palmspringsbum
Disgusted and Discouraged
Between June of last year and November 27th, I published 40 articles on Examiner.com regarding medical marijuana and the movement. During this time I also connected with a number of people prominent in The Movement through Facebook. Some of them old friends.
Then, about December, Examiner.com underwent administrative changes. They were delisted from the Google News Index. It’s only been several weeks now since they were relisted, and it appears a story must be read before it is sent to Google News to index, and that could take from Friday to Monday according to posts I read in their support forum.
And they don’t want stories more than 400 words.
I couldn’t say my last name in 400 words or less.
It’s been one discouragement after another.
It appears Richard Lee’s Tax and Regulate (The New Improved Marijuana Tax Act) is going to be on the ballot, and by that point Californian’s will be willing to vote for anything that promises to legalize marijuana, and that the Jack Herer Initiative will not be on the ballot.
I buried myself in dead relatives for several weeks thinking that would help. And I had a good excuse, the discovery online of Listen to The Mockingbird, a genealogy, which I have been hoping to find for many years now.
I recently ran across a video by Dennis (which I wish I’d found sooner) where he “declares war” on Richard Lee and states we are being “lead to slaughter”.
Donna Lambert, who is on trial in San Diego, posted on my Facebook Wall that she’d finally read the Tax & Regulate initiative – perhaps prompted by Dennis’ video? – and was really dismayed by what she read.
I think the main reason I haven’t written in months is because it’s all been so discouraging. My worst fears about the forces assembled against the establishment of marijuana as medicine are materializing and I don’t see anything I can do about it.
It’s also draining to write about it: depressing and exhausting. It is most definitely not fun and I take no joy or pleasure in it, as many of my detractors accuse.
I was asked to speak at HempCon by what appears to have been a shooting star -Cheryl Shuman of Beverly Hills NORML. She asked after I had made a rather cutting comment to something she posted on Facebook. I was rather surprised she asked me to submit a bio after the comment. And it was some 4 or 6 weeks later that I did eventually do so, and was listed on a preliminary program (published on Facebook) to speak in Los Angeles.
I hadn’t paid much attention, quite frankly. There were two events scheduled; one in Los Angeles and the other in San Francisco. (And just now it occurs to me to wonder if the one in San Francisco has been scuttled, and if anyone got burned on that.) And I assumed the first one was in San Francisco. I was wrong, that one was scheduled for August.
Anyway, when I learned it was in Los Angeles I sent a note stating I couldn’t make it unless transportation and lodging were provided, and that was that.
As it turned out, I’m glad I didn’t go. Firstly, it turns out there was absolutely no accommodation for medical patients there, no where to medicate. And CBS went undercover and caught “fake” doctors selling recommendations. I have since seen a doctor advertise that he will replace any of the “fake” ones with a real one, for free.
And then Brad Lane of Cannabis Planet brought a couple of hemp plants and Cheryl had a hissy-fit. Some reports claim she ripped them up. I could have let all that pass and just thanked god I wasn’t there, but then I witnessed Cheryl attempting to ruin and blackball that guy on Facebook. Seeing that confirmed for me every nasty thing Celeb Stoner said and insinuated about her.
In the midst of all this, 7 members of MPP resigned because of predatory (sadistic?) sexual behavior by Rob Kampia, the executive director. All indications are that Kampia will be back in the saddle again just in time for the election season.
Meanwhile, Russ Belville, NORML’s outreach director, reached out and slapped medical marijuana patients in the Huffington Post. I agree with Belville that medical marijuana laws since Proposition 215 in 1996 have become progressively useless. New Jersey’s is a crushing defeat, not a victory.
But then he attempts to blackmail medical patients into supporting the upcoming initiatives in California and Arizona, to repay “social” users for voting for these progressively useless laws.
MPP is the organization responsible for crafting most, if not all, of the medical marijuana laws … except for California’s Compassionate Use Act of 1996.
So it’s beginning to look a lot like we are, indeed, being led to slaughter, as Dennis says.
Adding to the discouragement were smaller things, such as when I took the train on New Year’s Eve to get medicine. The reason I went on that day was because I got my disability money early because of the holiday. I was halfway to San Francisco on the train when they called me to tell me my recommendation had expired and they couldn’t provide me with marijuana.
No, it hadn’t expired, it was a good for two more years.
But as far as they were concerned it expired one year after it was written and they didn’t care how long the doctor wrote it for.
And I was halfway to San Francisco on the train. On New Year’s Eve.
The fact is, I have been more than satisfied with that “caregiver” relationship for more than a year. But after that, I don’t want anything more to do with them.
Fortunately, I had Dennis’ number in the phone, and he was home, and he was able to help me out.
And then after that, Mike Boutin of Grace Farm in Trinity County, made me the beneficiary of one of his Marijuana Miracles. Last November Mike appeared on page 2 of a 4-page feature in The Los Angeles Times.
Not everything has been discouraging.
In addition to the Marijuana Miracle from Mike Boutin and Grace Farm, I was also filmed taking the bus and train from Santa Cruz to San Francisco to buy medicine. This was the month before New Year’s when they told me they didn’t care what my doctor wrote, as far as they were concerned the recommendation expired one year after it was written.
I always consider it a plus when I make it through the holidays without a major life-changing trauma of some sort.
Now, today, looking at Blogspot they say they’re going to be discontinuing FTP service, so I’ve been looking into hosting this blog on my own domain with my own host, and migrating it to WordPress or some other application.
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7 Responses to “Disgusted and Discouraged”
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March 16th, 2010 at 4:05 pm
Dear J. Craig Canada,
I'm shocked to hear some of the things that you've written about me without even asking for my side of the story.I invited you as a speaker to the LA convention and at the very last minute you wrote an email saying that you were confused, however, the dates were always clearly posted. Regarding smoking for patients at the LA Convention Center, it is strictly prohibited and the place was crawling with undercovers and police. Los Angeles is a much different city today than any other place in California or other states. It's a hostile environment for patients. You can believe whatever you want, but you were not there. For you to assume that "Brad's" account on the incident is correct is simply wrong. I have not tried to do anything but defend myself when the police were heading towards us as a principle sponsor. The police were holding us responsible for Brad's blatant illegal actions and I am not willing to go to jail for him or anyone else. My job is to protect the NORML brand from someone coming in to ruin an event. Personally I think you owe me an apology, but perhaps I never really knew you either. I had assumed from your posts that you were a fair and articulate gentleman. I'm disappointed that you jump to conclusions on things that happened when you were simply not even in the building.
Do you feel that's a fair assessment? Or are you going to blast me again?
Cheryl Shuman
Executive Editor
Beverly Hills NORML90210.org
March 16th, 2010 at 6:42 pm
As I said in my blog entry above, my conclusion is based on what you wrote and did on Facebook.
Not on what anyone else said or wrote.
I do not have access to those Facebook posts now, or know if they still exist.
This all brings to mind that woman in "A Confederacy of Dunces" who was always 'protecting' her 'investment'.
I've thought quit a bit about the whole thing. I've thought about what it must have been like for you, the stress that you must have been under, and that this was your debut or your comeback.
To have put an event of that magnitude together in the very short amount of time you did, with your health and other issues, is truly remarkable – and we are all, most definitely, human.
Maybe the guy is a "sleezebag" and a "scumball". I know nothing about him or Cannabis Planet. But it appears to me that what happened was the equivalent of throwing a gay couple out of a gay freedom day parade for holding hands. And than attempting to smear and ruin that couple because they held hands in a gay freedom day parade.
This isn't about protecting anyone's 'brand' for me. I am going to be extremely critical about NORML over the next months. I have come to believe we are, as Dennis has said, being led to slaughter with this Tax & Regulate madness, and that NORML has a big part in it – that it is a well-coordinated and strategically planned campaign spanning months, and even years.
Evidently it's ok to tell the Wall Street Journal that medical marijuana is a 'joke', but not ok to bring a hemp plant to a NORML sales convention:
http://www.examiner.com/x-14883-Santa-Cruz-County-Drug-Policy-Examiner~y2009m7d24-Selling-out-the-medical-marijuana-movement
While I'm at it, I am sick of seeing two clowns who's claim to fame is smoking a dog-shit joint in green-face being held up as heros of anything. Talk about damaging a 'brand' …
March 16th, 2010 at 10:16 pm
It just dawned on me that I do have access to the comments on Facebook, as I took screen shots of them and those screen shots are in one of my Facebook photo albums, as well as on my domain.
If I were out to get you I would have written the entire blog – actually, an article on Examiner.com – about the incident, with images of the screen shots and links to images large enough for the text to be legible.
I do think it's time I wrote something about "cannibalism", however – not at all something I'm looking forward to.
March 17th, 2010 at 8:22 pm
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April 20th, 2010 at 3:50 am
Good post, thanks
June 20th, 2010 at 2:02 pm
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August 19th, 2010 at 2:38 am
[...] of the formatting of many, if not most, of the articles on the site. This was the second time in twelve months that examiner.com has trashed their writers' [...]