Irvin Rosenfeld Has Recieved Over 115,000 Joints from the Federal Government

Nov. 24, 2009— -- Irvin Rosenfeld, a 56-year old stockbroker from Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., doesn't look like a record-setting pothead, but last week he woke up, turned on CNBC, and lit up his 115,000th joint.

If you think his dealer is thrilled to have a client who has smoked 10 to 12 joints a day for the past 28 years, you're wrong. Rosenfeld, who suffers from a rare form of bone cancer, isn't your typical weed smoker, and his dealer isn't your typical drug pusher. He gets his joints -- 300 at a time, one shipment every 25 days -- courtesy of the United States federal government.

"I don't know that I've broken a record, but I've certainly set one. No one else in the world can document having smoked 115,000 cannabis cigarettes – let alone the ones I smoked before that. I'm living proof that medical cannabis is real medicine. We need to get medicine in the hands of patients who really need it," said Rosenfeld.

Ironically, the government that supplies Rosenfeld with medical marijuana has for decades denied the drug's efficacy, penalized those states that legalized medicinal cannabis and -- until just months ago -- actively prosecuted suppliers in those states.

Rosenfeld said the drug acts as "a muscle relaxant, an anti-inflammatory, a painkiller and keeps tumors from growing."

What it does not do, he said, is get him high.

"I don't get high. I need the medicine; I'm not getting any euphoria," he said.

Rosenfeld said the marijuana allows him to maintain a normal life. He's been married for 36 years, goes to work every day, volunteers teaching disabled children to sail, and is working on a book.

His clients, he said, know about his marijuana use and are impressed by his doggedness.

"I always ask them, 'Have you ever met anyone who has taken on the federal government and won? If you want that kind of expertise and work ethic, then hire me.'"

When Rosenfeld began receiving marijuana from the federal government in 1982, he became the second patient to benefit under a narrowly defined "compassionate protocol" that supplied glaucoma and cancer patients with cannabis until the Federal Drug Administration's Investigational New Drug Program was disbanded a decade later.