TAMARAC MAN SUES DELTA OVER MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Irvin Rosenfeld, who says Delta Airlines kicked him off a flight earlier
this year when he showed up with a canister of medicinal marijuana, filed a
suit in federal court Wednesday, accusing the airline of discrimination and
asking for an apology.

The Tamarac stockbroker uses the marijuana to ease the pain of multiple tumors.

The suit, filed at the Fort Lauderdale federal courthouse, asks for an
apology from the airline and reimbursement for legal fees. Rosenfeld had
threatened to sue this summer when he shipped off a letter, through his
attorney, asking the airline for an apology and an assurance that he and
other disabled passengers would not face the problem in the future.

He got no response.

"This is my medicine,'' said Rosenfeld Wednesday morning, holding a
canister of marijuana. Rosenfeld has suffered from more than 200
nonmalignant tumors all over his body since he was 10 years old.

"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.''

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. He said he had flown the airline
previously, and always alerts them that he's carrying the marijuana. He
hadn't had problems until the March flight.

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.

He smokes in the morning on his way to work and takes smoke breaks
mid-morning and after lunch. He has also been flying on other airlines, he
says, without a problem.