Pubdate: Thu, 06 Dec 2001
Source: Miami Herald (FL)
Copyright: 2001 The Miami Herald
Contact:  http://www.herald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/262
Author: Johnny Diaz

TAMARAC MAN SUING AIRLINE OVER HIS MEDICINAL MARIJUANA

Tamarac stockbroker Irvin Rosenfeld filed a lawsuit in federal court 
Wednesday, claiming that Delta Air Lines discriminated against him for 
refusing to allow him on a flight when he showed up with his medicinal 
marijuana.

Rosenfeld, 48, uses the marijuana to ease the pain of more than 200 
nonmalignant tumors all over his body. Because of the pain, he says he is 
disabled.

Delta discriminated against him, he said, when he was not allowed to board 
the plane with the medicine he needs. The suit, filed in the Fort 
Lauderdale federal courthouse, asks for an apology from Delta and 
reimbursement for legal fees.

``This is my medicine,'' Rosenfeld said Wednesday, holding a coffee canlike 
canister that contains the weed.

Rosenfeld says he is one of seven people in the United States with 
government permission to smoke marijuana for medicinal purposes.

He says he has flown on other airlines without a hassle. ``All I am asking 
for is to be able to carry this on board [a plane] and if there is a long 
layover, to go somewhere and smoke.''

Delta Air Lines spokeswoman Katie Connell said Wednesday the company had 
not received any information on the lawsuit.

``Under federal law, marijuana is an illegal drug and we are not aware of 
any medicinal-use exception that Mr. Rosenfeld claims,'' Connell said.

``Delta does not make the rules, the federal government does. He was and is 
welcome to travel with us -- without the marijuana.''

Rosenfeld said he was trying to board a Delta flight March 27 when Delta 
officials at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport refused to 
allow him to board because of his pot.

Thirty minutes before his flight, officials detained him and told him he 
needed written permission from every state he was flying over.

Otherwise, they said, he had to leave the marijuana behind.

He smokes 12 marijuana cigarettes daily to relieve the pain of a rare 
congenital disease that causes tumors to grow at the ends of his bones.

Rosenfeld wants the $450 it cost to buy the ticket on the other airline, 
and a promise that such discrimination will never happen again.

``This is a disability issue,'' he said, inhaling from a joint. ``The 
airline has to be cognizant of the disabled.''
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart