Irv Rosenfeld Celebrates 22 Years of Government-Sponsored Medical Marijuana Use

[nabraxas]

There are not many people who can say they have the federal government's permission to smoke marijuana -- seven, to be precise -- but Florida stockbroker Irv Rosenfeld is one of them. This weekend will mark the 22nd anniversary of Rosenfeld's acceptance into the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Investigational New Drug (IND) program.

There are not many people who can say they have the federal government's permission to smoke marijuana -- seven, to be precise -- but Florida stockbroker Irv Rosenfeld is one of them. This weekend will mark the 22nd anniversary of Rosenfeld's acceptance into the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Investigational New Drug (IND) program.

Irv Rosenfeld

(courtesy NORML)

Ever since 1983, Rosenfeld has received a monthly shipment of marijuana amounting to about 300 joints from the US government's Mississippi marijuana farm. That adds up to more than 3,000 ounces smoked over the decades. The weed helps alleviate the pain from a rare bone disorder Rosenfeld suffers from called multiple congenital cartilaginous exostoses, which is marked by bony protrusions in the body's long bones. Like most people living with the disease, Rosenfeld originally treated it with a raft of opioid pain relievers and muscle relaxants. Never a social marijuana user, Rosenfeld tried pot in college in an effort to win friends, but what he found was that it worked wonders for his pain.

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Ever since 1983, Rosenfeld has received a monthly shipment of marijuana amounting to about 300 joints from the US government's Mississippi marijuana farm. That adds up to more than 3,000 ounces smoked over the decades. The weed helps alleviate the pain from a rare bone disorder Rosenfeld suffers from called multiple congenital cartilaginous exostoses, which is marked by bony protrusions in the body's long bones. Like most people living with the disease, Rosenfeld originally treated it with a raft of opioid pain relievers and muscle relaxants. Never a social marijuana user, Rosenfeld tried pot in college in an effort to win friends, but what he found was that it worked wonders for his pain.

 

full story here:

http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/363/irv.shtml

according to the article there was a federal program that was investigating & approving "alternative" treatments, which officially approved prescribing pot to these 7 before the program was shut down by President George Bush.

what i don't get is how can the federal US government continue to prosecute states that allow medical marijuana & continue to spout the "no proven medical benefit", when it was the Federal government that first recognised the medical benefits & continues to supply these patients w/MJ?

[Anodyne]

what i don't get is how can the federal US government continue to prosecute states that allow medical marijuana & continue to spout the "no proven medical benefit", when it was the Federal government that first recognised the medical benefits & continues to supply these patients w/MJ?

 

That's so cute - you're really still being baffled by the US gov't doing something ridiculous? Like kids who are surprised every time you peek out from behind a blanket.

[Anodyne]

Er...sorry...that came out a bit more patronising than I intended. Have spent most of the week bedridden, reading depressing political SF, and am in a bit of a cynical mood here. My apologies.

[nabraxas]

you're really still being baffled by the US gov't doing something ridiculous?

not really, i just thought that given the number ov human rights lawyers & lawyers in general in the US

i'm surprised the fact that the federal government set the precedent for prescribing & continuing to proscribe MJ

,while prosecuting states for doing the exact same thing,hasn't been used as a legal defence.

maybe it has & i never heard about it.

My apologies.

 

no need, we're all friends here

Edited November 6, 2012 by nabraxas