Taking a Trip on the Good Ship Could've Been (Oct 2016)

Originally published October 8th, 2016.

I woke up at six a.m. intent on pressing and preparing all the gowns for all the Sisters.  Instead, I spent the next thirty minutes looking for our iron (found buried under clothes in a laundry basket) and no one in the abbey, or working for the abbey, got by that morning without a lecture on how irons are integral to being a sister.  How everything has a place and must be kept in that place.  How the iron is essential to our grooming.  How we can get away with being wrinkled for farm work, but not acceptable for activist events.  I was so annoyed.

Nonetheless, I was smiling as I got in the car because at seven-thirty, on the dot, all road trip personnel were assembled, pressed and crisp, and ready to rock and roll.   And we pulled into the Capitol Building parking structure in Sacramento at precisely ten o’clock. 

Everything runs right on time . . . years of practice and design.

The night before, I finally studied the sixty-page document that makes up Prop 64, the recreational marijuana legalization bill on the California ballot next month.  I knew I would be sitting at the Yes on Prop 64 table.   I knew my Sisters would be with the ‘Yes’ side of the audience.   It was being held on the Capitol steps, and politicians and media would be there, I was told. 

I saw no signs of either group in attendance, actually, but we did have a Citizens’ debate and that is the nourishment that drew me.  As activists, we are used to being ignored by both the politicians and the media.  That is just, yawn, status quo.

I went to Sacramento believing the debate would be – should we allow recreational marijuana or shouldn’t we?  I anticipated the tired old arguments about it getting in the hands of children, or encouraging use of it by all – kids and non-kids.  I quickly realized what my fellow panelists already knew. This debate wasn’t about that at all.

I asked for a show of hands from the No to Prop 64 side.  

How many of you don’t want to see recreational marijuana legalized?  No show of hands.  “Now, how many of you are sitting on the ‘No to Prop 64’ side because you think this bill is all wrong, too much power in the hands of the legislators, too much taxes . . .?”  I didn’t have to finish.  All the hands went up.

I was thrilled.  It appeared that every person there believes recreational marijuana should be legalized.  There was no debate from the people who say “NO” to rec. 

The debate became:  should we legalize now, with this big pharma bill, or should we wait and try to get it right, like Ohio did?  (Ohio passed on medical marijuana when the only bill on the ballot formed a four-company State monopoly.)  The voters didn’t reject it because they don’t want medical marijuana in their state, they rejected it because it was a corrupt bill and they know they can do better.  

I get it.  I understand and am empathetic to the No-on-Prop-64-because-we-can-do-better Team.  MCLR was better.  CCLR was better.  All of the initiatives that didn’t make it to the ballot, were better.  But guess what?  They didn’t make it to the ballot.  So our choice is now Recreational or No Recreational. 

To get Recreational cannabis, we have to put up with interference and taxation from eight different State agencies named in the proposition:

                Board of Equalization

                State Water Resources Control Board

                Department of Fish and Wildlife

                Department of Consumer Affairs

                Department of Public Health

                Department of Food and Agriculture

                Bureau of State Audits

                Bureau of Marijuana Control

We have taxation rights in here that will make sure the black market never goes away – which is, by the way, opposite the mission of the proposition.  We have a track and trace program that is just new chains, invented solely for keeping the plants and the people of the plants in chains.  I get it.  I agree, the other bills were better.  But the other bills aren’t on the ballot.  At this point, sticking with this argument is like taking a ride on the good ship “could’ve been”.

I used the analogy of human slavery.  The cannabis plant and her people have been kept in the dark, chained, beaten, starved, maligned, and cursed.  Now the slave-owner has extended sunlight and food, and lighter, more comfortable chains.  Prop 64 and all those agencies above who plan to feed off the sweat of the slave, they are, by their nature, racist, unfair, and the enemies of the cannabis plant.

But do we, the slaves, deny the sunlight, food and lighter chains?  With more than eight thousand felony arrests every year that will go away with Prop 64, can we afford to wait another day?

Here’s what Prop 64 does right:

Anti-corruption clauses restricting the licensing folks from dipping their fingers in the business.

Promotion of small business via a five-year delay before big grow licenses are issued.

Minors who deal or use will stop going to jail.  Stop draining their parents’ savings to keep them from going to jail.  Replaced with drug counseling and limited fines.   The drug counseling is free and the fines are less than what Fresno State charges a college student for j-walking.

It gives the courts authority to re-sentence people who are being penalized that wouldn’t be after Prop 64 goes into effect.

It re-affirms the Compassionate Use Act of 1996 and all those rights.

It prohibits liquor stores from selling cannabis (yeah!)

But mostly, it dis-empowers the police.  Every home in the state, every property, has the right to six indoor plants and the cities and counties can’t regulate that away.  This is a serious step for plant freedom.

If I was on the fence about Prop 64 before going to the debate, sitting up there opposite the anti-Prop 64 people was enough to push me all the way over, firmly, happily, with the Yes folks.  It’s because the No folks are angry and frustrated and apparently, desperate to get people to see it their way.

Here is some of the spin worth noting:

1. THE BILL DOESN’T SAY ANYTHING ABOUT MEDICAL! They proclaimed this as if it is a great secret sin of the Proposition 64.  The truth is, Prop 64 is about recreational marijuana.  The governor and MMRSA have already got Medical on its path for over-regulation.
2. IT ONLY ALLOWS FOR ONE OUNCE OF WEED TO CARRY! They proclaimed the unfairness of this based on MEDICAL needs of patients, they kept saying “This isn’t right for my veterans” (your veterans?) and one panelist claimed to smoke two ounces per day for his medical condition.  Those vets and that panelist can still have their two ounces a day, through the medical program.  We are talking about REC!  They kept mixing medical into the equation to confuse and scare.  (But seriously, anyone who has to smoke two ounces a day needs to look into concentrates and better weed.)
3. MORE PEOPLE WILL GO TO JAIL THAN EVER BEFORE! This was a claim based on the fact that the old rules for MEDICAL (again, they couldn’t stop mixing issues) disappear at the end of 2018.  If a collective hasn’t gotten their license from the licensing board by then, then YES, they have to close and if they don’t, they will go to jail.  Does this sound like 8,800 felonies a year from Cannabis?  Do you think that there are 8,800 collectives a year that will be denied licenses and so all those folks will be imprisoned?  I don’t think so.  8,800 is the number of citizens per year that are being sentenced now, without Prop 64.
4. They accused the YES team of working for big money.   To the left of me sat a hemp radio program host who spends all his life understanding the changing laws in the various states.   To the right of me sat a lawyer who went to prison for five years for growing cannabis for his dying mother.  And then there was me. 
5. In their rebuttals, they would say things like, “Listening to them is like listening to Trump” and “We need a real debate”.  Yes, they said ‘this isn’t a real debate’ and now who sounds like Trump?

Their arguments were emotional, but there wasn’t much of an audience to hear them anyway and of the audience we did have, the majority sat on the No side.  Not "NO" on rec marijuana, just NO on such heavy handed legislation.  

While I was speaking, one man on the No side hollered “What do you know?  You don't pay taxes!  You work for the Vatican”.  That drew laughter from the folks who know us.  I replied, “We aren’t Catholic” and he said “Well, then, what the hell are you?”  Now that’s a good question.  

For the record, we aren't non-profit, we aren't in the psychotropics business; neither the recreational bills nor the medical marijuana legislation really apply to us -- neither of them do, and for the record, we pay all taxes and have no desire to be a tax-exempt organization, like, er, the NFL, for example.  No desire whatsoever.

According to every recent survey, Prop 64 is going to pass.  That’s not why I sat in the debate on the Pro-Prop 64 side, but the fact perhaps lent an air of confidence and calmness to the Yes side that the No table didn’t have.   Except for me.  I never do activism calmly.  But my debate-mates were calm.

The only legitimate argument for voting No on proposition 64 is because it gives the government too much control.  I don’t trust the government either, so we plan to activate against MMRSA (the marijuana control board) and we will make them reform.  But in the meantime, we will not refuse the sunlight, nourishment and lighter chains.

Throw Away People

I once (not long ago) took up a battle against Bank of America, to keep my brother from losing his home.  His wife had him sign for a second mortgage and then took the money and split.  He helped move me to California to live with him and his boys so I could fight that battle for him.    I took up that battle and won it for him and as soon as I won, he turned right around and made me homeless.  And kept all my belongings (sadly, a common victimization of all made homeless). 

Before he made me homeless, however, I secured his home for him, reduced his mortgage payments by sixty percent . . . got the bank to write off a big chunk . . . and, as soon as I won, he threw me to the streets, proving the old adage that no good deed goes unpunished. 

My children and I were never ‘truly’ homeless, as we lived between two sets of sofa’s, in two homes, on either side of town, for four very long, very hard months.  Then, only after we suffered enough, the family stepped in and helped secure a home.  Not the local family, the family from back-east.  It was a framing experience for who I am today.  Framing.  That’s the nicest thing I can say about it.  (I still shake my fist at God about it, now and again.)

Yesterday, through facebook, I received an S.O.S. call from a local disabled vet who is going to be made homeless in seven days by the county -- because he has no electricity.  To ‘not have’ electricity in his sub-division violates code.  I knew his emotional state was not good, so I arrived there about an hour after he contacted me, and I was one of the first people he contacted when he got the letter. 

While he waited, he called the county -- the woman who authored the eviction notice, and asked her, “Are you trying to make me blow my brains out?  Because that’s really the only alternative I see here.”

Because he mentioned suicide in that phone call, a few moments after I arrived, two Sheriff’s deputies appeared at his door-step.  I was so offended by their cardboard cop routine.  The disabled vet, in answer to their question, “are you depressed?” explained about the notice.  Explained about the family home, paid for, no debt on property taxes or anything.  He explained that all of his belongings will be lost and he will go to the streets.  And about his dying room-mate, who would also end up on the streets.

“But are you depressed?” asked the cardboard cop, again.

“Wouldn’t you be?” replied the tired-looking veteran of the US Marine Corp.

“But are you ok?” asked the other cardboard cop.

“No!  I’m NOT OK at all!” he said, but then as soon as he said it, he realized that these men were not going to help him and getting tranquilized and put in a psych ward was not going to help him.  We exchanged much as our eyes locked between the two uniforms.

I interrupted and said “He’s fine.”

The one cop got angry and scolded me for not letting the veteran speak.  It infuriated me.

"Dude, have you ever been homeless?  Have you?"

I awoke his inner bully (I guess) because he insisted I step away from the other two, with him, where he and I proceeded to argue.  He tried to lecture me on how they are uniquely trained to handle this shit, and he was very insulted when I said "Use your head!  He's just been told he's trash!  For a $6,000 bill owed PG&E, the town he was born into, the town he grew up in, the town he buried his parents in, the town he gave birth to a child in, that town just told him that he is trash.  That he is a throw-away person.  And why?  Because the big fat corporate entity, PG&E, won’t give him electricity.  The corporation is causing his homelessness and forgive my hostility, Sir, but you are the corporations’ stooges.  And all you want, right now, from him, is for him to tell you he won’t harm himself and he’s not depressed.  Dude, you can’t have someone tell you that you are trash and not be depressed.  It’s depressing!”

“Ma’am, I think you should just quit talking now.”

“Well, that feeling is mutual, Sir.”

He is sixty years old and disabled.  He has another disabled man living with him, who is on oxygen, collects disability (also) and is near death.  The house is filled with stuff, but nothing of value to anyone but the men living there.  This vet can make his own case (he can verbalize) regarding how he has been systematically victimized by PG&E and the county, but his hands are gnarled and his knees cause him chronic pain. 

The young officer of the county sheriff’s department was furious at me and I was being belligerent because I couldn’t formulate, at the time, what I was really dismayed about.  

I was really dismayed that they just wanted a ‘yes or no’ answer to two questions.  Are you depressed?  Do you feel like you could harm yourself or others?  The men standing there in there crisp brown uniforms, leathered up as if ready for a really German BDSM film, the ones who could actually DO something for this man, didn’t ask the humanitarian question.  They didn’t want to know how to help him, they wanted to know if they should cart him off to the psychiatric wing for observation, that’s all.

They should have offered him SOMETHING in the line of help, some validation that he was being victimized, something that they could personally do for this situation.  And if they can’t do that, then they need to shelf the faux concern.  “We’re just here to make sure he’s ok”.  If you want him to be ok, do this.  Tell the county to take back the eviction notice.  Get PG&E involved because if they would just give him back his fricking electric, the man would be fine! They are evicting him for not having electricity, while his mate lies dying in the back room. 

The house is paid for.  The property taxes are paid.  This man is not a criminal.  He is being harassed because he grows his own cannabis and his unenlightened subdivision neighbors don’t like it that he has a few pot plants growing in his back yard every fall. 

He has been paying $400 to $600 a month for fuel for a generator just to get internet and to keep his refrigerator and stove going.  He’s lived this way for six years and interestingly enough, his health took a big dive a year after PG&E landed their $6K extra assessment on him.  A year after that, he was declared completely disabled and was authorized by the State to receive in home care service (he can’t drive). 

Two things.  One, I think there is evidence of cause-and-effect between PG&E victimizing him, and his disabled health.  Two, how does he get in home care workers to take care of him in a home with no electricity?  Amazing.

I assured the Sheriff’s that I wasn’t going to let him ‘off’ himself and that they could take their leather and weapons and be on their way.  Frankly, they didn’t care what I said, but my friend?  He told them what they wanted to hear so they would leave.

He did not get behind in his electric bills for growing pot, or for cooking meth, or for anything of the things I might have done to get my electric put back on.  Six years ago, PG&E randomly sent him a bill for $6K, with an explanation that the meter reading guy hadn’t been reading the meter correctly for the past several years, and so there is catch-up to play.  Mr. disabled vet had no job and no money and no way to come up with $6K.  So, PG&E just added interest year after year until it got to $10K and then they cut him off.

Sometime in this period, he received a one-time settlement check of $3,200 for back social security owed him and he turned it all over to PG&E!  They magnanimously turned on the lights for six months, and then shut him off again.  In six years, he’s had electricity in his house for six months. 

It is a fact that twenty-six vets commit suicide every day in this country, and the vast majority do it because they are refused help from the medical establishment, from the law.  By the way they are treated, these people are being told – systematically – that they are, in fact, ‘throw away people’ – of no value to this world. 

You really have to be made homeless, violently and completely, to understand how it makes suicide the only sane choice.  Seriously.  People with healthy egos, with healthy attitudes, with many gifts and with much love in their hearts -- put in that situation, will say ‘ok, fuck this – I am not playing out this drama.  I am not going to experience sleeping on the streets and begging with a cup.  No thank you.  I am exiting stage left.  You can take my house, you can take my shit, but you can’t make me stand around and watch you do it to me.’

The county’s office was absolutely right to take heed in his words, when this man accused them of trying to get him to blow his own brains out.  They were right to worry.  Sending two sheriff’s who basically, stand there, thumbs hooked in belt-loops, dark glasses that ensure you can’t see their eyes, rocking back and forth on their heels as if they are anxious to do something – anything – club someone, chase someone, f*ck someone up, looking all official and in command, letting you know that they won’t go away until they hear what they want to hear.  So, my friend gave them that to make them go away.  But the danger hasn’t gone away.  

The danger is still real -- because I know this old vet and he is a proud man.  He spent his life cutting trees down, climbing big-ass trees, taking on daunting tasks that many men wouldn’t do.  He is a devoted fan of mother earth, but also, a skilled hunter and outdoorsman.  He isn’t going to dance to their tune. He will become another veteran statistic, rather than accept the title of ‘throw away person’.

Who is at blame for this situation?  I wonder.  Everyone probably has a share.  The disabled vet for not calling me in sooner.  Me, for knowing that he had a PG&E problem and falsely assuming it had something to do with indoor grow light bills (not the issue – at all!), but those are sins of reaction.  The county gets an F in sensitivity and caring, because they are just enforcing the law.  PG&E started this whole thing and PG&E has never done anything to resolve it with him – though I know he has tried . . . a man who is living on $900 a month doesn’t give $3,200 to PG&E without expecting resolution.  Permanent resolution.

And you all know that PG&E wrote off that loss many, many years ago, right?

I have a call with my disabled vet friend this morning to begin to draw up the history.  I will play documentarian and get the story down, and then start making calls . . . PG&E, the County, the V.A., the newspapers . . . Let us hope that in this case, my pen will prove mightier than the system.

Cannabis Kate in California (www.blogspot.com)

Other Blogs in the Cannabis Kate Series

1^st:  Central Valley Cannabis Operations

http://cannabiskateincalifornia.blogspot.com/

2^nd: Back Then (Smoking Through Prohibition)

http://cannabiskateincalifornia.blogspot.com/2015/07/back-then.html

3^rd: Experience Growing Cannabis

http://cannabiskateincalifornia.blogspot.com/2015/07/so-kate-what-is-your-experience-with.html

4^th:  The Cannabis Landscape of the Central Valley and a Tribute to the Activists

http://cannabiskateincalifornia.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-cannabis-landscape-of-central.html