quote:

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Originally posted by palmspringsbum:
Santa Cruz is designed from top to bottom to be inhospitable...

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The scary part is that we're more hospitable to the visitors than the businesses!
 

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Posted by Ol' Al (Member # 1813) on July 29, 2006, 03:25 PM:
 
ericr,
The scary part is that we're more hospitable to the visitors than the businesses!

I know you know this:
"than the propery owners, the taxpayers, the locals."
 

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Posted by palmspringsbum (Member # 1742) on July 29, 2006, 03:39 PM:
 
Ya, forcing a marijuana dispensary to pay rent for 6 months before you allow them to do any business isn't exactly friendly.

I experienced a little slice of life a couple of days ago that I've been wanting to relate.

I was in Taco Bell, sitting there with an unlit cigarette and came to the attention of a couple of women, obviously a mother and her daughter.

The mother had a voice that was a cross between Lauren Bacall and Katherine Hepburn. Actually, she was a cross-between Hepburn and Bacall - a very distinguished 'yankee lady'.

Her daughter asked me if they could smoke there and I said no, you must stand outside the gate. And I continued, "I don't know why. And if you drop a butt on the ground they will string you up and hang you."

And I got up and left to sit on a bench where I could smoke. After a few minutes the lady and her daughter (her daugther was middle-aged) came walking down the street and the lady sat down next to me, and lit a cigarette. The daughter plopped down on the 'planter' around the tree. You know, those ledges that rise about 3 inches above the ground. And we sat there and chatted while we smoked our cigarettes - in the blazing sun (why aren't the benches under trees?)

That gave us something to talk about, why the benches were out in the blazing sun. I remarked that it seemed to me that when I was growing up they put benches under trees. And I mused about how the shop-keepers would wash down the sidewalks every morning and about this time of afternoon (3pm) a water truck would rinse of the streets, and cool everything off. And about how dirty the sidewalks were, and how they would stink soon, if they didn't already.

She nodded her head in agreement. And we talked about genealogy - she told me she had ancestors that served in every war before the civil war, and every one of them came back alive, which I found quite remarkable.

We had a very nice conversation, this 'yankee lady' and I. And when she finished her cigarette, seeing there was no where within half a block of the bench to dispose of it, she primly (in her white pants-suit) stooped down and stuck it in the dirt next to the tree.

I really can't do it justice here, I guess you had to be there. But to see this very distinguished, intelligent, old, 'yankee lady' stoop down and put her cigarette out in the dirt was ...

...well, it said it all.
 

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Posted by palmspringsbum (Member # 1742) on July 31, 2006, 03:24 PM:
 
It looks like the truth about OverGrow is beginning to come out. Find it here: http://www.planetganja.com/highsociety/showthread.php?t=22836
 

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Posted by palmspringsbum (Member # 1742) on August 04, 2006, 07:59 PM:
 
I've been so busy being homeless, this is the first chance I've had to look at the Chronicle's excellent feature on homelessness.


S.F.'S HOMELESS AGING ON THE STREET

Chronic health problems on the rise as median age nears 50

Kevin ***an, Chronicle Staff Writer

Friday, August 4, 2006

Hahn said the "big bang" theory, first propounded in the early 2000s by University of Pennsylvania homelessness researcher Dennis Culhane, seems to be supported by her findings.

Aside from cuts to federal housing programs and the closing of mental institutions, she identified worsening drug abuse nationwide and rising housing prices as contributors to chronic homelessness over the past 20 years.

"It's clear to me, from our study, that a huge number hit the street back then, and some may have gone in and out of housing over the years, but they wind up back out there again," Hahn said. "The fact that the median age went up almost exactly with the calendar years as we did our study told us that this group wasn't being replenished by a lot of new people."

During the 14 years of research, 3,534 homeless adults were interviewed at six emergency shelters and soup kitchens. These included the biggest two such institutions in the city, Multi-Service Center South shelter, south of Market Street, and the St. Anthony Dining Room in the Tenderloin.

The team checked with social workers who worked closely with the homeless in Los Angeles, New York, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Toronto and Philadelphia and reported that the same aging phenomenon appeared to be happening in those cities, too.

Trent Rhorer, director of city homeless policy and head of San Francisco's Human Services Agency, said the study "could have a huge policy implication."

"The study suggests that a one-time increase in the supportive housing stock could have a big impact on homelessness, and not only have we been doing that, but we intend to keep creating supportive housing in the future," Rhorer said.

"The report suggests exactly what we have assumed -- that we are dealing with what, to some extent, is a static population and that we are dealing with the largest portion of the problem right now."

..."So much of the rhetoric we hear is that homeless people are moving into San Francisco all the time, and we can never stem the tide," said Bamberger, who helped in the early stages of the study. "But this absolutely refutes that."

...


 

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Posted by mulepig (Member # 2044) on August 15, 2006, 09:04 PM:
 
ALL the authorities should be looking for terrorists or infiltraters-and other officials n Govt should be stashing fuel-big time-n devising a REAL energy plan with massive public involvement- start up money for any Company working on "post oil" future.Before the oil starts tapping out.

no time to waste on a lousy burning weed.
 

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Posted by palmspringsbum (Member # 1742) on August 16, 2006, 08:46 PM:
 
The city’s royal flush: New automatic toilet coming

The city of Santa Cruz is getting ready to spend about $250,000 for an automatic cleaning public toilet to be located downtown.

The need for the automatic cleaning toilet was brought by ongoing problems with graffiti, vandalism and other maintenance issues caused by people using downtown toilets for washing their clothes, city parking manager Matt Farrell said.

After the new toilet is installed, the city will close the Locust Street garage restroom to the general public and make the facility available only for customers of Limelight Cafe and Little Shanghai restaurants, Farrell said.

A location for the new toilet will be determined by the City Council in September.
(Read Shanna McCord’s complete story in Thursday’s Sentinel. Contact her at smccord@santacruzsentinel.com)

I could really learn to despise your city officials.

THIS IS NOT WHAT I HAD IN MIND.

And heaven forbid some homeless person should rinse out their clothes in the sink of a public toilet.

Who do they think they are, anyway?

Giving the Locus Street Garage toilets to a couple of restuarants - isn't that giving public proberty to a private business?

So, they're going to take two toilets with four stalls and 2 urinals out of service to the general public and replace it with ONE toilet?

Way to go city hall. Way to go...
 

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Posted by palmspringsbum (Member # 1742) on September 15, 2006, 01:35 PM:
 
See: Don't bust or doobie ordinance
 

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Posted by palmspringsbum (Member # 1742) on September 15, 2006, 01:39 PM:
 
Canadian Hydroponics Company Assists Medical Patients

Advanced Nutrients
9/15/2006 1:29:52 PM

IMPORTANT PRESS RELEASE

Release Date: September 15, 2006. Not Embargoed.

Subject: Medical Marijuana, Health, Hydroponics, Corporate Good Citizenship, Canada

From: Advanced Nutrients: Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada

Contact Information: Company co-Founder and President Robert C. Higgins

Phone: 604 854 6793. Email: VIPmedia@advancednutrients.com.

When you contact us, please provide your full contact info, your title, along with the media outlet you work for and your deadline dates. Tell us if you need photos or other logistical support.

CANADIAN HYDROPONICS COMPANY ASSISTS MEDICAL PATIENTS

When Roger Stevens heard about Canada’s “Medical Marijuana Access Program” (MMAR) three years ago, he was excited.

In 1999, Stevens was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). The disorder attacks nerves and gradually disables its victims.

Studies in Europe and Canada indicate that some of the compounds in cannabis have unique ability to decrease MS symptoms.

Stevens was grateful for the Health Canada program MMAR program. He had lost his job and was relying on prescription medicines and physical therapy, but his MS was getting worse.

He was unable to move all his fingers, and the disease was causing cognitive problems.

He was eager to grow his own marijuana because he had seen newspaper reports about MS patients helped by marijuana and marijuana extracts.

The Canadian MMAR program allows patients to grow their own medical cannabis, or to designate someone else to grow it for them.

Stevens had a problem, however. He had never grown marijuana before. He didn’t know how to grow medical marijuana. He didn’t have the money, expertise or physical strength to set up a hydroponics garden. He didn’t know anyone who would grow marijuana for him. The Canadian government provides marijuana to some patients, but Stevens said it was too low in quality and too high in price.

Afraid to talk to friends or relatives about his need for medical marijuana, Stevens received his Health Canada marijuana growing license but did not use it. His condition worsened, and he sunk into despair.

Then, when he was surfing the Internet, he found startling information on a website that provides assistance to MS patients. The website contained a posting from a fellow MS patient who said a hydroponics fertilizer company based in Abbotsford, British Columbia was offering assistance to patients who needed to grow their own marijuana.

Stevens emailed the company, and received a phone call from an Advanced Nutrients representative who asked him to provide documents proving that he was a legitimate Health Canada medical patient and licensee. Then, a company representative visited his modest home in Northwestern British Columbia and interviewed him.

“The guy was super nice,” Stevens recalled. “He said that Advanced Nutrients was already helping other patients. He told me that the company would review my situation and contact me within two weeks.”

A week later, Stevens got a call from the company rep. Another meeting was set. This time, the Advanced Nutrients representative brought with him several hundred dollars worth of hydroponics equipment.

The representative set up the equipment in a large closet in the back of Stevens’s house. He showed Stevens how to use the equipment and said that he would visit every week after Stevens started his medical marijuana garden. The company offered to pay his electricity bill; hydroponics gardens use a lot of electricity.

Stevens got marijuana clones from a Vancouver medical marijuana advocacy organization. He carefully planted them in his newly-built hydroponics grow room.

Within five weeks, he had eight very healthy female medical marijuana plants. The Advanced Nutrients representative had visited every week, adjusting temperatures & lighting, and providing Advanced Nutrients products to feed and protect the plants.

Stevens says the Advanced Nutrients grow expert insisted on using non-toxic materials and helped ensure the quality and quantity of the upcoming harvest.

Stevens harvested his plants when they had been growing for nine weeks. After he dried the high quality marijuana flowers, he had just over a pound of top grade medical marijuana.

He chose to bake it into edible medicine and found that his MS symptoms (especially muscle tremors and rigidity) were dramatically reduced within an hour of eating a small amount of medical marijuana food.

Advanced Nutrients founder Robert C. Higgins is one of the Advanced Nutrients personnel who created the company’s medical patient assistance program.

http://webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?SESSIONID=&aId=20383
“Most people don’t know how to grow quality hydroponics plants,” Higgins explained. “We kept hearing stories of people who received no benefit from the Health Canada MMAR because they couldn’t afford to grow their own, or didn’t know how. So we decided to help them. We feel it was a compassionate, civic duty.”

So far, Higgins says, Advanced Nutrients has helped dozens of legal, licensed medical marijuana growers.

Some growers receive a comprehensive assistance package that includes hydroponics fertilizer, hardware, labour and advice. Others receive nutrients, or hydroponics gardening information. What patients receive is based on their individual resources and needs, and on the company’s financial ability to subsidize the assistance program, which has cost the company tens of thousands of dollars.

Jeff Wardron is another Canadian medical marijuana patient helped by Advanced Nutrients. He says the company paid his electric bill and brought him food when he was short of cash.

“I already had a garden set up, so they didn’t need to do that. I used their fertilizer and it worked better than anything I have ever used. It nearly doubled my yield of medicine. They cared about me as a person, not just because I had a license to grow cannabis,” Wardron said. “I basically look at it that they saved my life.”

Roger Stevens agrees with Wardron that Advanced Nutrients is a lifesaver. The 37-year-old former pipefitter has “almost completely conquered MS” and is enrolled in a vocational program learning to design websites.

“My doctor considers my MS much reduced and now stabilized. He admits that this is because of my use of homegrown oral marijuana,” Stevens reports. “I could not have grown this without the help of Advanced Nutrients. I also know that their fertilizers are what make my garden give me the most medicine. I want to extend my deepest appreciation to them. They went out of their way to help a stranger.”
 

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Posted by mulepig (Member # 2044) on September 15, 2006, 02:49 PM:
 
I just say legalize it-

except driving or very sensitive jobs-as effects do vary from person to person.

but we need ALL our undercovers-jails-police-money

to root out n loop up terror cult fanatics.

(note: global riots over something the pope said-offeding people)

guess people gotta die again over some trival-tripe-mythology.

doesnt human life have ANY value at all tot he cult-even there own lives??

guess not-as they are "offended: by cartoons or anyone who dares criticize or question there cult.

but a few hundred dead civilians on a train?

ho hum-no problem.

I'd rather have the world blowing dope then fighting over non existant beings.

and prophecies of death worship and hatred.
 

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Posted by palmspringsbum (Member # 1742) on September 15, 2006, 03:10 PM:
 
I was just looking over WeedTRACKER's list of dispensaries: http://weedtracker.com/forums/directory.php

Quite astonishing...even if it has been TEN YEARS.

Longer, really.
 

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Posted by palmspringsbum (Member # 1742) on October 11, 2006, 12:21 PM:
 
See: Why I Love This Town
 

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Posted by palmspringsbum (Member # 1742) on October 23, 2006, 04:23 PM:
 
See: Now I'm Mad
 

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Posted by palmspringsbum (Member # 1742) on November 26, 2006, 11:56 AM:
 
Isn't that sweet?

November 26, 2006

Santa Cruz shelter puts down-and-out back on their feet

By Shanna McCord
Sentinel staff writer
SANTA CRUZ

A night of shooting pool and sipping Guinness at a pub in Cong, Ireland, sparked a marriage that would ultimately test an Aptos couple's commitment and survival.

Neil Lyttle, 30, a native of Belfast, Ireland, and Valerie Lyttle, 42, a California native, were financially unprepared for the series of mishaps — including Neil's expired visa that cost $2,000 to remedy — that marked their long-distance courtship and led the couple to become homeless and live in an old Ford Probe in Santa Cruz.

"It was nonstop trouble we were in," Valerie said, holding their 10-week-old daughter, Ashlyn. "We had no money and had to go to the welfare office to see about getting food stamps."

Today, the couple is getting back on their feet, living in a low-income apartment complex in Aptos. They're appreciative of help they received this year from the Rowland & Pat Rebele Family Shelter in Santa Cruz, which allowed them to save enough money to rent a place and buy food for their children.

"Wondering where we were going to take showers, get food in our stomachs — that's hard struggling like that," Valerie said. "The shelter freed us from all those worries."

The shelter, one of few for families in Santa Cruz County, opened in May 2005 and so far has served 88 families, including 125 children, said Peg Foster, the shelter's program director.

The shelter is more than a warm place to sleep at night. It has a strict focus on making families self-reliant again — finding jobs and housing.

Of the families who have sought assistance, 71 have improved their financial stability enough to move out of the shelter and into permanent housing, Foster said.

Though the maximum stay is six months, Foster said for most families it doesn't take that long.

"They're getting their lives together and back into the mainstream much faster than we imagined," she said.

The Lyttles' money problems began as the couple bounced back and forth between California and Ireland.

Neil quit his job as a furniture assemblyman in Belfast and moved to California soon after meeting Valerie. The couple wed in Aptos in July 2004, three months after meeting at the pub.

Not long after the wedding, the couple moved to Ireland to be closer to Neil's family, which forced Valerie to sell most of her belongings and the manicure business she owned for several years.

In Ireland, work was hard to find, they said, and Valerie became homesick for family and friends in California, prompting the couple to return to Aptos where they would wind up on the streets because of lack of money and jobs.

Meeting county's needs

There are approximately 3,300 homeless people in the county, according to statistics from Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County, an organization that works to combat poverty.

The county's high cost of housing is the primary reason for poverty and homelessness, according to the organization.

"The family shelter meets a need we didn't have before," said Paul Brindel, who runs the Community Action Board's shelter project. "Most shelters available are designed for single people. We need more."

Across the county, about 1,300 shelter beds are available, according to the latest estimates. The number includes beds not only for people seeking temporary shelter, but also long-term shelter for people transitioning to permanent housing.

Currently, 18 families are housed at the Rowland & Pat Rebele Family Shelter, which has a capacity for 30 families.

The majority of families in the shelter are referred from various social services in the county. While most are single mothers, Foster said there has been a surprising number of single fathers and married couples with two or three children. At least half are victims of domestic violence, and some are battling drug and alcohol addictions or other behavioral problems, she said.

The shelter is part of the Homeless Services Center campus on Coral Street, which includes laundry, hygiene, and postal and food services for the chronically homeless.

The shelter is designed for homeless people with children who are serious about turning their lives around.

A strict screening process weeds out people unwilling to kick drug and alcohol habits, and anyone not interested in finding a job and housing. Clients accepted to live at the family shelter are required to save money, pitch in on chores around the shelter, actively seek work, stay off drugs and alcohol, stick to the shelter's curfew and be willing to have their rooms inspected.

"We require them to save 85 percent of their income," Foster said. "They get a crash course in budgeting and have to meet with a case manager on a weekly basis."

Families leaving the shelter have saved an average of $1,000 to $2,000, Foster said.

Accepting help

Neil and Valerie had no place to live, no jobs and very little money when they returned to Santa Cruz County in October 2005.

They were looking for work when their daughter Catherine was born. The family had to live in their Ford Probe.

Valerie also learned she was pregnant again.

Around that time, Neil discovered his visa would expire and he had to return to Ireland to address the immigration paperwork. The visa cost $900, plus a roundtrip plane ticket for $1,000, which was paid for with money from his dad to help the couple get settled here.

Neil and Valerie learned about the Rowland & Pat Rebele Family Shelter before Neil flew back to Ireland.

"It was a scary, scary feeling, being pregnant and having Catherine and he was flying away," Valerie said.

Neil said, "Knowing she was safe in the shelter put me at ease. Knowing she had a roof over her head was a big load off my mind."

Valerie seized the opportunity to live in the shelter and used the time to re-establish her manicure clientele.

She and Catherine lived there for less than two months while Neil obtained a visa and returned to Santa Cruz County to look for work.

Now the family lives in a two-bedroom low-income apartment in Aptos.

"Being homeless really taught me humility," Valerie said. "I had to swallow my pride and accept help."

Contact Shanna McCord at smccord@santacruzsentinel.com.

Shelters open doors

As overnight temperatures drop into the 30s, various homeless shelters across the county expect to be busy.

The National Guard Armory near DeLaveaga Park has been one of the county's emergency winter shelters for several years.

The armory, with 100 beds available nightly, opened Nov. 15 and is set to close April 15. The armory's overnight shelter is run by the Homeless Services Center with funding from the county.

Other shelters include:

The Pajaro Rescue Mission, for men only.
Interfaith Satellite Shelter Program, a year-round service provided by various churches.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph Home, for women and children only. Requires clean and sober living.
Pajaro Valley Shelter Services, for women and children in transition.
Salvation Army Emergency Shelter in Watsonville.
Page Smith Community House, a transitional center for single adults. Participants are required to save 30 percent of their income.
River Street Shelter, for 32 single adults.

Across the county, about 1,300 shelter beds are available, according to the Community Action Board, a group that works to help people in poverty.

The number includes beds not only for people seeking temporary shelter, but also long-term shelter for people transitioning to permanent housing.

For information about homeless shelters in Santa Cruz County, call 763-2147 or 458-6020.


 

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Posted by palmspringsbum (Member # 1742) on November 29, 2006, 02:55 PM:
 
I got a camping ticket for Christmas, yesterday morning.

The best I can figure, my sin was that I didn't get up before dawn in the freezing cold. You know, the temperature goes up 20 degrees or more after the sun comes up. No, I don't guess you'd notice that in your heated homes.

Well, I cried hysterically for an hour or so. This couple took pity on me and gave me a muffin and water. What I really wanted was a cigarette, but it will be another two days before I can afford those...well, I can't afford anything now.

You've made me a criminal.

I will not pay a fine and I will not do community service.

And a merry christmas to you too.

And may you all rot in Hell.

Oh, by the way, did I mention I slept on the sidewalk last night?

You don't really know what that means do you?

You don't know that one of the differences between sleeping in a tent and having to sleep on the sidewalk is that you can change clothes in a tent and not have to sleep in the same clothes you've been wearing all day, and have to wear the clothes you slept in the next day.

One of the differences.

But thank you so much Santa Cruz, your compassion is truly legendary. Just when I've adjusted to yet another set of obstacles and deprevations you give me more.

1,000 units of transitional housing, and not ONE for medical marijuana patients. I came to you for help, and begged the city council a year ago - and what did I get, your 'homeless services' ran me so far in debt I'll never get out. And now your damn laws are grinding me to death.

May you all rot in Hell.

Sincerely,

J. Craig Canada

[ November 29, 2006, 03:01 PM: Message edited by: palmspringsbum ]
 

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Posted by mulepig (Member # 2044) on November 29, 2006, 04:34 PM:
 
its a crime to be poor??

or sleep in vehicles etc????

sick-

dont we have molesters n terror freaks to root out n string up?????

if for no other reason-wqe do not have the means to waste the law peoples time on this trivial crap

like weed n camping-(if anything have private security guards with unruly people-and leave the mellow ones alone)

and root out sum terror slime-or is that too difficult-easier for the feds to shut down a potclub thats already in the paper-wow-takes talent.

( an agent must feel like a real chump n coward-shutting down a voter approved potclub)

then going after armed terror freaks and murdering terror cult teams people-where agents have to be masked or the terror freaks will find em-n gangs or terror freaks dont care if there Federal agents or not)
 

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Posted by homer (Member # 420) on November 30, 2006, 11:08 AM:
 

quote:

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Originally posted by palmspringsbum:
1,000 units of transitional housing, and not ONE for medical marijuana patients.

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quote:

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This "I'll show you, I'll hurt me" stuff (like refusing the accomodations offered to you, renting a motel room you can't afford, and blaming others for the consequences) isn't getting you anywhere

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quote:

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Originally posted by palmspringsbum:

quote:

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This "I'll show you, I'll hurt me" stuff (like refusing the accomodations offered to you, renting a motel room you can't afford, and blaming others for the consequences) isn't getting you anywhere

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What are you talking about? I never 'refused' accomodations. Not unless you call the armory accomodations.

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Yes PSB, the Armory *IS* accomodations. It would have kept you warm and dry long enough for you to find a more agreeable warm and dry place to live. Instead you refused and decided to rent an expensive motel room. Who did you think you were hurting? Now you blame the rest of the world for the consequences of your own decisions.
 

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Posted by mulepig (Member # 2044) on November 30, 2006, 03:59 PM:
 
HIDE n LIE

Just hide that reefer-be discreet
"They" dont have ta know ya "medicate"

me n my missus hide deep in the brush ta burn......

reefer madness people are out there-waiting with there pee tests-pot dogs soon to be worldwide hair testing.

so burn while ya can-before the nukes go off or the bio bombs....

seriously tho- I cant believe the authorties anywhere in the wordl are even thinking about this idiot drug war.

with bio bombs n radioactive poison showing up all over.and zillions of plots to poison us-nuke us-bio bomb us-or FREAKs WILLING TO wipe out the world to kill the indfidel and go to paradise.

[ November 30, 2006, 04:03 PM: Message edited by: mulepig ]
 

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Posted by Ditto (Member # 2132) on November 30, 2006, 04:02 PM:
 

quote:

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I remember it was pouring rain and I had just got the laptop the day before. I walked, with the laptop in a turkey bag, in the pouring rain for over half an hour to a motel, crying the entire way.

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quote:

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Well, my debts weren't completely paid, I still had owed a thousand on my credit card, but I had paid off $3000 in debt and bought a laptop

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You CANNOT be serious. No house/home, still owe a grand on your credit card and the genius in you buys a laptop. This is what Santa Cruz has become? A haven for spoiled UCSC brats and homeless by choice retards like this guy? Now you pizz and moan because you cant smoke weed wherever you want. Un Effing believable.

You gotta be the only troll with a laptop.

[ November 30, 2006, 04:06 PM: Message edited by: Ditto ]
 

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Posted by mulepig (Member # 2044) on November 30, 2006, 04:13 PM:
 
Didnt SC pass measure K?????

basically pot is off the radar for the law enforcment-unless one is REAL obvious i guess.

it is all relative..some cultures kill over pot use-if ya get a trial yer lucky.usually it is straight to the noose.

my wife burns-she just showed my a 60$ "eightth"

SICK!!! weed costs more the gold!

[ November 30, 2006, 04:18 PM: Message edited by: mulepig ]
 

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Posted by mulepig (Member # 2044) on November 30, 2006, 04:17 PM:
 
ludidcrous!!

a little plant matter in the corner of a bag

costin more then gold

then again-with 12 ounces of bottled water at 3 bucks

human nature is wierd sometimes..... .
 

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Posted by homer (Member # 420) on November 30, 2006, 04:26 PM:
 

quote:

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Originally posted by mulepig:
my wife burns-she just showed my a 60$ "eightth"

SICK weed costs more the gold!

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quote:

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Santa Cruz County has been a leader in recognizing the benefits of medical marijuana. In 2004, four doctors were asked to study the issue and they recommended the guidelines adapted here. Our county ordinance allows up to three pounds of medical marijuana per patient along with 100 square feet of plant cultivation. While three pounds may sound like a lot- that works out to less than four medical marijuana cigarettes per day. For some patients that isn't enough (but again, the law permits greater amounts if recommended by the patient's doctor).

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Here is a list of docs who will write you a prescription:

http://www.marijuana.org/marijuana%20doctors.htm

[ November 30, 2006, 04:32 PM: Message edited by: homer ]
 

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Posted by mulepig (Member # 2044) on November 30, 2006, 04:41 PM:
 
Thanks for the info-Gold is that high???????

last iu heard it was 300-I shudda bought into savage nations Gold deal back when it was-

we should get medical-use a hi tech gro-box to pump out them hi tech buds(uses relative little power n gives off little heat-the hi tech "gro-box"

what she smokes is 'worth it" two hits n I'm high all night n muchies all night-so strong the high is scary at first- a huge dose of THC-but im a lightweight-very occasional use.....

its called 'trainwreck" I think-you can grow REALLY strong stuff with them gro boxes

the law should hang it up-the TV in the background whining about mex weed-

when ya can gro enuff for one person in a TV set sized box/

[ November 30, 2006, 04:42 PM: Message edited by: mulepig ]
 

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Posted by palmspringsbum (Member # 1742) on December 01, 2006, 07:46 AM:
 
Yes PSB, the Armory *IS* accomodations. It would have kept you warm and dry long enough for you to find a more agreeable warm and dry place to live.

You don't have a clue what you're talking about. You must stand in the rain at least half an hour before they search you and everything you have and take away anything that is metal and any other 'contraband' you may have.

It WOULD NOT have kept me warm or dry, and I probably wouldn't have made it through the night, particularly with Bud, who was the head monitor when they opened the armory last year. A couple of days before the armory opened he was on the church group with me, and kicked me awake in the middle of the night, and laughed when I started crying because I couldn't get any sleep.

Bud 'quit' after the three monitors -he picked- to work under him refused to work with him and filed complaints against him for discriminating against and abusing the elderly. (Specifically, Mary Koury.)

Your homeless 'services, and particularly that armory, are worse than jail.

And you would never ask someone to go without their meds (particulary someone with a psychiatric disability) if it were anything other than marijuana and you know it, you prejudiced stupid abusive piece of ****.

The fact is, as horrible and uncomfortable as sleeping on the sidewalk is, it feels like being OUT OF JAIL compared to that travesty you call homeless services.

And I could never go back there or deal with those people again after what they did to me. I tolerated their abuse as long as I could and what did I get for it? I'm far worse off now than I was when I went to them for help, and it is their fault, not mine. And nothing you can say or do will change that.

I see you're another one of these brave souls that blithely criticizes behind a mask of anonymity. What is your name and where do you live? Or had you rather your friends and neighbors didn't know what kind of person you really are?

[ December 01, 2006, 12:41 PM: Message edited by: palmspringsbum ]
 

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Posted by palmspringsbum (Member # 1742) on December 01, 2006, 09:45 AM:
 
4 bowls later...

Homer,

While I acknowledge that your defamations give me an opportunity to espouse (in some detail) on the plight of the homeless and, particularly, homeless disabled aging medical marijuana patients and, specifically, my dire situation...

Why are you so intent on defaming me and making your fantasy about who I might be the issue here? I am not the only homeless medical marijuana patient, just the first one that has gone to the lengths I have to highlight the issue. Proposition 215 was passed 10 years ago. What is YOUR vested interest in not only opposing accomodation of medical marijuana patients, but defaming AND persecuting them?

[ December 01, 2006, 09:46 AM: Message edited by: palmspringsbum ]
 

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Posted by BillBo (Member # 1431) on December 01, 2006, 10:33 AM:
 

quote:

---

"The scary part is that we're more hospitable to the visitors than the businesses...than the property owners, the taxpayers, the locals."

"1,000 units of transitional housing, and not ONE for medical marijuana patients."

---

quote:

---

If you are a cancer patient being treated for cancer pain, you can receive $520 for participating in a medical marijuana study! Dr. Donald Abrams is conducting a study to assess whether using vaporized marijuana affects the safety of prescribed opioids in patients treated for cancer-related pain...

...Patients participating in the study will spend five days and nights in a clinical research center at San Francisco General Hospital and inhale vaporized medical marijuana three times a day.

http://www.palmspringsbum.org/bbs/viewtopic.php?p=1399#1399

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by palmspringsbum:
Why are you so intent on defaming me and making your fantasy about who I might be the issue here?

---

I'm not defaming you. I'm simply trying to tell you some things I think you need to hear. Believe it or not, I feel bad for you and I don't want to see you die on the street but I'm afraid that's where you are heading if you continue to act as you have been.

Do you honestly believe that you have no part in getting yourself into your current situation? Do you honestly believe that you've simply had the misfortune of running into a series of evil people who are out to get you (your landlord down south, your housemates in the Bay Area and in SLV, the homeless shelter people, etc)? Do you honestly believe that it is rational to prioritize "medicine" (marijuana), cigarettes, and credit card payments over shelter and food?

You are actually quite fortunate. You have a reliable source of disability income from Social Security each month. That income can't legally be garnished. You are judgment proof. Why you continue make credit card payments while you live on the streets is beyond me. First and foremost, you need to apply that income to getting a permanent place to live. Once you have that taken care of, you can worry about the other things.
 

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Posted by mulepig (Member # 2044) on December 01, 2006, 09:00 PM:
 
a good idea would take that laptop-n join the "million thanks" drive.

a MILLION thanks by snail mail-E mail-etc. to the TROOPS-

"America supports you"-(has the million thanks drive-n 400,000 published messages of thanks n greetings n such, and of course

http://www.operationgratitude.com/



defending us from despot states that will hang-or hack ones head off-for a little reefer.

[ December 01, 2006, 09:03 PM: Message edited by: mulepig ]
 

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Posted by Buzz Daly (Member # 1594) on December 02, 2006, 10:00 AM:
 
Homer sez:

"If you haven't figured it out yet, local support for Medical Marijuana is simply a smokescreen for legalization of recreational use. That's why the City Council isn't going out of their way to support legitimate MM users. They don't beleive that legitimate MM users really exist."

'Sup, Homie?----I'm pretty sure we've had this discussion in the past, but, what harm is there in revisiting it? I'm glad you brought it up. I'm not really sure what the Council believes individually about MM, but, they seem to be supportive of it from what I've seen, and remember. I would like to hear from others involved, though, as to why they don't seem more interested in Craig's question. It is a valid one. I don't know, help me out. Strident political statements as to why, aren't really that helpful--I was thinking like evidence, or something like that. This is also an opportunity to once again suggest my extremely simple answer to the whole question, that I like to float occasionally, much to the chagrin of those who hate it, and those who want to tax it beyond what they would tax any other useful plant, like a tomato, for instance, and those who want to just leave it the h.e.l.l alone, like me, and let folks figure out what to do with it themselves. We waste far too much time and money on this humble herb that could be well used elsewhere. Yes, the tomato is an apt comparison, I think. I can grow any kind of tomato I like, and some of them are so good, that I sometimes can hardly wait to taste nature's unconditional gift to us, and they make me happy. Is this a bad thing? If so, that's one of the things weed does. Or, at least, that's what I heard. I do think what you say above is true for many, but, not for all. There are many who believe it is of real benefit to many people, and this includes "non-stoners", medical professionals, as well as those, who favor recreational use, and use the MM issue as a means to their end. Yes, this happens. I know it works, because I've seen it firsthand. I don't have any statistics, and I don't need 'em. I know what I saw. However, I favor it for any use one wishes to use it for, be that recreational, or medicinal, or just on a whim. I realize how hard a concept it apparently is, for folks from all sides of the issue, to grasp, that is simply this: It is a plant. It grows naturally on our planet. It got here somehow, (several choices are available to explain this), yet, we feel completely comfortable questioning this force, that provided us with this, and seek its eradication. Our purposes for doing so are many, that range from religious, racial, or, political. Seems like folks have been programmed to think one way or the other about this innoucuous, (maybe medicinally beneficial), plant. Just let it become a plant again, and it will be all good. If folks worry their kids will get involved and they don't want that, be a parent, and make that happen. It's up to you----it's not the plant's fault for being a plant--the fault lies with those who use it in ways that are harmful, just like Hemlock, another, naturally growing plant. Why isn't hemlock illegal? It can kill you, right? The best way to accomplish this would be to return to the document that created its current status. Point out the fallacious reasoning that put us on this path. Move on---no money need change hands, unless it's at the supermarket. Let Plants be Plants, eh!!!! And don't try running that already discredited "Sin Tax" stuff again. Growing and using a natural plant is not a sin. Perhaps referring to anything that a person enjoys, as a sin, would be financially helpful. Then we could tax everything, almost. Besides, the concept of sin originates in a place I don't venture. Perhaps focusing on criminal acts, that actually harm folks, would improve our Society. That's all I'm suggestin'

Thank you for your support. Commandante Daly
PLF (Plant Liberation Front)
 

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Posted by palmspringsbum (Member # 1742) on December 02, 2006, 12:48 PM:
 
You are actually quite fortunate. You have a reliable source of disability income from Social Security each month. That income can't legally be garnished. You are judgment proof. Why you continue make credit card payments while you live on the streets is beyond me...

You sound like one of those case-workers at homeless services. You're not satisfied that I've lost everything and sleep on the sidewalk, you want to ruin my credit as well..so then I'll have to pay a HUNDRED DOLLAR CASH DEPOSIT TO SPEND $40 to rent a room for a night!!!

And then you can claim -I'm- not competent to manage my own money and appoint yourself my payee so I have to come begging to you every time I NEED money?

You make a statement like that and have the unmitigated gall to offer yourself as some sort of authority on anything?

Folks, this is EXACTLY the kind of attitude your homeless services has, and this is exactly how they play god with the lives of people and RUIN them. I wouldn't be surprised if this is one of their damn counselors.

Do you honestly believe that you have no part in getting yourself into your current situation? Do you honestly believe that you've simply had the misfortune of running into a series of evil people who are out to get you (your landlord down south, your housemates in the Bay Area and in SLV, the homeless shelter people, etc)? Do you honestly believe that it is rational to prioritize "medicine" (marijuana), cigarettes, and credit card payments over shelter and food?

I honestly believe you are one stupid, mean, viscous, abusive jerk...just like those I've been forced to deal with and be exploited by over the past ten years.

You are so full of crap I don't know where to begin.
 

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Posted by palmspringsbum (Member # 1742) on December 02, 2006, 12:52 PM:
 
Do you honestly believe that it is rational to prioritize "medicine" (marijuana), cigarettes, and credit card payments over shelter and food?

Do you honestly believe YOU'RE rational?

If you're so damn rational and all-knowing Homer, tell me how a 51-year-old homeless man with a psychiatric disability, an eviction, and ruined credit is going to 'get approved' for an apartment?

One thing's for sure, you've convinced me you're a case-worker. You have the attitude, the stupidity, the ignorance, and the meanness. I bet you've never even had credit.

[ December 02, 2006, 01:05 PM: Message edited by: palmspringsbum ]
 

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Posted by palmspringsbum (Member # 1742) on December 02, 2006, 01:15 PM:
 
I just can't get over Homer...

...congratulate me for keeping my credit good through all this?

...praise me for not sitting in a motel room on a maxed out credit card until the police come?

Oh NO NO NO NO NOOOO.

No, I'm to be ridiculed and abused because I've managed to be financially responsible through all this...

...yep, wouldn't surprise me if Homer was Vicki Muir case-worker extrodinaire herself, or Ken Cole.

Well Homer, whoever and whatever you are, I'll tell you what I told them: GO TO HELL.

[ December 02, 2006, 01:21 PM: Message edited by: palmspringsbum ]
 

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Posted by mulepig (Member # 2044) on December 02, 2006, 01:37 PM:
 
Just "smoked down" a returning troop- "operation gratitude" at its best.

if you do "smoke down" with a troop-make sure ya dont get em trouble-this GI is totally done with the service-so I dont think he'll get in trouble.

Im checking to see if a GI could lose benefits or anything if they use a little reefer on there "leave"-or when there done) -I want to show gratitude-not get em in trouble.

other wise Im stuck offering a beer-or a simple "thanks for defending America"-or my missus homemade tamales!

(but them tamales just aint right without smoke to help em digest!)

[ December 02, 2006, 01:38 PM: Message edited by: mulepig ]
 

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Posted by homer (Member # 420) on December 02, 2006, 03:46 PM:
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by palmspringsbum:
You sound like one of those case-workers at homeless services. You're not satisfied that I've lost everything and sleep on the sidewalk, you want to ruin my credit as well..so then I'll have to pay a HUNDRED DOLLAR CASH DEPOSIT TO SPEND $40 to rent a room for a night!!!.

---

A deposit that you get back when you check out of the motel room. As opposed to credit card interest which is gone forever.

I've got to hand it to you PSB. You are a credit card issuer's dream. You'll live on the streets so you can continue to pay your credit card bill. Amazing!

BTW, you typically don't need a credit check to get into a shared living situation. All you need is the means to pay your portion of the rent combined with a willingness to be a civil and thoughtful housemate.
 

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Posted by mulepig (Member # 2044) on December 02, 2006, 04:18 PM:
 
A trailer? KOA or other places I think have cheap winter monthly rates-

an Old fart like me I think can get "lifetime" trailer camping for 5 grand i think if over 50 years old-ya need a trailer or RV(small RVs are available)dont know if youngerpeople can get that package deal.

self contained a must if you want to be trailer living or living in vans etc...

MUCH better then sleeping on sidewalks-which could be dangerous....

n i frankly dont think the law gives a f..k about weed anymore-unless a major trafficker or too high to drive....or arouud kids like at a park.
 

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Posted by palmspringsbum (Member # 1742) on December 02, 2006, 06:54 PM:
 
As a roommate I have NO rights whatever bozo. The law makes a big distinction between a tenant and a lodger (roommate).

How do you think I became homeless? It was a roommate/landlord.

Lured me up here saying I could grow 'over there', and then tries to busts me, harasses me to distraction...go read about my Brookdale experience.

And before that I was supposed to leave the place unlocked so a tweaker could come and go as they pleased, with over a pound of prime bud in my room?!

They kept telling me they would never get robbed. Well, this was THE club (in Hayward) that has been cited all over the state for ROBBERIES.

Sheesh.

And, I'm not supposed to get upset when my roommate comes home and jacks the heat up to 100 (I put a thermometer on the bookshelf and waited till it hit a hundred before I said something about it...)

But, anyway...where was I.

Oh yes, the last roommate add I looked at for Santa Cruz insisted that their roommate could not smoke, eat red meat, or have a life...I presume.

Besides, you're truly full of it. Why are you so intent on ruining my credit?

Were you a drug dealer in a past life perhaps?

(Did I mention I truly despise you, whoever you are?)

And, did I mention the reason I got the laptop was to use it to look for a place to live becasue I couldn't find one through normal channels.

Look bozo, I don't need you (or some tight-assed case-manager with a chip on their shoulder and an attitude paid $50000/year) to manage my life.

I don't need religion.

I don't need 'intervention'.

And I don't need your attitude.

So shove it.

The fact is, I think Lisa (of Greenway) saw an add I had posted in Boulder Creek and called me hoping to help. Thing was, I had to go there at night, I was filthy having slept out for days, suffering from sleep deprivation and having anxiety (PTSD-type) attacks, had just enough money for bus fare, had spent all day signing on to the church group and would not have a place to sleep if I went to see them, and figured all things considered I would make a lousy impression and it would be an evercise in futility.

But that was over a year ago. 'bout a year and a half ago.

So tell me Homer, you little snuggle bunny of helpful kindness you, why aren't you criticizing homeless services for telling the homeless in general and homeless medical marijuana patients specifically to go to San Francisco, or Watsonville, or anywhere but here?

And why aren't you questioning why Rebele Family Shelter is over 1/3 empty after being open a year? And did you see their banner? They've spiffed up their website too and are milking the holidays for contributions.

I had to walk by there today to WALK back to the very back of Harvey West for medicine, and back. (No buses for the poor on the weekends - not to Harvey West or Emeline, or Natural Bridges.) Great banner.

I truly felt like pitching my tent right there in front of it - but all that traffic, both human and inhuman...decided against it. But it would be a truly fabulous photo opp. A little tent city right there under the 1/2-empty Rebele Family Shelter.

A real slice of REAL life.

And, Homer bozo, please explain to me why you are advising me to ruin my credit to ostensibly afford (you have yet to make it clear how not paying my credit card is going to afford me a living situation....it is a totally invalid assumption, and you are a stupid jerk for implying it)...anyway, why are you advising me to ruin my credit to ostensibly afford some mythylogical roommate situation rather than demanding Santa Cruz homeless services provide the same services and assistance to medical marijuana patients they do for everyone else?

What is your problem?

Oh, and as for your comment about being a credit card company's dream...you little sniveling piece of ****, ROT IN HELL.

[ December 02, 2006, 07:03 PM: Message edited by: palmspringsbum ]
 

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Posted by palmspringsbum (Member # 1742) on December 02, 2006, 08:03 PM:
 
Somebody is full of BS too.

I'm not sure if that's aimed at me or not, but it did cause me to consider that what I wrote could be somehow misconstrued. I wasn't told to leave the -club- unlocked. I was living with one of the principles, and told to leave the apartment unlocked. And that's all I intend to say about that. And I'm sure I'll wish I hadn't mentioned it...

..except that the 'more than a pound of bud' was mine and grown as part of The Victors co-op.



...but now that I think on it, I do believe I have posted in my blog (March 2005, April 2005) and on my About Me page (at the middle) emails from my last landlord/roommate to those people confirming telephone threats to them from my last landlord/roommate to have the CHP (who were the only jurisdiction other than the feds who would bust anyone in this area at the time for -medical- marijuana) to have the CHP impound their (at the time, Jane gave it to me, just before it died and I had to have it towed, after paying for the registration...but that's a long story and ...) anyway, it was their car at the time and my fomer landlord/roommate threatened to call the CHP if I parked it in the only parking I could access with it in the rain (and where I had been allowed and instructed to park since I move in), he called them and emailed me threatend to call CHP if I parked there.

So forgive me if I have a little PTSD around roommates.

And did I mention BONITA!!!

Truly the Wicked Witch of the West.

Said she used to live here.

Said she used to live next to a grower that had the best stuff...

[ December 02, 2006, 08:18 PM: Message edited by: palmspringsbum ]
 

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Posted by mulepig (Member # 2044) on December 02, 2006, 09:56 PM:
 
see ya In HELL PSB

[ December 03, 2006, 08:34 PM: Message edited by: mulepig ]
 

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Posted by palmspringsbum (Member # 1742) on December 03, 2006, 01:35 AM:
 
Well, evidently the police have nothing better to do than wake me up at 1:15 and tell me I can't sleep and I have to move.

Well, I'll tell you all, and especially the city council:

GO TO HELL

GO TO HELL

GO TO HELL

GO TO HELL

GO TO HELL

GO TO HELL

GO TO HELL

GO TO HELL

GO TO HELL
 

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Posted by palmspringsbum (Member # 1742) on December 03, 2006, 07:29 AM:
 
Well, I was harassed pretty much all morning. I really can't remember if it was 3 or 4 in the morning the let me leave the sheriff's station.

Another camping ticket. No sleep. Turned out in the freezing cold during the coldest part of the night.

GO TO HELL

GO TO HELL

GO TO HELL

GO TO HELL

GO TO HELL

GO TO HELL

[ December 03, 2006, 07:30 AM: Message edited by: palmspringsbum ]
 

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Posted by homer (Member # 420) on December 03, 2006, 11:46 AM:
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by palmspringsbum:
How do you think I became homeless? It was a roommate/landlord.

Lured me up here saying I could grow 'over there', and then tries to busts me, harasses me to distraction...go read about my Brookdale experience.

---

• No illegal cultivation.
• No violations of local, state, or federal law.

quote:

---

... why aren't you criticizing homeless services for telling the homeless in general and homeless medical marijuana patients specifically to go to San Francisco, or Watsonville, or anywhere but here?

---

Because you've been offered plenty of help. However, your pot always comes first with you. When help isn't to your liking you act like a spoiled child who is going to hold their breath until they turn blue (like when you decided to max out your credit card on motel rooms rather than take a place at the amory because they wouldn't let you "use your medicine" [i.e. get stoned] on-site).

[ December 03, 2006, 03:56 PM: Message edited by: homer ]
 

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Posted by mulepig (Member # 2044) on December 03, 2006, 03:25 PM:
 
"PSB" Having a HELL of a time...

[ December 04, 2006, 09:04 PM: Message edited by: mulepig ]
 

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Posted by palmspringsbum (Member # 1742) on December 03, 2006, 11:55 PM:
 
Because you've been offered plenty of help. However, your pot always comes first with you. When help isn't to your liking you act like a spoiled child who is going to hold their breath until they turn blue (like when you decided to max out your credit card on motel rooms rather than take a place at the amory because they wouldn't let you "use your medicine" [i.e. get stoned] on-site).

GO TO HELL!!!

Do you here me? GO TO HELL!

DAMN YOU.

I'm sitting on the damn cement in a sleeping back with a broken zipper that I can't zip up because I broke it last night while being 'moved-along'. I got about 3 hours of something resembling sleep before I was woken up at 1:30. I got into a confrontation with the police which get me up and hysterical till 4. At which point I had to assemble myself and my belonging in the god damned freezing cold.

I won't get any sleep tonight and what does the nice policeman who just came by and said "remember me" have to say? "If you feel like you're going to hurt yourself or anyone else give us a call and will take you to Dominican" - so now your nice police are, for all practical purposes, conspiring to drive me out of my gourd while depriving me of sleep.

So...GO TO HELL.

GO TO HELL.

GO TO HELL.

And as for your 'plenty of help'. What a CROCK OF ****.

GO TO HELL DAMN YOU.

GO TO HELL.

GO TO HELL.

And by the way, I can't talk. I started screaming "Go TO HELL" about 1:30 am yesterday morning and didn't stop until I had stripped my throat.

So go to HELL.

Damn you.

GO TO HELL.

GO TO HELL.

GO TO HELL.

GO TO HELL.

[ December 03, 2006, 11:57 PM: Message edited by: palmspringsbum ]
 

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Posted by palmspringsbum (Member # 1742) on December 04, 2006, 12:12 AM:
 
like when you decided to max out your credit card on motel rooms rather than take a place at the amory because they wouldn't let you "use your medicine" [i.e. get stoned] on-site

That is so wrong. And malicious. And mean.

I don't have the time to tell you how wrong it is and why, my battery is about to go. Besides, I've explained it many times before; how I repeatedly went back and signed on to the church group, and was repeatedly told I HAD to go to the armory and couldn't go to the church group.

And are you a licensed physician, by the way?

In any case, GO TO HELL.

GO TO HELL.

GO TO HELL.

GO TO HELL.

Let's get ONE THING STRAIGHT. I DID NOT DECIDE TO MAX OUT MY CREDIT CARD, DAMN YOU.

I was forced to when I was on the verge of being able to get out of this damn nightmare called homelessness.

So DAMN you, you stupid abusive malicious piece of ****. AND ROT IN HELL.

DO YOU HEAR ME?

ROT IN HELL.

[ December 04, 2006, 12:15 AM: Message edited by: palmspringsbum ]
 

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Posted by palmspringsbum (Member # 1742) on December 04, 2006, 09:37 AM:
 
On their behalf, I will say that they are the only club left of the 3 grandfathered when Hayward limited the number of clubs in the town to 3. Nor do I ever recall them denying they were robbed - not the club. They said their residence had never been robbed. It was truly surreal sitting there as they told me the neighbors didn't have a clue who they were and what they were up to ... or that no one could, or would, follow them from the club to their residence...and the fact is they had been robbed numerous times, and had other -problems-, just none of them at the store or their residence...yet.

Sigh, I doubt you have ANY idea the kind (and number) of things you have to deal with when you own/run a cannabis club. I wish I could give you some examples, but I can't think of a one that I can talk about...but consider, you've got groupies, sycophants, flatterers, thieves, LEO, politicians, spooks, the PTA AND the Ladies Prayer Circle - all out for a piece of you and perfectly willing to cooperate to carve you up.

And did I mention gangs?

And then there's all that M O N E Y.

Cagey sent me an email, essentially demanding I apologize to Homer.

Well I do honestly belive:

Do you honestly believe that you have no part in getting yourself into your current situation? Do you honestly believe that you've simply had the misfortune of running into a series of evil people who are out to get you (your landlord down south, your housemates in the Bay Area and in SLV, the homeless shelter people, etc)? Do you honestly believe that it is rational to prioritize "medicine" (marijuana), cigarettes, and credit card payments over shelter and food?

Homer,

I understand that your current tactic is to assault and blame the victim by accusing them of making wrong choices. I understand that you believe life is all about choices and the world is just and all that's required to get ahead is hard work, honesty, and correct choices - and that the proof of this is that you can easily determine how good someone is by how much money they have. I get $1000/month, so I must be about 50% gooder than someone that gets $700/month. Isn't that right?

I also understand that your purpose here is to assault and blame the victim, for I am certain (and could probably find examples here if I felt like searching for them) that you would rant that the world is not fair, and the world does not owe you a living, ad naseum, if it suited your purpose.

Only in a fair and just world is life about 'correct choices'.

So let's get down to the nitty gritty:



Those are quarter-pounds of cannabutter. The note says "this is no longer allowed in my home".

He LURED me into a trap.

I actually discussed this with the Santa Cruz sheriffs when I attempted to have them arrest him for stealing my cannabutter (as well as being illegally in possession of a controlled substance). They told me since I was a lodger he could change the rules anytime he wanted, and make them pretty much anything he wanted, it was his property and regardless of the fact that I was paying him to use it I had no rights or say in the matter whatsoever. They also told me, after mulling it over for a week or so, that they could not prosecute him for theft or illegal possession of a controlled substance because they could not assign a value to it. Deputy Lee had no response when I pointed out that they have no trouble determining value when they raid someone...and even explained to her how much cannabis was in each quarter-pound and how much it, therefore, was worth.

The fact is my choice was to put my stuff in storage and sleep in the car with the cat, or move in. And I also ran the lease by Tom Lemos, owner of Hayward Patients Resource Center, because he's really up on the law, and because their lawyer is Bill Panzer - who is The Best.

I may even have an email of Tom replying that he thought I had nothing to worry about. Actually, I ran it past Spud because I had hoped by his response (or lack thereof) to get some idea of whether they would help/back me if I got into trouble.

But the fact is, there is one and only one reason I signed that lease and it is because I had nowhere else to go.

Just like I moved in with Bonita, because I had nowhere else to go.

How could you possibly participate in this forum and discuss housing issues and rents and then prattle about whether I had a choice to sign that lease and move in?

I also spoke to Mr. James on the phone about it, because I was in a real bind - and Mr. James knew this, I made that ABUNDANTLY CLEAR. I told Mr. James that if I didn't move in with him I would be putting my stuff in storage on such-and-such a date, and he expedited his interview/selection process to accomodate this date, so he told me. And if you got that far in the story you also know that the very first contact I made with Mr. James I told him who I was and provided the address of my website.

But anyway, my assumption was that if I got raided that would protect his property from asset forfeiture and THAT was why it was there, giving him the benefit of a doubt and hoping for the best possible case, as I always do.

And besides, the part about not violating any laws is a standard clause in leases. The only thing that was truly peculiar was the part about illegal cultivation. Never seen that before, which is why I ran it by Spud. Not because I ever intended to grow there. The neighbors would steal it before it ever got near ripe. I remember when he pointed to a spot and said, "You can grow right over there." I replied that I had enough that growing wasn't an issue, and wouldn't be for the forseeable future. That's actually why I showed him my stash, so he wouldn't be worried about me trying to grow.

I truly never dreamed he was the psychotic mean old queen he turned out to be.

Further, Cagey has repeatedly told me that everyone is telling her that they are experiencing the same problems I did from homeless services, that everything I say is true. The last time she said it she specifically mentioned someone currently in their evil little clutches...

Why she would demand I apologize to you specifically in the face of that I do not know.

So, you have yet to extend to me the most basic common courtesy and answer any of MY questions Homer. Who exactly do you think you are?

So, why don't you extend to me the most very basic common courtesy and take half the time I've taken to compose and post this and tell us exactly why you think it's appropriate to deny homeless services to the aged and disabled if they cannot work?

And why it is appropriate to make anyone with a serious debilitating medical necessity, and specifically me, choose between shelter and their medicine?

[ December 04, 2006, 12:29 PM: Message edited by: palmspringsbum ]
 

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Posted by jgun (Member # 1014) on December 04, 2006, 09:45 AM:
 
PSB- you are wasting way too much effort complaining. Get a job. Any job. Stick with it til you have enough money to get a place to live.
Keep working every day until you drop dead or succeed. That's life for the rest of us and can be your life too. All it takes is the "want to". I hope that when you become sufficiently un-comfortable you will prefer a roof over your head. It's a long amd difficult road- one that all of us have to travel. Get with it, bro, and you can help yourself out of your predicament.
 

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Posted by palmspringsbum (Member # 1742) on December 04, 2006, 10:59 AM:
 
That's life for the rest of us and can be your life too. All it takes is the "want to". I hope that when you become sufficiently un-comfortable you will prefer a roof over your head.

That can most easily be construed as abuse of the disabled.

Well, I had an appointment at 10:15 this morning to apply for Medi-Cal, but after sitting out in the cold all night, from about 9pm till I got to the coffee shop about 8 or so, I just wanted to sit somewhere it was warm and have my coffee. Besides, why should I bother to go through all the rigmarole. They told me when I made the appointment that since I don't have any housing expenses my share of cost to receive medical services will be $167/month. I was actually hoping to get my medical marijuana expenses included as a medical expense and get what I should have as a disabled person with my income - ZERO share of cost. But it's just to difficult - and I really don't see the point.

Besides, I cannot speak at all today. My voice is totally gone from screaming GO TO HELL.

And it hurts to even try to talk.

JGun,

GO TO HELL.

You want me to get a job and work in my situation, in the condition I'm in? I can't even make a decent appearance every day.

So screw you. DO YOU HEAR ME.

And if you don't like my recording of what it's like to be poor, disabled and a medical marijuana patient in SANTA CRUZ CALIFORNIA, well then, I suggest you don't read it.

Cagey said something about that in her note as well. As if I, who cold earn a minimum of $70/hour if I could work and had recent experience in my field, would be living like this and suffering as I have for the past ten years as a medical marijuana patient and for years before that in poverty, unemployable, sick and destitute.

GO TO HELL.

You (collectively) make it impossible for me to even consider working by refusing to allow me to use my medicine, impossible to even sleep in a warm bed and have a toilet, and accuse ME of being selfish and behaving like a spoiled child?

GO TO HELL.

You must think I've NEVER worked, or worked my way up.

GO TO HELL.

I arrived in San Francisco in 1980 with the pack on my back, $60, and a couple of college credits but no degree. Destitute, estranged from my family and with all the accompanying problems.

It would take a book to even begin to convey what it can do to you to be from a family such as mine and grow up gay in Alabama. And my parents had some pretty devastating problems of their own...

Well by 1985 I had an office on the 40th floor of 555 California, employed by Price Waterhouse with a title of Analyst. I lived atop Twin Peaks with a Panoramic view of The City, Angel Island, Marin, and the East Bay at 100 Portola in a 'luxury' 2-bedroom apartment BY MYSELF.

GO TO HELL.

GO TO HELL.

GO TO HELL.

GO TO HELL.

And by the way JGun, the Google Ads on my website earned $1.47 last month...

...so GO TO HELL.

[ December 04, 2006, 11:08 AM: Message edited by: palmspringsbum ]
 

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Posted by cagey (Member # 1919) on December 04, 2006, 11:28 AM:
 
Well if you're going to keep paraphrasing me, you might as well just post the stupid email.

At the moment I’m not all that interested in reading it after reading you screaming at everyone on the forum again as if they have anything whatso****ingever to do with your choices. Some of those people chipped in to help you, some are trying to give you the decent, obvious advice that any reasonable person would see for themselves, and you are being unbearably rude and offensive IMO.

NOT A SINGLE ONE OF US ASKED YOU TO COME HERE. NOT A SINGLE ONE OF US IS RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR HALF-ASSED CHOICES. NOT A SINGLE ONE OF US TOLD YOU TO TAKE A MEDICATION THAT IS OBVIOUSLY NOT WORKING FOR YOU, BECAUSE IF IT WAS YOU WOULDN’T BE ACTING LIKE SUCH A RIDICULOUS CHILD. NO ONE HELPS PEOPLE THAT ARE RUDE AND ACT LIKE *******S AND MAYBE YOU SHOULD GROW UP ENOOUGH TO FIGURE THAT OUT. YOU CAN’T AFFORD TO LIVE HERE, AND ALL THE HOLDING YOUR BREATH AND STAMPING YOUR FEET AND HOWLING AT THE WORLD ISN’T GOING TO CHANGE A GODDAMN THING. THE AVERAGE SIX YEAR OLD TAKES MORE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR CHOICES THAN YOU DO!

Spare me your bipolar excuses. I have it too, and I’m not lying around on my *** demanding that everyone kiss it or staying so ****ing stoned I can’t function. If you want anything else from me, feel free to ask me for it after you’ve apologized to Homer and everyone else out there. I know hell will freeze over first. I’m not reading any more of your emails unless I read an apology to them out there.

Yeah it was a rude email, but I'm not sure why you think you should be exempted from rudeness when you talk to people the way that you do. When you talk to me, you're smart, witty, pleasant and fun, and I've said all the same things to you that Homer and other people have. I'm not demanding that you do a thing except stop thinking that I'm willing to help people that yell at people I like and respect for no reason at all. I'm not a service provider or a public anything, and I get to get mad and rude too.
 

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Posted by palmspringsbum (Member # 1742) on December 04, 2006, 11:54 AM:
 
Yeah,

You (collectively) do everything you can to sabotage me and any attempts I make to try to help myself, drive me to hysterics with your assaults and your constant reminders every time I turn around that you don't want me here, up to and including being woken up in the middle of the night, harassed and ticketed by the police, and rousted in the freezing cold - and then claim the medicine obviously isn't working.

Well isn't that clever?

Stack the deck against me every way you can and harass me till I'm having severe anxiety attacks and then cackle the medicine obviously isn't working

Well, GO TO HELL.

And expecting me to go to that armory without my medicine is like expecting a diabetic to go to an all-you-can-eat at Foster Freeze without their insulin.

So GO TO HELL.
 

---

Posted by cagey (Member # 1919) on December 04, 2006, 11:59 AM:
 
People who don't believe in god don't believe in hell
 

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Posted by jgun (Member # 1014) on December 04, 2006, 01:53 PM:
 
Hey cagey- Great advice to PSB. I think I'm beginning to actually understand the severity of PSBs mental illness. I say this without rancor or insult intended. He does, indeed, seem beyond rational thought. IMO- the State should provide both a place to live and proper psychiatric treatment. He's a classic example of why we have public mental health programs.
And get him the hell away from his medical marijuana crutch. It obviously isn't helping his condition and may, instead, be contributing to it. I dare say that if he didn't spend his money on pot and sobered up, that he would discover both the funds for a home and the rational mind required to hold a steady job. It's certainly worth a try.
 

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Posted by LWard (Member # 1381) on December 04, 2006, 02:00 PM:
 
Er, welcome back. Is it possible to go to hell without first giving PSB self-help advice? I don't want to be stuck in Heather's prayer-asylum for eternity.

[ December 04, 2006, 02:01 PM: Message edited by: LWard ]
 

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Posted by homer (Member # 420) on December 04, 2006, 02:03 PM:
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by palmspringsbum:
Homer,

I understand that your current tactic is to assault and blame the victim by accusing them of making wrong choices. I understand that you believe life is all about choices and the world is just and all that's required to get ahead is hard work, honesty, and correct choices - and that the proof of this is that you can easily determine how good someone is by how much money they have. I get $1000/month, so I must be about 50% gooder than someone that gets $700/month. Isn't that right?

---

quote:

---

Only in a fair and just world is life about 'correct choices'.

---

quote:

---

He LURED me into a trap.

---

quote:

---

And I also ran the lease by Tom Lemos, owner of Hayward Patients Resource Center, because he's really up on the law, and because their lawyer is Bill Panzer - who is The Best.

I may even have an email of Tom replying that he thought I had nothing to worry about. Actually, I ran it past Spud because I had hoped by his response (or lack thereof) to get some idea of whether they would help/back me if I got into trouble.

---

quote:

---

So, you have yet to extend to me the most basic common courtesy and answer any of MY questions Homer. Who exactly do you think you are?

---

quote:

---

So, why don't you extend to me the most very basic common courtesy and take half the time I've taken to compose and post this and tell us exactly why you think it's appropriate to deny homeless services to the aged and disabled if they cannot work?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by LWard:
Er, welcome back. Is it possible to go to hell without first giving PSB self-help advice? I don't want to be stuck in Heather's prayer-asylum for eternity.

---

Hiya Lward - it sure is:
Go to Hell

quote:

---

Originally posted by jgun:
Hey cagey- Great advice to PSB.

---

Hi jgun
That wasn't advice, it was a hissy fit. See Homer's posts for an example of what good advice is. I was just trying to highlight how mature and calm he is.

OK that wasn't believable, I know. I just got mad.
 

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Posted by jgun (Member # 1014) on December 04, 2006, 02:38 PM:
 
I think we are all getting a little tired of PSBs demmands. You would think that a person who wants some charitable help would have the mannerrs to at least be polite and ask instead of screaming go to hell at everyone. That's why I think he needs 24 hour care and should get 3 hots and a cot from a State mental facility until he kicks his addiction and sorts out his demons. That's supposed to be why we fund and operate these facilities.
 

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Posted by cagey (Member # 1919) on December 04, 2006, 02:50 PM:
 
He could have that if he'd do detox and the 28 day program at Janus, but he sees pot as the solution, not part of the problem. After that, he could get into mental health transitional housing, but they would expect him to take regular meds if he can't control himself.

If you ask if you can stay at any shelter and smoke pot, they are going to say no. That's why no one else asks - they just sneak off and do it anyway. (We're talking about a place where junkies shoot dope in the bathroom, alcoholics sip booze out of soda cans, and half the damn place is sneaking hits of pot outside with their cigarettes. There isn't any way to stop it without going into the bathrooms with them. Getting away with it isn't exactly rocket science.) I understand the principle of not wanting to lie about something you have a prescription for, but compared to sleeping in the rain it doesn't seem like a big deal to me.

I don't know why I'm hung up on the manners thing. It does seem dumb compared to the scope of his problems, but it just pisses me off. You wouldn't believe how nice he is in person. I just don't get this.
 

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Posted by mulepig (Member # 2044) on December 04, 2006, 02:51 PM:
 
Im burning in Hell now-burning a fat one!

[ December 04, 2006, 09:05 PM: Message edited by: mulepig ]
 

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Posted by LWard (Member # 1381) on December 04, 2006, 03:54 PM:
 
Sorry for talking about you as if you're not here, PSB. I admire stubbornness in almost all its forms, even Homer's, but watching you publicly self-destruct isn't entertaining to anybody except maybe a couple of people here. Please don’t abide them.

I don’t think your problem is addiction-- I think your problem is honesty. Stop being honest! Start lying. You’re from Alabama, right? Lie with charm.

That’s my uplifting self-help advice. I think hell is a pretty sure deal for me now.
 

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Posted by imaham (Member # 752) on December 04, 2006, 04:07 PM:
 
PSB

quote:

---

You (collectively) do everything you can to sabotage me and any attempts I make to try to help myself, drive me to hysterics with your assaults and your constant reminders every time I turn around that you don't want me here, up to and including being woken up in the middle of the night, harassed and ticketed by the police, and rousted in the freezing cold - and then claim the medicine obviously isn't working.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by palmspringsbum:
...Besides, I cannot speak at all today. My voice is totally gone from screaming GO TO HELL...

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by palmspringsbum:
But after this I certainly don't want anything ever from any of you again, and will be doing my damdest to divest myself of anything I have come by from you.

I couldn't use it now without flinching, anyway.

---

See, this is exactly what I mean about cutting off your nose to spite your face. You're mad at me and whoever else paid for that stuff, so to get even with us you're going to leave yourself without a tent, duffel bag, coat, phone, shirts, emergency $$ and whatever else there was. That's just stupid, Craig, although I'm sure whoever groundscores the stuff you ditch will have a much better winter. It might be smarter to keep the stuff and just lie and tell us you ditched it. You get the same dramatic effect, but you still have the stuff. If you don't want to hear advice, then maybe you should keep your problems and tirades to yourself instead of ranting all over a forum barely anyone reads anyway.

You're mad at homeless services, but instead of taking your check and moving to Humboldt where there is cheap rent and abundant cheap pot and having a decent life, you're going to sit here in the rain (without the camping gear you're about to toss away) as a form of revenge on all of us. Newsflash Craig - no one cares except those of us you just told to go rot in hell. We're the closest things to friends that you have here, but that doesn't mean that anyone has to take endless abuse from you. If you were some dummy it would be different, but you're as smart as anyone else here, and you know better.

This is simple Craig. People with mental health issues escalate and lose it all the time, then they apologize and life goes on because people are usually willing to cut us a little slack if we're at least trying. They really do know we lost it whether we admit it or not, so you might as well admit it. Then I'll admit I lost it and sent you a tirade at 4am because reading this pissed me off, apologize, and try harder to remember not to touch my keyboard before I have a few cups of coffee in the morning.

The bottom line is that (regardless of how it should be) your choices are to stay in Santa Cruz and sit out in the rain yelling at people so that you can afford pot, give up pot to get housing, or choose to go somewhere else where your check will cover rent as well as pot. Personally, I'd take what's behind door number 3, but that's just me. I hate sleeping in a wet sleeping bag.

You can probably get a new one from Valley Churches United if you can manage not to yell at them It's going to rain this weekend.

[ December 05, 2006, 06:25 AM: Message edited by: cagey ]
 

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Posted by LocalYokel (Member # 647) on December 05, 2006, 06:42 AM:
 
Is PSB really Winston?
 

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Posted by jgun (Member # 1014) on December 05, 2006, 07:13 AM:
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by LocalYokel:
Is PSB really Winston?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by LocalYokel:
Is PSB really Winston?

---

Having chosen to meet 2 of the 3, I can absolutely guarantee that Winston, Al and PSB are not each other. I'm pretty sure that you, jgun, homer, James, matty and robot aren't the 3 of them either. I'm not sure I believe anyone else at this point, though

ETA:

Oh yeah - Eric isn't one of them either, and neither are HT and JB or imaham.

[ December 05, 2006, 07:25 AM: Message edited by: cagey ]
 

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Posted by Buzz Daly (Member # 1594) on December 05, 2006, 07:52 AM:
 
I'm not posting this because I'm upset you left me out, Cagey, (or whatever your name really is), but, most folks know you are really Heather.
 

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Posted by cagey (Member # 1919) on December 05, 2006, 08:02 AM:
 
LOL

Well I don't know for sure that you aren't winston, but I believe you too, and I'm pretty sure I believe Lward isn't. Lward and matty have similar styles of humor though...hmmm

You better go give Heather CPR now.
 

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Posted by jgun (Member # 1014) on December 05, 2006, 08:11 AM:
 
I had to laugh too cagey! You and heather the same person? I think you've finally got them all totally baffled.
 

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Posted by cagey (Member # 1919) on December 05, 2006, 08:12 AM:
 
Oh, be quiet Denim

ETA:

Oops I forgot. I believe conSCious and Prag are real too.

And again:

I forgot snakebite and hellbent - I refuse to believe either of them could be Winston. I believe pretty much everyone that was here before the clones started having little tea parties and talking to themselves. That night was freaking hilarious. If Lward hadn't noticed old Siberia Sam, I was gonna split something from trying not to post.

[ December 05, 2006, 08:42 AM: Message edited by: cagey ]
 

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Posted by jgun (Member # 1014) on December 05, 2006, 08:59 AM:
 
lol I forgot about denim. Me being confused with him is equal to your being confused with heather, for sure. I wonder how ol denim's doing?
 

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Posted by cagey (Member # 1919) on December 05, 2006, 10:27 AM:
 
I don't know. I talked to him a few times before I got really sick, and then I didn't read it for at least a year, and when I started again he was gone.

I remember that he said he was close to retirement and was going to move away. I miss him. He was like my security blanket here.
 

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Posted by LWard (Member # 1381) on December 05, 2006, 11:54 AM:
 
Mulepig used conventional paragraph structure about a week ago. I don't suspect anything, but it WAS impressive.
 

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Posted by cagey (Member # 1919) on December 05, 2006, 12:11 PM:
 
Oh no! But...did he separate each thought with those silly dots...as if he never learned any other punctuation...Hmmm

I believe grapes/motormonkey/mulepig/horsecow/gullbeak is just who he says he is.
 

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Posted by LocalYokel (Member # 647) on December 05, 2006, 12:28 PM:
 
There ought to be a tongue-in-cheek graemlin.
 

---

Posted by LocalYokel (Member # 647) on December 05, 2006, 12:30 PM:
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by cagey:
Oh, be quiet Denim

ETA:

Oops I forgot. I believe conSCious and Prag are real too.

And again:

I forgot snakebite and hellbent - I refuse to believe either of them could be Winston. I believe pretty much everyone that was here before the clones started having little tea parties and talking to themselves. That night was freaking hilarious. If Lward hadn't noticed old Siberia Sam, I was gonna split something from trying not to post.

---

How could you forget JDAM? I thought Ol' Siberia Denim was still here, he's not?
 

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Posted by cagey (Member # 1919) on December 05, 2006, 12:44 PM:
 
Yep, there should be a tongue in cheek one, an innocent looking one, a kiss my *** one, and a host of others. Maybe there could be one for lying with a little nose that grows.

I can't believe I forgot JDAM! He's one of a kind, and I bet he never used a clone.

No one here feels anything like Denim to me, and he'd have to tell me himself for me to ever believe it. Plus, I buried a comment in here that he just wouldn't be able to resist if he's here, and I don't think anyone but you would know which one it is, if you even remember.

What ever happened to iceburn? I liked him.
 

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Posted by mulepig (Member # 2044) on December 05, 2006, 04:11 PM:
 
A Bible banger told me I'd go to Hell for smoking weed.

so between PSB and the Bible bangers-I have confirmed reservations to "burn one" for eternity.

right on!!!

"burning one" for eternity sound great!
 

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Posted by Buzz Daly (Member # 1594) on December 05, 2006, 05:18 PM:
 
Although some might view this as being "off topic", or, even, an unauthorized, and unhelpful digression, perhaps, (containing, a, lot, of, commas,), I'm feeling the spirit of the season already. For your pleasure, a tribute to "The Reason for The Season". Enjoy:

Jesus Was A Capricorn-----by Kris Kristofferson

Jesus was a Capricorn
He ate organic food
He believed in love and peace
And never wore no shoes

Long hair, beard and sandles
And a funky bunch of friends
Reckon wed just nail him up
If he came down again

Chorus:
cause everybodys gotta have somebody to look down on
Who they can feel better than at any time they please
Someone doin somethin dirty decent folks can frown on
If you cant find nobody else, then help yourself to me

Eggheads cussing rednecks cussing
Hippies for their hair
Others laugh at straights who laugh at
Freaks who laugh at squares

Some folks hate the whites
Who hate the blacks who hate the klan
Most of us hate anything that
We dont understand.........................(repeat many times and fade)

Well, that was refreshing, eh?
 

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Posted by Buzz Daly (Member # 1594) on December 05, 2006, 07:55 PM:
 
"Mulepig used conventional paragraph structure about a week ago. I don't suspect anything, but it WAS impressive."

I agree. It was impressive, LW. I suspects that Mule/Gull/Pig/Beak, is much deeper than he lets on, and would be comfortable with conventional methods of communicating, if encouraged to do so, although, I, for one, enjoy his style as it is.
 

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Posted by mulepig (Member # 2044) on December 05, 2006, 08:48 PM:
 
I figured it out..PSB is just fakin the whole show fer fun fer the forum.

But his "Burn In Hell" is a classic.
 

---

Posted by palmspringsbum (Member # 1742) on December 05, 2006, 08:53 PM:
 
This letter was posted on Americans for Safe Access's Marijuana for Mental Health list yesterday:

I now got to experience the wonderful world of the LA County Public Mental Health System. That's an entire NOVEL, but you don't want to know what a nightmare it is having to go to the same place as homeless people have to go to, in order to get their meds. It's no wonder those people can never, ever get well....they are trapped in a system that will never allow them to get ahead!

-------------------------------------------------
I agree! I recently wrote this blog about my experience in the mental health field...it's long....but, worth a read! Don't let this happen to you!

Like the MAJORITY of people on this planet, I had smoked pot from time to time, recreationally.

The first time I smoked pot, I was about 16 with my stepsister. We giggled a lot. I don't think I touched it again until I was 17 or 18. Most of the time, I'd come across it in the summertime, at the beach, at a party.

Years would go by where I wouldn't touch it, because I had studied voice and classical music in college, and never wanted to screw up "my instrument". But, I always preferred a nice joint to a drink, any day. And any educated physician would agree: marijuana is less harmful to your body than alcohol, if one were to pick a recreational drug.

On another note, Mental illness runs in my immediate family. One of my parents was diagnosed with schizophrenia when I was a child.

I'd always shown signs of mood swings, emotional temperament, maybe even OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder). I used to use art and music as my "drug" when OCD tendencies would come along. I'd channel depression into songwriting or a painting, or a poem. It always worked. I was, for the most part, "drug free", excluding the occasional social drink or joint.

I'd moved to Los Angeles in the late 1990's to pursue my artistic endeavors. Art and music remained the "drugs" I'd always used to keep my mood swings and OCD tendencies "in check".

However, about 4 years ago, everything happened at once: My artistic project fell apart, my "soul mate" was arrested and imprisoned on serious (crystal meth) drug charges (AND I HADN'T EVEN KNOWN HE WAS USING, MUCH LESS AN ADDICT OR A DEALER!), and my lucrative I.T. job was outsourced overseas. I was forced to take a position I was WAY underqualified for. I was nervous, insecure and scared, AND OF COURSE, LIKE ANY HUMAN BEING MIGHT BE UNDER THE CIRCUMSTANCES, A LITTLE DEPRESSED!

I moved into a new apartment. My neighbors smoked marijuana EVERY SINGLE NIGHT AFTER WORK and invited me over. At first I thought it was weird, but then I found It was wonderfully therapeutic! I'd talk to my neighbors and friends about my ex-boyfriend and insecurities at work, and smoking together seemed to put everything in perspective. Nothing seemed that bad after all.

Suddenly, I began to EXCEL at this job I was greatly underqualified for, I put together a new artistic project and it TOOK OFF, and my new friends and I were like family, smoking our peace pipe every night, releasing our daily stress, talking and bonding.

I shared this with my therapist, who shook her head in disgust at what was becoming a nightly marijuana habit. I started to feel guilty. I had a very high-profile job in a very high-profile medical facility. If they found out I was smoking an "illegal drug" (marijuana), it could be very bad! I decided to take my therapist's advice, went to my primary care physician and asked for an antidepressant.

I was prescribed a drug that was similar to Prozac "only better", because this one dealt, not only with Serotonin, but also with dopamine!

The first day I took it, I felt like there was a flourescent light shining above my head the entire day. I was so speeded out, I could barely keep up with my thoughts.

The second day, I felt GRRRRREEEEAATTT! I suppose this is how new coke addicts or meth addicts felt the first time they were given drugs! I felt like THIS PILL WAS THE ANSWER TO ALL MY PRAYERS! I WAS SUPPPPPERRRWOMAN!!! The depression caused by my recent breakup, etc. had quite honestly been DEBILITATING to me, and IN ALL FAIRNESS, THE ANTIDEPRESSANT REALLY DID HELP WITH THAT INITIALLY!

I still did great at my job...for several months...however, after several months, I was soooo speeded out, I began to butt heads with my superiors at work. I was hot-headed and would fly off the handle.

I ended up smoking pot again anyway because I felt so tweaked out...

...So I found a psychiatrist.

He did nothing but yawn during my sessions.

I went to another psychiatrist, shrink #2.

Shrink #2 decided I wasn't just depressed, but also had attention deficit disorder. She put me on a different antidepressant, and also put me on a drug similar to Ritalin.

I still didn't feel right, so in addition to psychiatrist #2, I started seeing therapist #2.

Six months later, I quit my job because my co-workers and I couldn't stop fighting (no doubt, it was because I was so combatative on the speedy ADHD meds), plus, I impulsively got married to some guy I had only known for a couple of months who could barely speak English, and I was STILL smoking pot anyway...MORE THAN EVER because now I REALLY needed to take the edge off!

I went to yet another Shrink, who was referred to me by therapist number two...let's call him....Shrink #3...

Shrink #3 added the diagnosis of bipolar disorder to the existing diagnoses of depression and attention deficit disorder, possibly OCD. He thought I should get off the strattera, go on yet another antidepressant, and maybe try an antipsychotic or mood stabilizer.

I went on the mood stabilizer, Seroquel? Gosh, who knows. Whatever it was, I suddenly found that I had a new facination with the kitchen knives, and would regularly ask my husband to hide them. I stopped taking the Seroquel immediately.

I know I was on Geodon once and passed out at my desk at my job at yet another hospital...man, don't know how I didn't get fired from THAT job...

Anyway, one day after being put on the antipsychotics, I jumped out of a moving car during an argument with my husband.

I phoned Shrink #3 to tell him about it. He told me to go to UCLA and check myself in through the emergency room since it was a sunday. I called my old neighbor up to drive me to the hospital. He complied, reluctantly. He didn't feel I needed to be in a psych ward. He said he didn't understand why I was on all these psychiatric drugs. He tried to remind me how well I had been doing, about 2 years earlier, without all these drugs. I was confused as hell, because my neighbor was not a doctor, and yet he was making sense. I disregarded him....to difficult...just listen to your doctors...they know what is right.

The admissions counselor asked me why I was there. I said "I don't know what is wrong with me. I jumped out of a moving car. Something is not right. I don't think my medication is right."

"Do you want to kill yourself?" The admissions clerk asked.

"NO! I don't want to die! I just don't know what is wrong with me!"

The above statement, I would pay for saying that DEARLY later on!

In the psych ward, I was first put on Geodon, another antipsychotic, the same one which made me pass out at work. It gave me something called "akathesia", the feeling of wanting to jump out of one's skin. Unless my legs were moving at all times, I was not comfortable.

I was not a cigarette smoker when I checked into the psych ward, but I started smoking cigarettes when they put me on Geodon....You see, they would gather all us "crazies" up every few hours, and the only time we would be allowed to see the light of day, would be the fifteen minute sessions to go outside and smoke. I explained that I didn't smoke nicotine, I smoked marijuana. They psych techs disregarded that statement and would say "Hey, don't go trying to quit everything at once!"

The NURSES WERE LIGHTING MY NICOTINE CIGARETTES...AND THIS IS UCLA IN LOS ANGELES CALIFORNIA, PEOPLE! THE YEAR, 2005! HELLLLOOOO!!!

Seeing that my behavior would not translate to "normal", and my husband's heart would break every time he saw me deteriorate more and more, they took me off Geodon.

Next, they tried Resperidol...Then Seroquel (again). They tried to get me to take this one drug called Lamictal. "What are the side effect?" I asked (I was starting to learn to ask that BEFORE hand). "Well, one in, like A MILLION people get a rash." The young psychiatrist (Shrink #4) assigned to me said. "What kind of a rash?"

"Well", she went on "It's very rare, but your skin could actually fall off...but that hardly EVER happens."

NO ****ING WAY! I wasn't going to be that one MILLIONTH person whose skin fell off.

They finally convinced me to try Lithium.

Believe it or not, I must admit..... I LOVED THE WAY LITHIUM FELT THE FIRST TWO DAYS I WAS ON IT. Why????

LITHIUM FEELS EXACTLY LIKE MARIJUANA......AT FIRST!!

In fact, when I mentioned this to young psychiatrist #4, she exclaimed, "Wow, everyone who I put on lithium says is feels EXACTLY like marijuana!"

Happy that they'd found the drug I could go on instead of that EVIL WEED, marijuana, I was finally discharged two weeks later, with a bottle of Cymbalta, a Bottle of Lithium, 38 pounds fatter, and a nicotine addiction.

I had to stop seeing therapist #2 and psychiatrist #3 because I lost that job where I'd fallen asleep at my desk, (finally), and my health insurance with it.

OH, DID I MENTION I GOT STUCK WITH A $10 GRAND BILL BECAUSE I HAD SAID THAT WHEN I JUMPED OUT OF THE CAR, I HADN'T BEEN TRYING TO KILL MYSELF???? Therefore, the insurance company claimed, it didn't warrant a two week stay

Anyway, I'd decided, since the ONE TIME IN MY LIFE I ACTUALLY HAD A REAL HOSPITALIZATION, MY HEALTH INSURANCE (California Blue Cross PPO/United Behavioral Health, in case you are curious), DECIDED NOT TO COVER IT ANYWAY? Good thing I bothered to pay $500 ****ing dollars a month in Cobra payments, huh???? (Moral of the story? You know how everyone says you need health insurance in case of an emergency? Well, don't count on them covering you JUST BECAUSE YOU PAID YOUR PREMIUMS!)

I spent two months in an outpatient program on disability. Try surviving on disability payments! Impossible!

Trying to explain my employment gaps and hospital stay to prospective employers...even more impossible.

In the outpatient program at UCLA, I am pressured by YET ANOTHER THERAPIST (therapist #3) and YET ANOTHER PSYCHIATRIST (Psychiatrist #5), as well as the 12-step programs they convinced me I needed, that I need to divorce my "pot head husband" or I'll never get off that "evil marijuana".

I love him and I don't want to leave him. But, he is fed up with my obsession with trying to get rid of marijuana and finding the right legal "pill" from the right doctor. He tells me that he feels that marijuana is healthy for him, and he felt it was healthy for me. I tell him if he has it in the house, it's too hard for me not to smoke. He tells me he is NOT going to stop bringing marijuana in the house.

Surprisingly, many of my friends side with the psychiatrists and therapists, claiming my husband is not supporting me.

Looking back now, I realize he was the only one making sense.

My two month stint in outpatient ends and it's time to try to assimilate back into society.

So, no shrink, no therapist...how was I going to maintain my new addiction to lithium, and cymbalta without someone writing scripts for me?

I now got to experience the wonderful world of the LA County Public Mental Health System. That's an entire NOVEL, but you don't want to know what a nightmare it is having to go to the same place as homeless people have to go to, in order to get their meds. It's no wonder those people can never, ever get well....they are trapped in a system that will never allow them to get ahead!

In the LA County Mental Health System, I am now seeing Shrink #6, who is actually a great woman, but her hands are tied because she has to work within the confines of the LA County Bureau****racy. (Wow, what a great new word!)

My honeymoon with Lithium ended quickly. Within four weeks, my thyroid function stopped. Even though my daily diet consisted of an orange and a glass of water for breakfast, and a salad for dinner, SOMEHOW I WAS GAINING WEIGHT! My teeny little 5 foot frame had never weighed more than 106 pounds, and yet now I was up to a hefty 140 POUNDS!!

IF I HADN'T WANTED TO KILL MYSELF BEFORE, I SURE DID NOW!

I was on disability, unable to focus or hold a job. I had to declare bankruptcy, as I couldn't possibly forsee how I was going to pay that hospital bill.

I finally went off Lithium, after gaining 50 pounds. I was back on my original antidepressants and truly suicidal. I was broke and would go over my friends homes and raid their marijuana in order to feel some sense of normalcy.

None of my friends could stand to be around me anymore. In fact, many of them still are not speaking to me today. I would fly off the handle because I was jacked up on antidpressants again. Surprisingly, even my open-minded friends were beginning to blame the marijuana. They saw me struggling AND LITERALLY BEGGING FOR HELP! BEGGING FOR ANSWERS! DYING TO FEEL NORMAL AGAIN! Would THAT MANY EDUCATED MEDICAL DOCTORS AND THERAPISTS STEER ME WRONG?????? Keep in mind, I am now speaking to therapist #3 and I'm on psychiatrist number 6. EVER SINGLE ONE OF THEM HAS MY FULL MEDICAL HISTORY!

I start attending 12-step programs. Everyone is treating me like a drug addict, maybe I am? I have completely lost my self-identity at this point, and am willing to latch onto even the label of "addict" if it will give me some sense of self. But as people tell their stories about how illegal drugs ruined their lives, I can't relate...in fact...it's starting to occur to me that my troubles began when I tried to QUIT SMOKING POT AND STARTED TAKING PRESCRIPTION DRUGS!

PLEASE NOTE: NEVER ONCE DID I ABUSE MY PRESCRIPTION DRUGS! I always went to my appointments, followed up with my physicians and took my dosages as prescribed, on time, relaying my symptoms and side effects to every physician. I WAS THOROUGH BECAUSE I HAD A BACKGROUND IN THE MEDICAL FIELD MYSELF! I TRUSTED THESE DOCTORS TO BE EDUCATED! Sadly, information on cannabis that is not biased by the Federal Government is NOT included in their education!

For the first time, I start struggling with the idea that maybe I need to get a prescription for marijuana? But, then the stereotypical images of being a stoner come to mind...and I don't want to be some stoner loser, either. I want to go to nursing school or possibly grad school...I can't smoke pot and be a nurse, can I?

My husband moved out on Christmas Eve with tears in his eyes after a tirade which ended with me asking him to please remove all sharp objects from my house because I didn't feel I could trust myself with them. He took his cannabis with him.

I managed to get another full time job, but couldn't focus at work. Multitasking the slightest thing...like, answering the phone while I was trying to type, could send me into a manic phase. My boss sent me home early one day out of frustration, and I didn't go back to work, because I really liked that boss so much, and I was so ashamed and embarrassed.

Three or four months later, March of 2006, I don't even remember how I got to this state of mind, but I am panicked. I hadn't had THC or cannabis in my system in months and I am still withdrawing from lithium and I am still jacked up on antidepressants. My electricity is about to get shut off because I haven't paid my bills.

I make an appointment with a therapist...therapist #4, to go along with psychiatrist #6. I've never even seen this therapist before and I am just beside myself, suicidal. She is underqualified, about 15 years younger than I am. Her supervisor walks in and asks her if SHE is okay!!!

She sends me to a state hospital.

It is horrific. I am treated like an animal, not even given a room, but left to sleep on a bench in the middle of a holding cell. (Later, I tell a friend of mine who has seen the insides of many prisons about my hospitalization, and he tells me that this particular hospital is scarying than all of them!)

I go into the bathroom with the sharpest thing I can find, and start cutting away at my wrists as fast as I can...

I feel like a mouse who is trying to bite off her leg in order to escape, I want to saw my hand off and escape from this world....

But I can't break skin, because I am holding a plastic knife.

I fall into a heap on the floor and just cry and cry, begging God to take my breath out of my body and let me die....Every time I exhale, I wait and see if I can just keep exhaling until I'm dead.

I have lost my husband, my friends, my job.

Then, it occurs to me....

....All this over...what?

NO ONE IS GOING TO SAVE ME BUT MYSELF.

Why am I on these drugs? Why did I stop taking the one herbal remedy that worked for me? The plant that, despite what the Federal Government wants you to believe, is harmless, yet full of healing powers, cancer-fighting agents?

I made a decision that, if marijuana kept me from being suicidal, ****, I was going to smoke it.

Not one doctor or nurse in the public hospital noticed that I'd tried to cut my wrists. They smiled and said "Wow, you seem better! Ready to go home?"

I went home, called my ex and asked him to bring some marijuana over.

On June 29th, I received a prescription for medical cannabis to treat anxiety, depression and bipolar disorder from a board certified medical doctor.

On July 27th, less than a month later, I was back to work full time, and had also been accepted back into school...something I had to drop four years ago "the first time I got sick".

I am now back down to my original weight. I also was able to quit smoking cigarettes, thanks to cannabis. I am currently in the process of getting off all of my synthetic drugs and now just use cannabis when I need it....which, I'm finding out, after a mere 48 hours after I've stopped taking the antidepressant which used to jack me up so badly I couldn't relax, I AM NOT EVEN CRAVING CANNABIS AND HAVEN'T SMOKED IN 24 HOURS ANYWAY!

My good neighbor recently reiterated to me, "You never needed all those drugs! I don't even think you need to smoke cannabis every day, eventually. You were doing just fine when you did just use cannabis every now and then. But, you learned a good lesson. No one knows what is better for you than yourself, and you found that out on your own."

As far as I am concerned cannabis = God's antidepressant, God's gift to mankind.

Just Google "Kaneh Bosm" and you will see what I mean!!!

Anyway.....Excuse me, as I am on my way over to that VERY FRIEND'S HOUSE, THAT VERY APARTMENT, to share God's gift with him!

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[ December 05, 2006, 09:00 PM: Message edited by: palmspringsbum ]
 

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Posted by cagey (Member # 1919) on December 06, 2006, 06:11 AM:
 
Craig, you can post lots of anecdotal evidence that pot works for some folks with mental health problems, and I could (if I felt like it) post lots of little stories of how lamictal and the other anticonvulsant epilepsy meds have helped other folks like me. (And yes, I'm well aware of the rash, but it isn't like you wake up with your skin about to fall off unless you've ignored all the warning signs). Your anecdotal evidence is pretty weak compared to the living example we see of you being unable to control your outbursts on a constant basis. But that's not the point.

The point is that you can't afford market level rents here, and you can't get subsidized mental health housing as long as you use pot as your medication. Shared housing isn't going to work for you because your choice of medication isn't controlling your episodes, and no matter how smart and funny you are the rest of the time no one in their right mind is going to put up with an abusive housemate who blames their problems on anyone but themselves. It isn't your fault that you have a neurological disorder, but you have choices in how you deal with it. You've chosen a medication that isn't covered by MediCal and that costs hundreds of dollars each month. That's your right to do, but given that choice, you can't get housing here. So the obvious choices left for you are to give up pot, or move somewhere where you can afford pot and rent out of your check, or keep doing what you're doing until your health gives out completely or you get 5150ed for scaring some poor old lady with your screaming. You can post 100 more articles about the wonders of marijuana, but those are still your choices.

When it comes to your meds, how do you define 'working'? To me, it means that I can eat and sleep, hold down a full-time job and be able to support myself, and maintain some semblance of normal relationships. They need to slow down my thoughts enough that I can function, but without side effects that are worse than what they are supposed to be treating. They need to at least buffer the cycling well enough that I don't end up screaming and raging, paranoid and delusional, or terrified and confused. Mine aren't perfect. I still have rough spots and poor impulse control, I'd rather be alone than try to figure out what other people are thinking, and I hate myself a whole lot of the time. But it's still better than it was without them.

So what does 'working' mean for you?

[ December 06, 2006, 07:12 AM: Message edited by: cagey ]
 

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Posted by palmspringsbum (Member # 1742) on December 06, 2006, 02:18 PM:
 
Shared housing isn't going to work for you because your choice of medication isn't controlling your episodes...

After the Hell that concentration camp and it's stooges and this town have put me through you come out with crap like that?

As I said....

GO TO HELL.

After 6 months of being treated like a piece of **** and abused by the concentration camp and being refused 'transitional' housing twice because I was a medical marijuana patient...

Just go to hell.

Fact is, I haven't read hardly any of what's been posted here in the past few days, and I didn't read past that quoted line...

JUST GO TO HELL.

[ December 06, 2006, 02:20 PM: Message edited by: palmspringsbum ]
 

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Posted by palmspringsbum (Member # 1742) on December 06, 2006, 02:56 PM:
 
By the way, the entire Locus Street garage is now evidently off-limits to the poor. The toilet has evidently been given to the Mongolian barbacue place next door...it is LOCKED and has been for the past several days.

...what a neat Christmass present for the poor and homeless. And anyone else that needs to GO.

You have de facto made it illegal to 'go to the toilet' from about 8pm at night until about 10 am in the morning.

GO TO HELL SANTA CRUZ.

GO TO HELL.
 

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Posted by Winston (Member # 1714) on December 06, 2006, 03:06 PM:
 
...Tucson is very nice this time of year..warm and inviting...much MJ being smoked and a college in town to boot. Fourth Ave is the Pacific Ave of Tucson...wanna bus ticket?
 

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Posted by cagey (Member # 1919) on December 06, 2006, 03:20 PM:
 
Nice rant. Unfortunately ranting doesn't change anything about your situation.

You still have three options: Stay here, smoke pot and stay homeless, stop smoking pot to get housing, or move somewhere else where your check will pay for housing and pot. Throwing temper tantrums might entertain you, but oddly enough it didn't change the cost of rent, the cost of your pot, or the policies of homeless services.
 

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Posted by mulepig (Member # 2044) on December 06, 2006, 03:27 PM:
 
When the first public hangings start

money raised for the homeless-or free pot for all

a molester or terror freak swings tight on a hemp rope

potsmokers n those needing help funded

smiles for all

[ January 02, 2007, 04:25 PM: Message edited by: mulepig ]
 

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Posted by cagey (Member # 1919) on December 06, 2006, 04:15 PM:
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Winston:
...Tucson is very nice this time of year..warm and inviting...much MJ being smoked and a college in town to boot. Fourth Ave is the Pacific Ave of Tucson...wanna bus ticket?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by palmspringsbum:
After 6 months of being treated like a piece of **** and abused by the concentration camp and being refused 'transitional' housing twice because I was a medical marijuana patient...

---

You can keep calling it a concentration camp if you'd like, but the people there *ARE* concerned about your welfare and the welfare of others. They also have to provide the greatest good to the greatest number with limited resources. One of the ways they do this is to limit transitional housing to those who are willing to live a clean and sober lifestyle. I find it hard to argue with their reasoning.

Are there any places you know of that provide transitional housing to people who *AREN'T* willing to lead a clean and sober lifestyle? If you can find such a place, then I'd love to hear about it and I would suggest that place is probably a better fit for you than Santa Cruz. However, I highly doubt that such a place exists.

In the meantime, the choices available to you are exactly the ones that cagey presented. All of the raging in the world isn't going to change a thing.
 

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Posted by LocalYokel (Member # 647) on December 06, 2006, 05:48 PM:
 
homer, haven't you learned yet? No good deed goes unpunished.
 

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Posted by homer (Member # 420) on December 06, 2006, 06:12 PM:
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by LocalYokel:
homer, haven't you learned yet? No good deed goes unpunished.

---

Yeah, I know. But sometimes the stakes are so high that you've gotta try. It is getting damn cold out there.

[ December 06, 2006, 06:13 PM: Message edited by: homer ]
 

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Posted by Winston (Member # 1714) on December 06, 2006, 07:24 PM:
 
..Cagey, I don't have any clones...sorry.
PSB is clinical...if he doesn't get out of the weather he could die of exposure. I'm offering a bus ticket to warmer climes...other posters have pledged some pocket money to help him survive.
..With consideration for your sincere desire to help PSB, you are not the only one who is troubled by his plight...and giving him $20 doesn't really do too much does it? You might let him live with you, but you won't. You might spend the money and rent him a room now and then..but you won't. You are trying to reason with a crazy person who should be intered on a 5150.
..As nicely as I can I'm going to just continue the offer to PSB because you don't seem to be doing him much good...even the best intentions only go so far you know..feel free to keep reasoning with him...anytime he want's to get on the Bus to warmer climes...he's got backers..I'm not the only one involved in offering concrete help...since you have no resources to share and don't seem to be doing too well getting him out of the weather...I'll just leave the bus ticket offer open...Arizonia can always use anouther reeferholic snowbird.
 

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Posted by cagey (Member # 1919) on December 06, 2006, 07:44 PM:
 
Winston, you're a sad, sick cruel individual, and I truly hope that you can find some peace in your life so that you can end this continual pattern of inflicting pain on people with mental disabilities. Sometimes it results extreme acts on their part, as you well know.
 

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Posted by LWard (Member # 1381) on December 06, 2006, 07:55 PM:
 
Winston, it's time to recalibrate your volt-ohm-sadism meter again.
 

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Posted by homer (Member # 420) on December 06, 2006, 08:21 PM:
 
Wassa matta Winston? Can't find any flys to pull the wings off of or small animals to torture? Sheesh! Go pick on someone your own size for a change.
 

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Posted by Winston (Member # 1714) on December 06, 2006, 08:54 PM:
 
..Cagey, I just got an E-mail that informs me you make $93k a year (with benefits!) from the county..you can certainly afford to help out PSB and even buy him a ticket to Humbolt...will you put your money where your mouth is? I, and those who have true pity for PSB offer transportation and spending money to get him to a warmer clime..and you gave him how much?
..LWard makes rude comments, but I've never seen or heard of any manner or form of kindness or compassion from him..to anyone..
..So, as far as calibrating my giggy meter..its very simple..I have to go pay my property taxes this week...any one who wants to kick down to help me out will have a seat of honor at my table.
I don't care much for those who only call rude names...quite a few nice people are leaving this forum due to the unrestrained nasty attitudes going on...on the one hand..I pity those who can only express themselves in rude or hostile terms..on the other hand..they don't mean much to me at all...I have good friends who are a comfort and a treasure...
BTW...LWard..I've been told that you have hacked this forum and that YOU are the clonemeister..could it be? I've also been told that you have found a way to hack and read the personal E-mails of the posters here. I don't know if that's true..but IF it is...then shame on you! I take some time off and the villany gets deeper and less appealing every day...
..Cagey..You have a good county job...why don't YOU give PSB some money for a warm room? I guess it's easier to write preachy E-Mails than to actually DO something in the real world...kick down girlfriend!! You made more than I did last year and I'm offering cold cash for the guy...
The least you can do is match my standing offer...
..that is..if you are not all talk...like some here..kick down..everyone will feel better...
..nothing befits the true spirit of the season than helping the downtrodden amoung us...
..do you REALLY make $93k at the county? I want an application!!
 

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Posted by cagey (Member # 1919) on December 06, 2006, 08:57 PM:
 
Well I guess it's pretty obvious now that Yoke had nothing to feel guilty about.
 

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Posted by homer (Member # 420) on December 06, 2006, 09:14 PM:
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Winston:

..do you REALLY make $93k at the county? I want an application!!

---

Of course cagey has actual marketable skills. She could make a lot more in the private sector.

Oh yeah, and where does an IBEW electrician get off claiming anyone else is overpaid?
 

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Posted by cagey (Member # 1919) on December 06, 2006, 09:18 PM:
 
LOL Homer

He's just jealous that not only can he not drive me to suicide because he's too ridiculous to care about, but to make it worse, a crazy woman makes way more than he does at the moment
 

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Posted by homer (Member # 420) on December 06, 2006, 09:19 PM:
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Winston:
...quite a few nice people are leaving this forum due to the unrestrained nasty attitudes going on...

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by cagey:
LOL Homer

He's just jealous that not only can he not drive me to suicide because he's too ridiculous to care about, but to make it worse, a crazy woman makes way more than he does at the moment

---

Excellent, cagey! Wit trumps ignorance.
 

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Posted by cagey (Member # 1919) on December 07, 2006, 07:41 AM:
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by jgun:
Excellent, cagey! Wit trumps ignorance.

---

Thanks jgun

But it will be ok. I'm sure if Winston and his email buddy in the frozen tundra (or was that the wilds of Africa? LOL) decide to get a good education, work hard and apply themselves, and try working a 40 hour week once in awhile, they too can succeed. This is America, after all
 

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Posted by jgun (Member # 1014) on December 07, 2006, 07:56 AM:
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by cagey:
[QB [/qb]

---

Thanks jgun

But it will be ok. I'm sure if Winston and his email buddy in the frozen tundra (or was that the wilds of Africa? LOL) decide to get a good education, work hard and apply themselves, and try working a 40 hour week once in awhile, they too can succeed. [QB][/QUOTE]

And if they don't- they can end up "stuck in Iraq", lol
Funny how many chauvinists still lurk out there...
 

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Posted by cagey (Member # 1919) on December 07, 2006, 08:02 AM:
 
Geez jgun, didn't your dad teach you anything? It's just not feminine to make more than a man does. And every single thing wrong with Santa Cruz can be traced back to evil public employees who have the nerve to accept the salary posted in the newspaper. The nerve of us! This town is just going to the dogs, I tell you!
 

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Posted by jgun (Member # 1014) on December 07, 2006, 08:11 AM:
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by cagey:
Geez jgun, didn't your dad teach you anything? It's just not feminine to make more than a man does. And every single thing wrong with Santa Cruz can be traced back to evil public employees who have the nerve to accept the salary posted in the newspaper. The nerve of us! This town is just going to the dogs, I tell you!

---

I can't figure out why these crybabies don't take those fat government jobs themselves if they are such a great deal. Maybe they aren't qualified?

As for a woman's place- she should be found standing behind her man (holding him up, of course), and she should never make more money than him (unless she keeps it a secret).
Truth is I'd love it if my wife made twice as much as I do. What fool wouldn't?
 

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Posted by cagey (Member # 1919) on December 07, 2006, 08:23 AM:
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by jgun:
Maybe they aren't qualified?

---

quote:

---

What fool wouldn't?

---

See, I'm guessing it would be ok with that kind of fool as long as they got to spend it, and not have to work full time themselves. It's just when they can't take advantage of it that they mind. Maybe if they put in a few more hours they wouldn't have so much time on their hands to investigate people's salaries and post them in public. (Even funnier is the fact that they thought I would be ashamed of it )
 

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Posted by LocalYokel (Member # 647) on December 07, 2006, 10:49 AM:
 
Thanks PSB, please spread the word far and wide about how miserable and cruel our town is.
 

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Posted by imaham (Member # 752) on December 07, 2006, 01:23 PM:
 
Hey Yoke. Be prepared for a stream of at least 23 GO TO HELL's!
 

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Posted by LocalYokel (Member # 647) on December 07, 2006, 02:28 PM:
 
The more the merrier.
 

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Posted by palmspringsbum (Member # 1742) on December 12, 2006, 02:20 PM:
 
I haven't read anything here in at least 5 days. But I was going through the news today and saw this, and felt I really should share it with you:

"I was treated like an animal," -Thomason said. "I've experienced excruciating pain in my life with my cancer. But this was one of the most painful and scary experiences I've ever had. I'm not a troublemaker. I told them I was a cancer patient, and it didn't even faze them. I got no sympathy at all."

...

But Thomason contends that when he begged the jail nurse for his pain medication, she instead asked him if he needed to go to detox.

"This is a terminal cancer patient in severe and barely medically controlled pain," Cayton-Holland said. "He was treated by this facility with deliberate indifference to this known serious medical condition - mocking him and pretending as if he were an addict who just needed time to 'detox.' "

Thomason is going to sue, says the article.

And the more I think about it the more parallels I see to my situation. Your homeless services IS a jail, and you've made it ILLEGAL for a homeless person to SLEEP anywhere else...

I wish him luck. If I had a few bucks I'd send it to him.

I may anyway.

Go Thomason!

And by the way, I've decided the only thing to do is tell everyone what a wonderful place Santa Cruz is for indigent medical marijuana patients.

Be interesting to see how many I can lure here...

... now, if only I can get the San Francisco Chronicle to cooperate.

[ December 12, 2006, 02:23 PM: Message edited by: palmspringsbum ]
 

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Posted by mulepig (Member # 2044) on December 12, 2006, 03:02 PM:
 
Niners won

saddamn swang

there is good news in the world I guess

now bring our troops home!

[ January 02, 2007, 04:29 PM: Message edited by: mulepig ]
 

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Posted by mulepig (Member # 2044) on December 12, 2006, 03:04 PM:
 
I know I know!!

Go to hell!

beat him to it..!!!!!

no matter how helpful or 'nice" advice i try to give PSB hell just tell me to burn in hell.
 

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Posted by cagey (Member # 1919) on December 12, 2006, 03:21 PM:
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by palmspringsbum:
Be interesting to see how many I can lure here...

---

So that their lives can become a living hell because there aren't any good services for them? Is there some particular reason that you want them to suffer as much as you are? Will that really make you feel better? Some advocate you are.

The biggest mistake in your logic is that you think that your painful existence here is a problem for anyone but yourself and a handful of others who care about homeless people in general or you in particular. No one else is listening or noticing but us.

I hope that you're still in a hotel room and getting through the storm ok. No matter how pissed off you are, there's a few of us here that will help you if you need it. There isn't much we can do to make it comfortable to get through the rainy season here, but if you want to take a trip to a dryer place till spring, we can help you do that.

[ December 12, 2006, 03:22 PM: Message edited by: cagey ]
 

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Posted by palmspringsbum (Member # 1742) on January 02, 2007, 02:22 PM:
 
Life goes on...amazingly.

Seems I wrote most about mine in this thread over Hell month: Homeless Deaths

I ran across this comment in an article about workplace drug testing and figured this was as good a place as any to discuss it (or at least try).

I feel that anyone who opposes testing has something to hide. Drug testing should be mandatory for the safety of everyone. If I get a job, I'd like to be assured that the people I work with are drug free - including the boss. People on drugs are prone to drowsiness, hyperactivity, temper tantrums, among other disturbing behaviors. Because this county is so heavily infested with drug abusers, testing is the right thing to do.

The article: http://www.theunion.com/article/20061222/NEWS/112220131

This is the reality I face every day. Denied even housing...even a roof and a bed. Woken by the police...

[ January 02, 2007, 02:24 PM: Message edited by: palmspringsbum ]
 

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Posted by mulepig (Member # 2044) on January 02, 2007, 04:33 PM:
 
The new "sweat test" and soon to be nationwide mandatory-sweat-hair n pee testing will fix that.

Employers will have no choice but to drug test-and test often-

[ January 09, 2007, 08:52 PM: Message edited by: mulepig ]
 

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Posted by palmspringsbum (Member # 1742) on January 09, 2007, 08:31 PM:
 
This thread definitely belongs here: Homeless Deaths

[ January 22, 2007, 03:56 PM: Message edited by: palmspringsbum ]
 

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Posted by mulepig (Member # 2044) on January 09, 2007, 08:51 PM:
 
one need not "sweat" for the sweat test to work-existing skin moisture,always present,will give an nearly instant readout-sophisticated sensors n a mini computer swiftly give the results-

the first ones turned colors-the new one has a digital readout.

a cop(or on the job, a personel manager) will just press n test-ya burned a week ago it picks it right up.
 

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Posted by palmspringsbum (Member # 1742) on March 02, 2007, 04:49 PM:
 
Downtown Santa Cruz strives to realize its potential..

A shift in the wind, WRT bums

My website is gone

Police Officer Assaulted Downtown

[ March 02, 2007, 04:52 PM: Message edited by: palmspringsbum ]
 

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Posted by mulepig (Member # 2044) on March 02, 2007, 10:06 PM:
 
DRILL AMERICA

get the crude/money/jobs flowing-buy n make US goods again-n-free weed for all-but they make ya wait till the end of yer shift...

week on oil rig straight...

week off stoned.....

fair balance as the 15 bill barrel calif offshore is tapped.

alaska 25 bill or so

offshore gulf n east coast another 100 bill....
 

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Posted by mulepig (Member # 2044) on March 02, 2007, 10:08 PM:
 
if any and all eco people can create a system

to run cars n households without fossil fuels---

the public will buy it

not gores 'offsets'

a real solution....

DRILL AMERICA!

as we work on this....
 

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