cannabisnews.com: Legal Pot-Smoker from Boca Sues Airline Legal Pot-Smoker from Boca Sues Airline Posted by FoM on December 06, 2001 at 09:28:02 PT By Terri Somers, Staff Writer Source: Sun-Sentinel When one of the seven people in the country legally allowed to puff marijuana called a news conference last summer and threatened to sue Delta Air Lines for refusing to allow him on a plane with his herbal medicine, he was not just blowing smoke.Irvin Rosenfeld, a 48-year-old Boca Raton stockbroker, never got the apology he wanted, so he filed a federal discrimination lawsuit in Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday, seeking unspecified monetary damages and a promise from Delta that it would stop violating the Air Carriers Access Act of 1986. Rosenfeld suffers from a rare and painful bone disease but finds relief in smoking marijuana, prescribed by a doctor and grown for the government. The smoking dulls the constant, piercing pain but does not make Rosenfeld euphoric, he said.Relief, in the form of about 300 marijuana cigarettes, arrives by mail each month in a nondescript tin canister. On an average day, Rosenfeld said, he smokes about a dozen.When flying Delta at least a dozen times before this incident, Rosenfeld said he always contacted the airline ahead of time and made arrangements to take a smoke break in a secluded area of an airport if there was a lengthy layover on his itinerary.He has lit up in smoking lounges and even police substations at airports. But when he went to board a March 26 flight bound for Washington, D.C., where he was to attend a U.S. Supreme Court session on medicinal marijuana, a Delta worker told him he could not board with his canister of cannabis.Refusing him a seat on the airliner was like booting a diabetic from the flight because he carried hypodermic needles and insulin, said Christopher C. Sharp, Rosenfeld's lawyer.The Air Carrier Access Act protects against discrimination for a disability, and a violation can result in punitive damages. Under the act, Delta was required to specify in writing why Rosenfeld could not board the airline and why he was thought to be a threat to the safety of everyone on board, Sharp said.Delta did not do that. The airline also violated the law by not having a complaint resolution officer at the airport to explain the law and the company's decision to Rosenfeld, the lawsuit states.Delta, however, said the law is on its side."Under federal law, marijuana is an illegal drug, and I'm not aware of any medical use exception of the nature he claims or of any private citizen having a right to possess it in the United States," said Katie Connell, a Delta spokeswoman.Rosenfeld said he showed the Delta counter agent his prescription and even called a Broward Sheriff's officer to the counter to verify his claim. The officer happened to be familiar with the medicinal marijuana program and told the ticket agent -- to no avail, said Rosenfeld.Neither Rosenfeld nor a representative of the federal agency that he says oversees the medicinal marijuana program has presented any documentation to Delta proving that he is legally prescribed cannabis, Connell said. If that documentation were presented, Delta would readily comply with that advice, she said.Complete Title: Legal Pot-Smoker from Boca Sues Airline for Keeping Him Off PlaneSource: Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel (FL) Author: Terri Somers, Staff WriterPublished: December 6, 2001Copyright: 2001 Sun-Sentinel Company Contact: letters sun-sentinel.com Website: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/ Related Articles & Web Site:Medical Marijuana Information Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/medical.htmPot User Wants Paybackhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11500.shtmlLegal Pot Smoker Wants Apology from Delta http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10622.shtmlMan Says Delta Should Apologize http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10620.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #7 posted by Rev Jonathan Adler on December 06, 2001 at 22:17:52 PT: Legal Transportation for Cannabis Users. The problem with ignorance of the law is; law enforcement is ignorant of any and all laws that protect cannabis users, be it for medicine or religion. I always travel openly, but not without forethought. Everyone who sees me knows of my medical and religious rights, because I make sure to tell them before hand. Education is important and it is the responsibility of us all to know the whole truth about cannabis. I am running for Governor here and I will be setting new policy on cannabis as a medicine and a resource for Hawaii to provide to the rest of the world!See High Times January on page 18. or visit our site. Peace! Hawaii Medical Marijuana Institute [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by John Markes on December 06, 2001 at 22:11:32 PT Legal Prescription is not "Legal" enough... "Rosenfeld said he showed the Delta counter agent his prescription and even called a Broward Sheriff's officer to the counter to verify his claim. The officer happened to be familiar with the medicinal marijuana program and told the ticket agent -- to no avail, said Rosenfeld.Neither Rosenfeld nor a representative of the federal agency that he says oversees the medicinal marijuana program has presented any documentation to Delta proving that he is legally prescribed cannabis, Connell said. If that documentation were presented, Delta would readily comply with that advice, she said."So now a legal prescription is not good enough as documentation. Getting a little hysterical, eh? Delta really set themselves up on this one. Maybe this will encourage them to hire people who can read... ARDPArk [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by el_toonces on December 06, 2001 at 10:39:30 PT: FoM I agree with you it's more important to ban boxcutters, even though bad security was not the main cause of 9-11 disaster IMHO, but rather the "surprise" element in using airliners as missles.In any event, he told Delta he had the pot to avoid problems so they did not even need to look for the pot, as I understand it. Now as to why Delat would spend all that money and time denying him passage and subsequently defending themselves rather than devoting those resources to security concerns, who knows? Except Delta's reaction may be a result of the drug laws and propoganda, neither of which reduce use or abuse but rather stiffle dissent and debate.I just hope this gets lots of publicity so everyone in this country can see the government passes out pot (while denying it is medicine) but then does no research, but when it scrutinizes cannabis co-ops growers, any research they might doing (like the research Peter McWilliams and Steve Kubby were engaged in), is said not to matter.Be well.El [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by Patrick on December 06, 2001 at 10:08:36 PT Never Medicine? "Delta will defend itself by saying, as does Asscroft, that marijuana is never medicine..." hmmm... isn't Marinol a legal marijuana based pill? The Supreme court rules that there is no medicinal value and marijuana remains classified as a Schedule I drug with no medicinal value and there are 7 people recieving government grown pot. If it smells like dog poop it probably is dog poop. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by boppy on December 06, 2001 at 10:07:28 PT Typical corporate BS... Katie Connell of Delta needs to pick up a newspaper and read it once in a while. What corporate fatheads! The airlines can't afford to be alienating any customers right now and their refusal to apologize futher demonstrates their justifiction to remain ignorant. Do you think someone at Delta could have checked this out first before showing how insensitive they are? I believe that I will drive anywhere before using Delta ever! [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by FoM on December 06, 2001 at 09:47:08 PT What's Really Dangerous? Just a thought came to my mind. Which one should the airlines be looking for marijuana or box cutter knifes? What they did to Mr. Rosenfeld is wrong, wrong, wrong! [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by el_toonces on December 06, 2001 at 09:40:52 PT: Isn't this special? Delta will defend itself by saying, as does Asscroft, that marijuana is never medicine and that anyone in the Compassionate Use Program is a research subject, not a patient, and therefore not on medicine, but rather on experimental substances. This lie has been previously exposed by many authors writing about the Compassionate Use Program, including this plaintiff, who state the government NEVER collects any data from the Comp Use people for research because the program is in fact designed to allow medical use, not just research it.Delta's loss here is our big gain for it would expose that the government does not truly believe "marijuana can never be a medicine" until Congress changes the laws, as the U.S. Sup Ct. fraudulently stated. This, I think, explains the folly of the OCBC case far more than any states' rights analysis.El [ Post Comment ] Post Comment