He considered their treatment of him and his mission so disrespectful (after some argumentative questions, they referred the treaty to a committee!), that he is said to have remarked that he would ‘be damned if he would go to that place again!’.

Kudoos to that, but some people can already smoke whatever they like on Capitol Hill, especially if it’s the right stuff:

http://www.mapinc.org/norml/v04/n612/a04.html?60605

A DIFFERENT KIND OF JOINT SESSION
by Richard Leiby, (Source:Washington Post)
22 Apr 2004

Last week the Capitol Police busted a young intern working for Rep. Ron Paul ( R-Tex. ) for toting a baggie of pot and a bong into the Cannon House Office Building, but they’ll have to look the other way when stockbroker Irvin Rosenfeld brings his stash onto their territory today. For more than 20 years, the federal government has supplied Rosenfeld with marijuana cigarettes, which he smokes under doctor’s orders to ease symptoms of a rare bone disorder.

Before arriving from Florida to lobby in Congress for medical use of marijuana with the pro-pot group NORML, Rosenfeld made sure to inform authorities of his dispensation to smoke 12 joints a day — he’s one of seven people who get Uncle Sam-grown reefer under a program that began in the Carter era. ( It was shut down in 1992, but some patients were grandfathered in. )

We couldn’t reach Rosenfeld, but NORML supplied a letter from his Miami physician saying the pot helps with pain and works as a muscle relaxant and an anti-inflammatory agent, adding: “Mr. Rosenfeld is not impaired by this medicine.”

William Emory, associate general counsel for the Capitol Police, assured us that Rosenfeld could light up on the Hill ( in designated smoking areas ) but said, “He can’t share it with anybody else. The exemption is for him and him alone.”