TAMARAC MAN SUING AIRLINE OVER HIS MEDICINAL MARIJUANA

Tamarac stockbroker Irvin Rosenfeld filed a lawsuit in federal court
Wednesday, claiming that Delta Air Lines discriminated against him for
refusing to allow him on a flight when he showed up with his medicinal
marijuana.

Rosenfeld, 48, uses the marijuana to ease the pain of more than 200
nonmalignant tumors all over his body. Because of the pain, he says he is
disabled.

Delta discriminated against him, he said, when he was not allowed to board
the plane with the medicine he needs. The suit, filed in the Fort
Lauderdale federal courthouse, asks for an apology from Delta and
reimbursement for legal fees.

``This is my medicine,'' Rosenfeld said Wednesday, holding a coffee canlike
canister that contains the weed.

Rosenfeld says he is one of seven people in the United States with
government permission to smoke marijuana for medicinal purposes.

He says he has flown on other airlines without a hassle. ``All I am asking
for is to be able to carry this on board [a plane] and if there is a long
layover, to go somewhere and smoke.''

Delta Air Lines spokeswoman Katie Connell said Wednesday the company had
not received any information on the lawsuit.

``Under federal law, marijuana is an illegal drug and we are not aware of
any medicinal-use exception that Mr. Rosenfeld claims,'' Connell said.

``Delta does not make the rules, the federal government does. He was and is
welcome to travel with us -- without the marijuana.''

Rosenfeld said he was trying to board a Delta flight March 27 when Delta
officials at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport refused to
allow him to board because of his pot.

Thirty minutes before his flight, officials detained him and told him he
needed written permission from every state he was flying over.

Otherwise, they said, he had to leave the marijuana behind.

He smokes 12 marijuana cigarettes daily to relieve the pain of a rare
congenital disease that causes tumors to grow at the ends of his bones.

Rosenfeld wants the $450 it cost to buy the ticket on the other airline,
and a promise that such discrimination will never happen again.

``This is a disability issue,'' he said, inhaling from a joint. ``The
airline has to be cognizant of the disabled.''