Thursday, April 22, 2004

More on Ron Paul's Stoner Intern, from The Washington Post




A Different Kind of Joint Session
• Last week the Capitol Police busted a young intern working for Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.) for toting a baggie of pot and a bong into the Cannon House Office Building, but they'll have to look the other way when stockbroker Irvin Rosenfeld brings his stash onto their territory today. For more than 20 years, the federal government has supplied Rosenfeld with marijuana cigarettes, which he smokes under doctor's orders to ease symptoms of a rare bone disorder.

Before arriving from Florida to lobby in Congress for medical use of marijuana with the pro-pot group NORML, Rosenfeld made sure to inform authorities of his dispensation to smoke 12 joints a day -- he's one of seven people who get Uncle Sam-grown reefer under a program that began in the Carter era. (It was shut down in 1992, but some patients were grandfathered in.)

We couldn't reach Rosenfeld, but NORML supplied a letter from his Miami physician saying the pot helps with pain and works as a muscle relaxant and an anti-inflammatory agent, adding: "Mr. Rosenfeld is not impaired by this medicine."

William Emory, associate general counsel for the Capitol Police, assured us that Rosenfeld could light up on the Hill (in designated smoking areas) but said, "He can't share it with anybody else. The exemption is for him and him alone."

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