Pubdate: Sun, 01 Mar 2015
Source: Baltimore Sun (MD)
Copyright: 2015 The Baltimore Sun Company
Contact:  http://www.baltimoresun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/37
Author: Evan Halper, Tribune Washington Bureau

FOR FLORIDA POT SMOKER, FEDS ARE NO DRAG; THEY'RE HIS DEALER

BOCA RATON, Fla. - Even in this city full of absent-minded drivers, 
it's a wonder Irvin Rosenfeld doesn't stand out as a menace.

The interior of his Toyota 4-Runner reeks of marijuana. A canister 
stuffed with hundreds of joints lies in the trunk, and a bag full of 
them is in the door pocket. On a recent weekday, the 62year-old 
stopped at a red light and took a drag so deep his exhale filled the 
cabin with smoke. It was his fourth joint that day. It wasn't yet lunchtime.

Rosenfeld aimed to smoke another five or six joints by day's end. 
They were to complement a full afternoon of trading for the busy 
stockbroker. Clients have given their blessing to his 10-joint-a-day habit.

Even more remarkably, so has the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The federal agency, normally unyielding in its view that marijuana 
has no valid medical use, not only gives permission to Rosenfeld to 
light up any place cigarettes are allowed, it acts as one of his dealers.

Rosenfeld, who has a rare bone disorder, is one of only two people in 
the nation still actively involved in a federal program that supplies 
marijuana to patients suffering from certain diseases. Since 1982, he 
has consumed about 216 pounds of government weed, hundreds of 
thousands of dollars worth, he estimates.

"I am getting my money's worth out of my taxes," he said, stealing 
another puff. "That's for sure."

The program Rosenfeld benefits from got its start in 1976 when a man 
named Robert Randall convinced a court that pot was essential to 
treating his glaucoma. Rather than open the door to patients being 
permitted to grow their own marijuana, drug officials opted to supply 
it to him. Other patients trickled in.

In the early 1990s, the Food and Drug Administration ruled that 
scores of AIDS patients should be given access to the program. 
Thousands might have followed, but the administration of George H.W. 
Bush changed the policy and opted to halt the program instead.

Since then, the government - adhering to pot's federal classification 
as having no medical use - has avoided keeping track of Rosenfeld's 
progress. It periodically sends tin canisters to his pharmacy packed 
tightly with hundreds of joints. Other than that, it mostly ignores him.

Rosenfeld says the drug relieves pain that is otherwise so intense 
that he can sit or walk for only short stretches. Because so little 
research has been done on the medical effects of pot, no one knows 
why it works for him. Nor do they understand why he never seems stoned.

Of course, Rosenfeld no longer stands out for using pot to treat an 
ailment. Some one million Americans do so in 23 states and the 
District of Columbia that allow at least the medical use of 
marijuana. But the federal government's long-standing consent to his 
drug use has attracted renewed attention as Congress softens its 
opposition to marijuana.

Rosenfeld recalls a recent run-in with DEA agents based in the same 
office park where he worked.

"I was resting in my car at lunchtime, having my usual two joints, 
and all of a sudden there is pounding on all four windows," Rosenfeld said.

He told them they were mistaken. They told him they were DEA.

"I said, 'Great. You should be familiar with my program!' " Rosenfeld 
said. It got weirder for the agents when Rosenfeld pulled out his bag 
of joints with the prescription on it, and then walked around to the 
trunk to show them the tin can stuffed with marijuana.

Rosenfeld tries to go about his day like any other Floridian. He just 
happens to be doing it while smoking 10 joints.

One thing he avoids is valet parking.

"People think they can steal stuff from my car, and I won't call the 
cops because it smells like marijuana," he said. "If I have to valet 
park, I make sure the manager knows that if anything is missing when 
I get back, I will have the whole ... police department there."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom