Come smoke a federal government "joint" with Irv!

This is a follow up to my most recent post. Tuesday morning at 10:30am federal medicinal marijuana patient Irv Rosenfeld will be holding a press conference at the Westin Hotel, 400 Corporate Drive, Ft. Lauderdale, Fl. 33334, in the Board Room. Irv is celebrating 25 years of legally smoking marijuana medicinally. There you and hopefully a gaggle of reporters will have the opportunity meet and listen to Mr. Rosenfeld. Irv is one of five surviving patients of the Compassionate Investigational New Drug (IND) program of the Food and Drug Administration. Irv participated in "The Missoula Study". It not only confirmed his need to use marijuana medicinally it also verified his success with it. I told you in my last post about what I witnessed last spring. I most recently became aware of a fellow named Al Byrne and Patients Out of Time. You should listen to his opening remarks from 2004 at The Third National Clinical Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics Link

For thousands of years just like with alcohol man has been aware of the analgesic properties of cannabis. But ever since William Randolph Hearst and Harry Anslinger put their heads together and came up with less than half a brain we have been told of the evils of marijuana. Al spoke of these lies as he opened that conference. I have no doubt that he will speak of them again in April of 2008 at the Fifth National Clinical Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics. I'm sure Irv will speak on Tuesday about his dramatic lack of ill effects on his health despite smoking roughly 10 joints a day. Joints sent to him every month, made from marijuana grown on the campus of the University of Mississippi. I hope I have that right it's been nearly a year since Irv told me about this program. Like all of us blogging here Irv has been to the doctor, and since he is not a cigarette smoker there are no signs of lung cancer, no emphysema, none of the lung disease that others say cannabis will cause. I have no doubt that there are many in Congress who might privately, off the record tell you that they know medical marijuana is real and not a myth put forth by a bunch of aging hippies. I've met Steph Sherer of Americans for Safe Access and she is by no means an aging hippie. However until we tell our own congressmen and senators we hold them responsible for the propagation of the lies of Hearst and Anslinger people will either continue to suffer in silence or risk going to jail. So come Tuesday I'll be looking to see what media outlets cover this story. Or will they fill their papers and news programs with news about what the presidential candidates said about each other. Or perhaps they will fill their pages or last three minutes with another story about Britney Spears or OJ or Paris Hilton's latest escapade. I'm not asking for a banner headline or to be the lead story. But it would be nice to see some major newspaper give the issue a hundred or so words below the continuation of a lead story. I would dance for joy if Brian Williams gave us the last ninety seconds of The Evening News before throwing it to Deborah Norville and Inside Edition. Heck I'll take the last ninety seconds of Inside Edition. So watch for it on the news but only hold your breath if you are using marijuana to ease your symptoms.