Medical Cannabis Journal

Time4Hemp with Irv Rosenfeld

By Casper Leitch "Time4Hemp" (California)

03-28-2013

Time For "My Medicine"

 

Casper Leitch has been hosting "Time 4 Hemp - LIVE" (http://www.AmericanFreedomRadio.com) since 2009.  "Time 4 Hemp" made its television debut on January 5, 1991.  Known as the "Father of Marijuana TV",  Casper has featured nearly every cannabis activist; Willie Nelson, Dr. Tim Leary, Sen. Mike Gravel and Congressman Barney.  Checkout  Casper's website (http://www.Time4Hemp.com) for these interviews and many more.

This interview, "Time 4 My Medicine", was first aired on June 28th, 2010. 

Casper: Thank you for taking Time 4 Hemp, I am your host Casper Leitch. On the program today we are

celebrating the medical marijuana initiative in California (Proposition 19) and we are trying to let people

know the truth about this remarkable plant and how many wonderful things that marijuana, medical

marijuana can be used for.

Some people think it's just for chemotherapy, some think it's just for glaucoma. A friend of mine, who I'm

lucky to call a friend, is a member of a Federal Program...I.N.D.?

Irv: It's called the Compassionate Care Investigational New Drug Protocol.

Casper: There are four surviving members and, who you just heard me talking to is Irv Rosenfeld.

Irv has written a great book that I think everybody out there listening should make it a point to get.

Casper: Irv, I want to thank you for taking Time 4 Hemp.

Irv: It's my pleasure.

Casper: Thank you. You just finished this book and it's an excellent read. I know that people will be

interested in getting an autographed copy as well. Why don't you tell our audience just a little about it.

Irv: Well, my book is called "My Medicine" because that is what I have been saying for the last 38 years;

that marijuana is my medicine. The book is about my life story...of being told at age 10 that I had a severe

bone disorder...that I may not out live my teenage years.

I had numerous operations. I took all the different drugs that the pharmaceutical companies made...with

marginal benefit, but i did survive.

Irv: In high school in the late 60's, I was an advocate against illegal drugs, including marijuana. I would

speak in different classes at my school. Then in '71, I went off to college in Miami. My apartment complex

was all college students, and they smoked (cannabis). I wasn't making friends, so I gave in to peer

pressure and tried it. I didn't get high. But, about the tenth time i did it, I sat and played a game of Chess.

That was the first time in five years that I sat for more than ten minutes. Immediately I wondered why I

didn't take away all the prescriptions. I hadn't taken any that day. All that I had done was smoke

marijuana.

So, the book is a ten year struggle of learning that marijuana worked and then taking on the Federal

Government. The rest of the story is about being one of the few Federal patients in the country. It's also

the history of the medical marijuana movement in this country as seen through my eyes.

Casper: Now that’s kind of ironic considering that as you didn't smoke herb...didn't make friends because

you were the guy who didn't get high. ...only to discover years later that you are the “poster child” for the

government (IND) program.

Irv : Yes, it's kind of ironic. I mean, when I went to college in Miami, I had a girlfriend that was supposed

to move in with me for two weeks before going off to college. The second day that she was in my

apartment, she pulled out marijuana, and I said, “You need to leave.”

A month later, you know, i started smoking.

Yes, I am the “poster child” and really, that’s what I’m hoping to be. When people hear about marijuana

or medical marijuana, they often think of a long haired hippie gettin’ high. And that’s not the case. I mean,

this is a medicine. And what am I? I'm a stock broker. I handle a lot of money on a daily basis; always

looking for the good accounts. I teach disabled sailing. I want people seeing this...that when they hear

about marijuana, they don't think of a hippie getting high, but of me in a suit using my medicine.

Casper: You were in Fortune 500 magazine. If you were a brain dead “stoner”, I don't think that would

have happen.

Irv: No, that's exactly the case. I was very proud to be in Fortune magazine. That was an excellent article

on all aspects of marijuana regarding economics and medical. I have also been in Newsweek and on

many talk shows. That's how you educate.

Irv: When I first became legal, there wasn't any California (medical legislation) or anything like that. I

mean, in 1982 there was nothing. Bob Randal, the first (IND) patient, and I helped lead the way toward

getting state laws changed. Today, we have 14 states that have passed laws. And California might pass

a Tax and Regulate Law (Proposition 19). All this is coming forward because of what i think Bob Randal

started back in 1976.

Casper: Now, a lot of people would think that reinitiating that particular Government program would just

be the ideal thing to redistribute marijuana to medical patients on a Federal basis, but it seems that you

disagree about that.

Irv: No, I wouldn’t go that far. I think the Compassionate Care Protocol has served us (Federal legal

patients) very well and I think it could serve a lot of people. The farm (IND grow facility) could grow

enough marijuana for thousands of patients. So, reopening the Compassionate Care Protocol would be a

step in the right direction.

Granted, they aren't going to be able to serve everyone. Not everyone can get the doctors; not everyone

can find a doctor in their communities because doctors aren’t taught this (medical cannabis therapy) in

medical school. So they must learn it afterwards or from their patients, if they even care about it at all.

It’s not that easy finding a physician. So, if we were able to grow our own Federally, that would probably

be the best situation.

However, I have always argued that this is a medicine. And just like any other medicine, it should be

prescribed. Granted, marijuana is a little different. It’s an herb; a medical herb. So it really comes down

to, do you even need a prescription for it?

The whole point I was trying to make, especially to my opposition, when they say, “It’s harmful, it's deadly;

it does this to you, it does that to you”, I tell them, “Ya know, i wanna help you prove your point. Why don't

we reopen the Compassionate Care Protocols. 50 research centers - one in each state, and take 50

different patients that we think marijuana works for; Crohns, Paraplegia, AIDS - we'll pick 50 patients. And

then we'll study them for two years. At the end of two years, it should show that these 2500 are worse

than their peers. Then I'll admit that you're right and you can stop my protocol, and we can thank God we

only harmed 2500 nationwide to prove how bad it was. But if at the end of those two years, these patients

are better off than their peers, would you then admit that you are wrong?”

But they won't do that, because they know they're wrong.

The sad thing is, I have been using it (Federally supplied cannabis) for almost 28 years and you'd think

that the Federal Government would want to test me or something. Yet, they bury the reports that my

doctor sends in every six months. They don't want to know. And that's the sad part about it.

I mean, are we just there to use something to get high?

Casper: No.

Irv: I'm on a special diet for arthritis. I don't eat Nightshades (white potatoes, tomatoes, peppers and

eggplant), because there is a chemical in them and it’s not good for arthritis. I discovered it seven years

ago and I adhere to it religiously. It works tremendously.

Let’s look at this. I love potatoes, but my health is what means most to me and if these (Nightshades) are

bad for my health, then I’m not going to do it. But if marijuana is positive for my health, my God,

recognize that this is why I use it.

Study me. Learn from me. But they don't want to test it. They don't want to study it. And it's sad.

Casper: Well, there's a lot of people who risk jail time because it is that important to them physically.

Irv: I think, of all the elderly who can't afford their prescriptions, plus how the drugs all interact with each

other, not to mention the side effects that can happenEif only these people knew that they could cut out

over half of their prescriptions if they smoked marijuana.

Lord knows they could sure grow it. I mean, a lot of elderly people love growing plants. And here's this

benign substance, marijuana, that could be very positive and cost effective and yet, nope.

Irv: Six, maybe seven years ago, there was this huge article that was written by Erick Bailey of the LA

Times; a huge expose on marijuana for AARP. And they didn't run it because of pressure from some right

wing organization.

What was the pressure? The editor for AARP used to work for High Times like 30 years ago. Therefore,

you see, he was one of those hippies putting that article in this paper. And with their pressure AARP

caved in. I'm shocked by that. They caved in and didn't run it and wouldn't give Erick their permission.

It was four years before they finally gave him permission to run a shortened version in the LA Times.

Casper: Wow. What's even more frustrating is that when you’re old enough to subscribe to AARP, you

don't care what people think and you speak your mind.

Casper: Now, you say there is an autographed copy of this book waiting for anyone who logs onto your

website and buys a copy? And you said if they mention Time 4 Hemp what happens?

Irv: Well, all you have to do is go to my website, “mymedicinethebook.com” and order a copy. There is a

place for you to write your name and what you want me to write - who you want me to autograph the book

to. There is also room where you can put “purchased because of Time 4 Hemp”. If you do, I will donate

$4.20 to Time 4 Hemp. And tell your friends to mention “Time 4 Hemp” when they order it and I'll be glad

to do the same.

Casper: That's very nice of you, Irv. Now, there are a couple of things in your book that are very

informative when it comes to dealing with medical marijuana. The struggle you had with the United

States Government to get them to really pay mind to what was going on with you, and then, the struggle

that you and the others had putting together this research.

Irv: Very much so. It was a ten year struggle, taking on the government. A lot of setbacks. Tremendous

setbacks. Trying to fight the FDA for five years; trying to write my own scientific project with my doctor as

the “researcher” and me as the “patient”. And then, meeting Bob Randal and turning it from a scientific

project into the Compassionate Care Protocol.

We were saying that my qualified physician believed it worked better as a medicine than anything else

and that, out of compassion, the Federal Government would give it to me, which they had no intention of

doing.

I had to get the University of Virginia Law School behind me. I helped change state law in Virginia. I had

the head of the Crime Commission, the head of the State Police, and my congressman behind me.

Finally, after ten years and under the threat of a law suit, the FDA decided to hold hearings for me and I

won those hearings. The book explains how all that came about.

Then, once we got up to 13 patients (in the IND Program), Bush had the audacity to shut the program

down.

Irv: The struggles we have had as Federal patients and just what happened to usEand we're legal. We

could only imagine what happens to other people who aren't legal.

We try to present to the government because there are only four of us left now. Study us. Look at us.

Irv: We're not the only ones in this country who are immune to the negative side effects that you

supposedly believe marijuana causes.

It used to be, when it was just me, the opposition would say that it causes lung damage; that it causes

brain damage, that it does this, it does that.

I would say, “You seem very knowledgeable. If you’re that intelligent, explain it to me.”

And they would always say, “Well, you have an 85 year old man who smokes three packs of cigarettes a

day say, ‘ what do you mean cigarettes cause lung cancer? Look at me. I don't have lung cancer.'”

Irv: So it took a study that we did in Missoula in 2001 with four of us patients to see if there was an

anomaly or if other people benefited. All four of us showed prolonged benefit.

And so I often wonder if the opposition believes out of everyone harmed we are the only four in the

country that weren't.

Casper: The four of you are super heroes. That must be it. You're immune to everything except your

own disease.

Irv: Yeah. It's something we are very proud of... and we take it very seriously. It's also something we wish

that we didn't have such an exclusivity. Hopefully, one day it won't be.

Someone said, "What if we pass a national law to make marijuana legal? Would you lose your protocol?"

And I said, "I don't know. I have no idea. But you know something? I wouldn't mind finding out."

Casper: Well, if it were legal would it matter?

Irv: Right. At that point it wouldn't really matter. But what I'm trying to say is, that's why I wrote this book. I

mean, the book is my story, but it really is a story for everybody else to utilize. This makes a great

lobbying tool. You can talk to anyone in the opposition; a legislator, the rotary club, whatever. You go and

you talk and you show them my book.

"Here is a medical cannabis patient. Look at him. Look at this. This is real. This is what we want for us."

That's what is so important about this book. I'm really hoping that this book can help change society.

Where the average individual would open the book, look at it, and say, "Wait a minute. Where's the

danger with marijuana that I have been told about all my life?"

Casper: You have the kind of occupation that you can do from almost any state in the union and be

successful. So why is it that you don't move to California and get medical marijuana. And start growing

your own for that matter. Wouldn't you have better control over what you actually do get to smoke?

Irv: Well, that's a good point. However, all of my family is on the east coast, so California is a long way

away. Plus the weather is not as conducive as it is here in south Florida. I also teach disabled sailing and

that's one of my passions every Saturday. The water is not as cold as it is in California.

Irv: I went sailing in San Francisco. We had the same special boats as BADS, (Bay Area Disabled

Sailing). We took out paraplegics, quadriplegics; any type of disability and we sailed the boat. And the

water was freezing! The spray came into the boat and it was freezing, and that day it was 80 degrees.

I was thinking, "My God, how do you sail down here?"

I'm a fair weather sailor. I want to be in a bathing suit and t-shirt. So that means a lot to me.

We have friends here. I mean, I have tons of friends in California, really. But Florida is where I have been

for the last 25 years and Florida is where I'll stay.

Casper: Now, you say you teach disabled sailing? A few nights ago i had a member of LEAP on and he

lives in Palm Springs. A former police officer, he had fallen off a roof and broken his back. He needed to

use medical marijuana.

I wanted to say to him, "If I woke up one day and I couldn't move; didn't have my legs, didn't have my

arms, the ability to run, walk. I don't think I would want to live."

How do these people find their inspiration to go on?

Irv: Well, you know, I have often thought the same thing. But they go on because we have one life to live.

And there is still joy in life no matter how bad off you are. You survive. You deal with what you have and

you make the best of it. That's what it comes down to.

With our organization, we get the wheelchairs on the dock and then in the sail boat. If they were, say,

paraplegic, they sit in the back of the boat. They have a tiller extender that goes to the rudder and that's

how they steer the boat.

If they were quad, and they can't hold it but they can move their arm, we tape the rudder to their arm.

It's a very inspirational experience.

Irv: We are connected to the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis. There was an 18 year old boy that came to

a tournament in Miami with his junior college baseball team. The morning after he arrived, he went down

to the beach and jumped into the water. It was too shallow and he broke his neck. He became a quad.

Two weeks later, he was on my boat.

He had an attitude you would not believe. I mean, This kid was like, "Oh well, that's what happened.

Now i have to make the best of it."

Then there was a girl who was a quad. She had jumped out of the second story window at the University

of Miami trying to kill herself. So here are these two people and they are both the same age. And so we

talked about it. She had such a bad life and the boy had such a happy life and now they are both quads.

Casper: I hope I'm never put to the test. I think I would wake up angry at God every day.

Irv: That's how I felt when my bone disease hit me severely at the age of 13. I was like, "Why would God

do this to me?"

I was one of the most religious kids in the synagogue. My father is the ex-president of the synagogue

and yet, the religious Jews in the community would come up to me and say, "Be thankful it's not worse."

Later on, good things started happening that God made special like trying to get marijuana legal. I

realized that there was a reason for it; a cause for it and I can accept things now much more easily.

Irv: I think we are really an eclectic group (the four surviving IND patients). We are totally different from

each other...completely. And I think that it's good that we can show that we are so different, but it comes

down to one thing that we all have in common. Marijuana helps us medically. And we are not the only

ones who benefit. We are also helping others and that makes us feel better.

Casper: How many marijuana joints have you received from the United States Government?... 80,000?

Irv: No, I'm up to almost 120,000.

Casper: WOW! The U.S. government has given you 120,000 joints, but they are bustin' people left and

right for smokin'. I don't get it, do you?

Irv: No I don't. That's the irony of it. It's sad but true. But hopefully, with shows like this, people will learn

just how stupid it is, the laws will change and, hopefully, one day we'll be celebrating.

Casper: Its makes so much sense to me just to hear it once through. Have you sent a copy of your book

to the White House, or do you think that would be foolish because no one would read it.

Irv: No one would read it. I have a new congressman coming into office. I'm hoping to give him a copy to

give to Obama.

Casper: We don't know what surprises our future holds so who knows where this journey might end up.

Irv: Hopefully it leads to victory, because we know we are right. And that's what it comes down to. We

know we are right. We're right about the medical aspect of it, the hemp aspect of it, about the food aspect

of it. I mean, we know we are right. It's just getting other people to realize that.

Casper: Jack Herer's book has been sent to every member of Congress. We know that people like Al

Gore and Bill Clinton have said that they have read Jack's book. And they know about hemp and so it's

not that the people in congress are ignorant about the facts. I guess they are just politically afraid to do

something?

Irv: Well they are politically afraid plus it's the money. The big money is against it. You have the big lobby

organizations like the pharmaceutical industry. They don't want to see medical marijuana become

available because then people won't buy their drugs. And if medical marijuana becomes available then

hemp would be next. And you have the petro chemical companies that make nylon. They don't want to

see hemp. You have the oil companies. You have "BP". They don't want to see hemp. They want us to

use their oil.

You have the lumber industry. They don't want to see hemp legal. What about the trees they grow for 40

years that they make into paper? You can grow hemp in six months. Well, that would be detrimental to

their bottom line. So they don't want to see hemp. Therefore, they are against medical marijuana.

There is the jail system. The people who supply food to the jails. The more people in jail, the more food

they sell. So are they in favor of changing marijuana laws? Heck no. Put more people in jail. And the sad

part is that's what really controls this country.

Casper: Why is it that the American public hasn't stood up against this by now? We wouldn't be dealing

with the mess in the Gulf right now. We would be creating jobs. We wouldn't be spending billions of

dollars on law enforcement and incarceration. And we would be collecting billions of dollars in tax

revenue.

I mean it's a "no-brainer".

Irv: They don't know the difference. All they know is what they have been taught; that marijuana is

dangerous. And you know, if you ask someone about marijuana in a state where it isn't legal, they won't

have any idea about it. It's horrible.

As a medicine, even if we make it legal tomorrow, there would still be millions and millions of people who,

if they went to their doctor and he said, "Well, I want to give you a recommendation for marijuana.", they

would look at that doctor as if he were crazy. But if that same doctor were to prescribe the GW

Pharmaceutical spray Sativex, which is made from marijuana, they would take it.

The government has done some great P.R. since 37. They have done a great job and it's not easy to

overcome that.

But, it's getting better. That's what these shows (Time4Hemp) are doing. Educating. That's what I hope

my book does. And you know, we're gaining. We have 14 states and if you think of that, that's about a

third of the country now under state laws.

Irv: I was "bothered" in Rhode Island two months ago at the (Patients Out of Time) conference doing my

PSA. The police their detained me for an hour because of my marijuana.

I was talking to the Captain who was going to make a police report that stated that I didn't have any proof.

Of course, I had tons of proof but they were writing a false report.

I asked them, "Well let me ask you a question, what do you do with a patient that has a medical card in

California and they get busted in Rhode Island?"

He said, "We just had that happen."

Apparently, what happened was someone from California came to Rhode Island with three pounds of pot

and they busted the guy. Then they did their research and they let him go, giving him back the pot.

That's what he told me. I don't know it's true or not.

Anyway, the point being is, it's getting better. It's getting a lot better. They only detained me for an hour.

That's some kind of improvement.

Thank God for the Internet. They just "Googled" my name and, of course, they saw, "Federal patient",

"Federal patient", "Federal patient" - as far as articles.

But we're not getting their fast enough. I mean, people are going blind that shouldn't go blind. And like

you mentioned, the money. When they go blind, my tax money is most likely go to pay for their welfare.

We should all feel guilty. Because we need to stop it. I mean, you see something that's wrong on TV and

everyone says, "That's terrible. Somebody should do something about that."

But who's the "somebody"? Not them.

"One person can't make the difference." Well, when all this started years ago, somebody HAD to do

something. That's what Bob Randal and I did. We were "that person".

Now we have all these other people that are standing up, too. So it's all of us together that are saying

"...that's terrible; we need to do something about that." And we're doing it.

Irvin Rosenfeld, 57, who suffers from Multiple Congenital Cartilagninous Exostoses, is

one of four surviving members of the Federal Investigative _ew Drug Program. For

the last 27 years, in cooperation with the Institute on Drug Abuse, Irv has religiously

used cannabis to treat his debilitating health condition. Along with Barbara Douglass,

who suffers from Progressive Multiple Sclerosis, George McMahon who suffers from

_ail Patella Syndrome, and Elvy Musikka, who suffers from congenital cataracts and

glaucoma, Irv receives his monthly legal cannabis from a "legal grow" facility at the

University of Mississippi. Irvin is a successful stock broker.<-->

© This article is copyrighted by Medical Cannabis Journal 03-28-2013

time4hemp timeforhemp hemp cannabis marijuana casper leitch medical cannabis medical cannabis journal Irv rosenfeld  

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