No Dope: Ft. Lauderdale Man to Smoke 115,000th Joint
Who says Irv Rosenfeld can't get stoned? Constantly
By BRIAN HAMACHER
Updated 11:45 AM EST, Thu, Nov 19, 2009
When you think of the world's most prolific pot smokers, certain names come to mind: Snoop, Cheech and Chong, Willie Nelson.
How about Irvin Rosenfeld?
The 56-year-old Fort Lauderdale stockbroker will put his name among the greats when he sets a world record tomorrow for weed consumption while lighting up his 115,000th joint.
The best part is that it's all legal.
"Yep, provided by Uncle Sam," Rosenfeld told NBCMiami.com. "They grow it for me, I find that quite ironic."
Rosenfeld's pot has been provided by the government since 1982, when he became a patient in the Federal Drug Administration's Investigational New Drug Program. Grown on a farm on the campus of the University of Mississippi, the weed is delivered to a local pharmacy where Rosenfeld gets it by the bushel.
Rosenfeld suffers from a rare bone disorder called multiple congenital cartilaginous exostoses, which causes severe pain, alleviated by a healthy dose of ganja.
He's been getting 300 joints every 25 days for the past 27 years, and said he smokes between 10 and 12 per day.
"The first thing I do every morning is smoke two joints as I watch my business shows," Rosenfeld said. "Then another on my drive to work."
Rosenfeld said he's never gotten high on the sticky icky, and he's allowed to smoke while operating heavy machinery.
Not getting high also means no late-night trips to Taco Bell.
"No munchies, no munchies, nothing other people get," Rosenfeld insists. "A lot of patients don't get high."
Rosenfeld is an advocate for the Feds providing medicinal marijuana, a policy ended in 1992. While most people who need medicinal marijuana rely on the dozen or so states that allow it, Rosenfeld and three others were grandfathered into the federal program. He said he's lucky to be able to get his hands on what many others can't.
"I get lots of calls from people trying to get the medicine," he said. "It's sad, people need it."
Rosenfeld said he feels great thanks to the Mary Jane, and that others could be as healthy as him if it were made legal across the board.
"I would be bedridden without it, if I would even be alive," he said. "I shouldn't have been alive and I'm still alive, I take no other medicines, I'm in great shape because of the cannibis. It's just sad because the medicine's there."
He said he thinks the Obama administration will help people like him who truly need the weed to feel better. "The tide is turning, patients are finally getting the help they need," he said.
Rosenfeld's writing a book on his experiences as the nation's longest-running legal pot-smoker, tenatively called "Potluck." He hopes to have it published in the spring.
He said his ability to smoke weed in public has made him both a hero and a villain.
"There are people I'm sure that consider me a hero," he said. "A lot of people make snide little comments or talk about the balls I have to smoke in public. They'll ask, 'Hey man, can I have some of that?'"
The villain part came in 1983, when he was busted in Orlando for possession. The overzealous cop didn't realize his right was federally protected, but after fingerprinting and a few hours in a police station, he was let go and the charges were dropped.
Though his public pot smoking has raised some eyebrows, Rosenfeld said it's the ingrained negative perception that gives it a bad name, regardless of the health benefits.
"There are people who have been raised to think it's the devil's work, they'll always be against it," Rosenfeld said. "If you truly think marijuana's as bad as you think it is, explain me."
No Dope: Ft. Lauderdale Man to Smoke 115,000th Joint
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