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SOUTHERN VOICE • DECEMBER 29/1994
HEALTH & LAW
Dentist who won't treat AIDS patients
faces lawsuits
Portland, ME—A Bangor dentist who is
being sued for his refusal to treat patients
with AIDS and HIV denies that his policy
was motivated by prejudice against homo
sexuals.
Dr. Randon Bragdon, who maintains
that patients with infectious diseases can
not be treated safely in a dentist's office,
faces lawsuits under both the Maine Human
Rights Act and the federal Americans With
Disabilities Act.
Bragdon says HIV can spread in ways
yet unrecognized and that policymakers are
taking the wrong approach by treating the
epidemic as a political issue rather than a
medical issue.
"Dr. Bragdon's political thinking and
science is way outside the mainstream," re
sponds attorney Bennett Klein, who is han
dling both court cases on behalf of the Bos
ton-based AIDS Law Project of Gay and
Lesbian Advocates and Defenders.
A lawsuit was filed against Bragdon in
state court early last year by the Maine Hu
man Rights Commission and the estate of a
Brewer man, identified in the complaint as
John Doe, who died of AIDS on in 1992.
Doe's complaint said he called
Bragdon's office in 1991 forroot canal treat
ment only to be told of the policy against
treating anyone with HIV or other infectious
diseases.
Doe went to the Maine Human Rights
Commission, which concluded that
Bragdon, as owner of a "public accommo
dation," had discriminated against Doe.
Sidney Abbott, also of Brewer, filed her
lawsuit Dec. 1 in U.S. District Court. The suit
said that when Abbott told Bragdon that she
had HIV, he said he would treat her in a
hospital operating room and that she would
have to pay the hospital's fee.
Klein says writings by Bragdon about
HIV and AIDS demonstrate that his policy
"is strongly colored by nothing more than
pure prejudice towards gay men and other
people infected by HIV."
Bragdon responds that his practice in
cludes gay men and lesbians and that he is
doing what he knows is right.
"People who want to treat this as a dis
ease are not homophobes," he says.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
PWA argues in court for medicinal marijuana
%» i
La Plata, MD—A Charles County Mensch said he began using mari-
dairy farmer went to court Dec. 19 to ar- juana in 1992, which eliminated nausea,
gue that he needs marijuana to help fight helped him regain weight and allowed
the effects of HIV. him to return to working on his farm 15
Jerome Mensch, 43, was arrested in hours a day.
November 1993 for marijuana possession. While attorneys say the defense is the
At the time, he told officers he needed the first in the state, it has been used success-
drug to combat nausea and weight loss fully elsewhere,
associated with his illness. Robert Randall, president of the Alli-
In order to be allowed to use the de- ance for Cannabis Therapeutics, a Wash-
fense, Mensch's attorney, Andrew ington-based patients rights group, said
Dansicker, said he must prove that 35 states have passed laws recognizing
Mensch's life is at risk, that there were no the beneficial effects of marijuana use for
reasonable alternatives and that the use cancer and glaucoma patients,
is not disproportionate to his medical Dr. Donald Abrams, a professor at the
needs. Dansicker planned to have several University of California at San Francisco,
medical professionals testify on the effec- said that he has been trying for two years
tiveness of marijuana. to win federal approval to launch a study
Dansicker said the case most likely of marijuana's effects on AIDS patients,
will be tried in March. "There's a lot of anecdotal informa-
According to court papers, Mensch tion, but it's never definitively been stud-
started using AZT in 1987 after he was ied," he said.
diagnosed as being infected with HIV. The Abrams said he learned earlier this
AZT began losing its effectiveness in 1992, month that his most recent request was
when Mensch started to suffer from bouts rejected by the National Institute of Drug
of numbness, diarrhea, nausea and fa- Abuse.
tigue, according to a memo Dansicker ASSOCIATED PRESS
submitted to the judge.
i
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