News (Media Awareness Project) - US FL: Aids Patient, Doctor Say Marijuana Kept Him Alive |
| Title: | US FL: Aids Patient, Doctor Say Marijuana Kept Him Alive |
| Published On: | 1999-04-08 |
| Source: | Miami Herald (FL) |
| Fetched On: | 2008-09-06 08:48:04 |
AIDS PATIENT, DOCTOR SAY MARIJUANA KEPT HIM ALIVE
KEY WEST - Joe Hart's doctor says he should be dead by now.
Hart, 50, has been HIV positive for 15 years. He gave up on pharmaceutical
drugs two years ago, relying instead on relief from nausea from eight daily
puffs on a marijuana cigarette.
Day by day, Hart wages a battle against AIDS, and when he has the strength,
Florida law.
President and founder of Key West's underground Medical Cannabis Buyers
Club, Hart disperses marijuana to AIDS patients, for free or at cost, to
help ease their symptoms, he says. He counts 82 people on his membership
roster.
The club has had a controversial past. In a 1995 act of defiance, the club
opened in a storefront across the street from the Monroe County courthouse.
The club was shut down swiftly. Hart was arrested after he accepted a
package of marijuana from a postal inspector masquerading as a mailman.
Hart was charged with marijuana possession.
Prosecutors dropped the charges in January after a judge ruled they couldn
t use the evidence at trial because officers didnt give Hart enough time
to respond when they knocked on his door to search his home.
Hart was disappointed. He says he wanted to be the test case before the
Supreme Court arguing that he had a medical necessity to use the drug.
The laws, he said, are unjust.
I feel like they are calling me a criminal. How can they say its illegal
for me to have it when they turn around and give it to eight people, Hart
said, referring to a government program that allows eight people to use
marijuana for medical reasons. In the Supreme Court building in
Washington, D.C., carved across the edifice big enough to be read a block
away, it says, Equal Justice for All Under the Law. To do anything less
would be a double standard.
Last month, for the first time in seven years, Hart has had to be
hospitalized for his illness. On March 13, he went to the Lower Florida
Keys Health System hospital on Stock Island with what he says was a bad
case of indigestion. Doctors removed his gall bladder and appendix. A
friend brought him a marijuana cigarette in the hospital that he smoked on
a walk around the grounds to ease his nausea and boost his appetite.
The six-foot former soldier who lives on his veterans pension has lost 35
pounds since then, dropping from 215 pounds to 180. Hes now in Miamis
Veterans Administration Medical Center with a high fever, congestion and
swollen lungs. He hasnt had a joint since he was admitted Friday.
Harts Key West physician Dr. Raymond McKnight said. I think its a
fascinating case. I dont think I can get any doctor to sit in the same
room with me and [Hart], and guarantee me its not helping him. He
definitely couldnt say this is not working.
KEY WEST - Joe Hart's doctor says he should be dead by now.
Hart, 50, has been HIV positive for 15 years. He gave up on pharmaceutical
drugs two years ago, relying instead on relief from nausea from eight daily
puffs on a marijuana cigarette.
Day by day, Hart wages a battle against AIDS, and when he has the strength,
Florida law.
President and founder of Key West's underground Medical Cannabis Buyers
Club, Hart disperses marijuana to AIDS patients, for free or at cost, to
help ease their symptoms, he says. He counts 82 people on his membership
roster.
The club has had a controversial past. In a 1995 act of defiance, the club
opened in a storefront across the street from the Monroe County courthouse.
The club was shut down swiftly. Hart was arrested after he accepted a
package of marijuana from a postal inspector masquerading as a mailman.
Hart was charged with marijuana possession.
Prosecutors dropped the charges in January after a judge ruled they couldn
t use the evidence at trial because officers didnt give Hart enough time
to respond when they knocked on his door to search his home.
Hart was disappointed. He says he wanted to be the test case before the
Supreme Court arguing that he had a medical necessity to use the drug.
The laws, he said, are unjust.
I feel like they are calling me a criminal. How can they say its illegal
for me to have it when they turn around and give it to eight people, Hart
said, referring to a government program that allows eight people to use
marijuana for medical reasons. In the Supreme Court building in
Washington, D.C., carved across the edifice big enough to be read a block
away, it says, Equal Justice for All Under the Law. To do anything less
would be a double standard.
Last month, for the first time in seven years, Hart has had to be
hospitalized for his illness. On March 13, he went to the Lower Florida
Keys Health System hospital on Stock Island with what he says was a bad
case of indigestion. Doctors removed his gall bladder and appendix. A
friend brought him a marijuana cigarette in the hospital that he smoked on
a walk around the grounds to ease his nausea and boost his appetite.
The six-foot former soldier who lives on his veterans pension has lost 35
pounds since then, dropping from 215 pounds to 180. Hes now in Miamis
Veterans Administration Medical Center with a high fever, congestion and
swollen lungs. He hasnt had a joint since he was admitted Friday.
Harts Key West physician Dr. Raymond McKnight said. I think its a
fascinating case. I dont think I can get any doctor to sit in the same
room with me and [Hart], and guarantee me its not helping him. He
definitely couldnt say this is not working.
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