Man With Prescription for Pot Denied Permission by Bahamian Government to Take His Stash on a Trip to the Islands Sponsored by His Company

Irvin Rosenfeld hesitated when his company rewarded him with a vacation this weekend to the Bahamas.

Before accepting, the stockbroker from Lauderhill wanted to clear his medical prescription with the Bahamian government.

But he never got the official OK because his medicine is illegal there.

The drug he uses? Marijuana.

"It's bad enough to be singled out for using cannabis," said Rosenfeld, 53, who lights up to relieve his rare and painful bone and muscle condition. He is one of only five people in the country who receive medicinal marijuana from the federal government to treat muscle and bone disorders such as multiple sclorosis and glaucoma.

"I try to be like everybody else," he said. "That means if your boss invites you on a trip because you win a contest, you get to do that. That's being one of the gang."

Weeks ago Rosenfeld contacted Bahamian health officials, who said he might be granted a waiver if his doctor faxed a letter stating his condition and the required medication.

So he accepted his company's reward, which he earned for opening the most new accounts in Newbridge Securities Corporation branch in Fort Lauderdale.

His doctor complied, but Rosenfeld's request wasn't granted.

"It's just a little awkward for a foreigner to come here and take a medicine that our own people can't use," said Patricia Rodgers, permanent secretary of the Bahamian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "His country might permit it but ours doesn't."

She said she was still looking into the matter on Thursday afternoon but doubted she could grant Rosenfeld a waiver.

Rosenfeld said he never would have accepted the trip if he knew he couldn't take his medicine. Still, he plans to board the ship to the Bahamas this morning with his wife, Debbie. They'll return Sunday night.

That will make this weekend the longest he's gone without lighting up in more than 30 years. He said Canada has also denied him a cannabis waiver twice before.

"Hopefully it's not going to make the weekend a bad weekend for his health," his wife said.

"It's very frustrating to try to have a normal life and to have it thrown in your face and not have people understand and accept, to always be explaining situations to people. Why should you need permission to take your medicine?" she added.

He's used government-provided marijuana through a now-defunct federal program since November 1982. Before that, he had his own stash.

Rosenfeld, a national poster boy for legalizing medicinal marijuana, took on the U.S. Department of Transportation in 2003 after Delta agents refused to let him board a flight from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport to Washington, D.C.

In 2004, the DOT found that Rosenfeld should have been allowed to board that flight.

On a normal day, Rosenfeld smokes between 10 to 12 joints. This weekend, instead of pot, he'll take over-the-counter Aleve, Flexeril for muscle spasm relief, Percocet to kill the pain, and Vioxx to reduce inflammation.

"With the cannabis normally I'll fill a prescription for 20 pills [of Vioxx] and it will last me a year a and half," he said.

Without his regular medicine, Rosenfeld will suffer greater pain and inflammation, which might make it difficult to walk and lead to bleeding in his muscles from bone spurs, one of his former doctors said.

Rosenfeld's boss said he won the trip because he's a talented and dedicated stockbroker. About 40 other stockbrokers from the firm, where more than 300 brokers work, were also picked to go.

"I wish I had many more like him," said Phillip Semenick, the Fort Lauderdale branch manager of Newbridge Securities. "He's a very good worker as far as how he treats his clients."

Newshawk: http://www.november.org
Pubdate: Fri, 09 Jun 2006
Source: Miami Herald (FL)
Copyright: 2006 The Miami Herald
Contact: heralded@herald.com
Website: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/262
Author: Melissa Sanchez