Police Return 39 Marijuana Plants To Couple*** December 3, 2007FORT COLLINS, Colo. -- Fort Collins police have returned 39 marijuana plants, eight ounces of loose marijuana, and special growing equipment to two medical marijuana patients.The plants were seized more than a year ago but a judge ruled on Nov. 26 that they were seized illegally. So Fort Collins police had to hand them over Monday.In November 2000, voters passed the medical marijuana amendment, which said that marijuana plants "shall not be harmed, neglected, injured, or destroyed while in the possession of state or local law enforcement officials." 
 The attorney for James and Lisa Masters believes that's what police have done."These plants, I'm willing to bet, are dead and if that is indeed the case, then we are going to take legal action try to get monetary compensation for our client's property," said defense attorney Brian Vicente.The Masters estimate their plants were worth $100,000.The couple's home was raided in August 2006 but all criminal charges were dropped in June 2007. The city attorney tried to reverse the property return order but Larimer County Chief District Judge James Hiatt denied that request last week.While the Masters both suffer from severe debilitating diseases, they were not, in fact, state-licensed medical marijuana patients or caregivers at the time of the raid. Nevertheless, Hiatt ruled that the couple had in "all practical terms" fulfilled the definition of medical marijuana "caregiver" as laid out in the Colorado Constitution by demonstrating that they had significant care for a number of licensed medical marijuana patients at the time of the 2006 raid.Vicente said that the case marks the largest medical marijuana plant return in Colorado history."This case has illustrated the extent to which authorities in Fort Collins will go to to deny sick people medicine," said Vicente. "Between the stalling tactics of the Larimer District and City Attorney's offices, the region has spent tens of thousands of taxpayers dollars in efforts to deny the Masters medical marijuana."Watch for more on this story on 7NEWS at 4 p.m.Copyright: 2007 by TheDenverChannel.comhttp://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/14761785/detail.html
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Comment #4 posted by FoM on December 03, 2007 at 11:35:09 PT
 tintala
Yes, I watched it a couple of times. I didn't like some of it but I really liked the Patients that were featured in the Documentary. 
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Comment #3 posted by tintala on December 03, 2007 at 11:27:57 PT:
ANYBODY SEEN THE DOC "IN POT WE TRUST"?
This Documentary was aired on PBS about 3 months ago. Irvin was one of the MAIN stories on it, what a great documentary, shows many patience using cannabis, but more importantly it contrasts the DEA and patience stories and just goes to show how "irrational" the war on cannabis really is! IN POT WE TRUST
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Comment #2 posted by Max Flowers on December 03, 2007 at 09:13:08 PT
Irv
Imagine how good he feels when he smokes some nice, green, resinous herb... I hope he gets the chance to do that once in a while.
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Comment #1 posted by mykeyb420 on December 03, 2007 at 08:30:25 PT
freshness
I happen to know Irvin. He once told me that the supply that he gets now (Dec 2007 ), was grown and packaged in 1997. They, ( government ) grow it in Mississippi,,then they truck it to North Carolina to roll it,,then they truck it to florida for distribution. 
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