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  In DC, No Such Thing As Too Poor for Medical Pot

Posted by CN Staff on August 04, 2010 at 14:18:08 PT
By Jessica Gresko,  Associated Press Writer 
Source: Associated Press 

Washington, D.C. -- No one should be too poor to buy pot if they live in Washington, at least if the marijuana is for a medical condition. That's the conclusion of a new medical marijuana law enacted in the nation's capital.The District of Columbia passed a law earlier this year that allows residents to legally obtain the drug for medical reasons. But it also includes a provision unlike the 14 other states with medical marijuana laws, requiring the drug to be provided at a discount to poor residents who qualify. Who will get the reduced-price marijuana and how much it will cost, however, is still being worked out.
"Obviously because there's no roadmap on how to do this, it may require some tweaking over time," said David Catania, a D.C. councilman and the chairman of the city health committee that drafted the law. "We may, in fact, set an example for other states."The first round of regulations implementing the law is expected to be released Friday. It may answer some questions about how low-income residents will be treated, but the regulations will also be revised over several months, and patients aren't expected to be able to purchase medical marijuana in the city until 2011.Right now the law says that patients "unable to afford a sufficient supply of medical marijuana" will be able to purchase it "on a sliding scale." Low-income patients will also get a discount on a required city registration fee. Dispensaries, meanwhile, will have to devote some revenue to providing marijuana to needy patients.The range of what the drug will ultimately cost low-income residents is anyone's guess. On the illegal market, an ounce of marijuana can range from about $100-$140, according recent police estimates. City officials have estimated that an ounce from a dispensary will cost about $350 and that the average user will purchase about that much a month, though up to two ounces would be permitted. While one city report suggests 300 people would buy marijuana in the first year — a number some consider low — no one knows yet how many would qualify for a reduced rate. One guess is 30 percent, about the same as the percentage of the district's population that is on Medicaid.Allen St. Pierre, the executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, a Washington-based nonprofit that advocates for the legalization of marijuana, said the city will have to be careful that dispensary prices aren't too different from what it costs to buy marijuana illegally, a price he estimated ranges from $200 to $500 an ounce. If buying marijuana at a dispensary costs more, some people — poor patients in particular — may just keep buying illegally.No other states require dispensaries to provide the drug at a discount, though in November residents in Berkeley, Calif., will vote on a ballot measure that could require dispensaries there to provide free marijuana to poor patients. A number of California dispensaries already voluntarily do that for patients who can prove hardship."I think that ethic of taking care of people who can't take care of themselves has been part of the medical cannabis movement from the beginning," said Steve DeAngelo, the executive director of Harborside Health Center in Oakland, Calif., which until recently had a program that gave out free weekly "care packages" to about 600 patients on unemployment or pensions.For Washington residents, qualifying for a reduced rate may also be tied to the federal poverty level. The city has among the highest poverty rates in the nation — only Mississippi is substantially higher — and more than 1 in 3 residents get some form of health care assistance.Teresa Skipper, an HIV-positive resident who uses marijuana to stop frequent nausea and help her eat, said she hopes the new law will make getting the drug easier for her since she is a Medicaid patient. She would like to get the drug legally, but she says she can't and won't pay more than the $50 an ounce she pays on the illegal market."People under the poverty level and below shouldn't have to pay anything," said Skipper, who uses about an ounce a week. She's waiting to see what officials will decide, but she said it may not change much for her."Marijuana is like gas and food to me. It's in the budget," she said.Source: Associated Press (Wire)Author: Jessica Gresko,  Associated Press WriterPublished: August 4, 2010Copyright: 2010 The Associated PressCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml

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Comment #83 posted by FoM on August 10, 2010 at 05:52:00 PT
Afterburner
Thank you. 
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #82 posted by afterburner on August 09, 2010 at 22:18:48 PT
FoM #69
"I pity people who are stuck in a big city right now. At least we can enjoy living in the country."{
Go out yonder, peace in the valleyCome downtown, have to rumble in the alleyOh, you don't know the shape I'm in[more]...
}
The Shape I'm In - The Band (Lyrics and Chords)
http://www.guntheranderson.com/v/data/theshape.htmPrince of Wales opening integrative college of medicine.
(NaturalNews) Several senior officials from the Prince of Wales' former complementary health foundation are starting a new college of medicine that will include integrative and alternative approaches to health. One of the goals of the college is to teach...
http://www.naturalnews.com/029389_wales_integrative_medicine.htmlGo organic. Grow organic. Together we can wrest control of the food supply from heartless corporate pirates.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #81 posted by Hope on August 08, 2010 at 12:32:02 PT
 :0)
Thank you.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #80 posted by Paint with light on August 08, 2010 at 12:30:38 PT
Hope
There is no fault or offense on your part to forgive.I understand that you are challenged at this point because of the battle you are waging.All I want for you to do is to concentrate on getting well and not beat yourself up for anything.Those that love you will understand and your friendship is all they ask.Thanks for allowing me into your world.....good friend.Legal like alcohol.....but more so.
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Comment #79 posted by Hope on August 08, 2010 at 12:04:46 PT
Paint with light
I've been to your photography web site before. I think it's in my favorites... but I have not gone searching for it since I got out of the hospital, as I should have. I'm going slow about nearly everything most of the time... except for a day or two when they've done the chemo which apparently involves some steroids stimulant type parts of it. I trust you'll forgive my slowness and forgetfulness. 
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Comment #78 posted by Paint with light on August 07, 2010 at 22:19:58 PT
Hope and FoM
You are welcome to get my e-mail address from FoM if she has it handy.If she doesn't I can e-mail it to her.I don't know if you remember my real name but you can go to www."my real name".zenfolio.com and contact me by e-mail or get my phone number.FoM, the zenfolio address is a new web site I am building. Drop in and take a look if you get a chance. Instead of building each page by hand this time I am going with templates.In the 1970's rock and roll gallery I have images of Eric Clapton, Kansas, Yes, Willie Nelson, and Lynyrd Skynyrd.I looked for my Emmy Lou Harris images to do for Hope to see, but all I found was my B and W images and they are not as good as the color images I have.....somewhere.Eventually I will have my other site redirect to the new one.Zenfolio has a good set up for uploading and selling, or trying to sell, your pictures.Speaking of economics........My art show sales are 20% of what they used to be so I am going to start doing more portrait work and teaching classes. Even in hard times people will buy pictures of their kids, I hope.If not, I am practicing the phrase, "Do you want fries with that?".Legal like alcohol.
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Comment #77 posted by Hope on August 07, 2010 at 21:03:03 PT
Had Enough Comment 72
That is right. That's what they reek of. They have no conscience."These people have no conscience. If they did they wouldn’t do the things they do."
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Comment #76 posted by Hope on August 07, 2010 at 20:57:52 PT
NWO
I didn't comprehend what they were getting at with the NWO stuff like you did, FoM. I never thought there was anything good about it and I knew that it was ominous. I'm afraid to watch that video. I might be braver tomorrow.Why couldn't they have started some businesses overseas... without taking the jobs from here to there? I know it was and is about more money and power for the super wealthy elites like the Bushes and their friends, but why did they have to cause so much loss, so much crushing to this country and it's people to do it?I don't know any of that sort of super wealthy person, but what I know of them and have seen of them, except for rare cases, I wouldn't want to have any association with them anymore than they would want to have any association with me. To me, they reek of something really wrong going on in their hearts and lives and how they relate, or not, to the rest of us.Although I think I wouldn't dislike George Soros. He really seems like he cares a bit about what happens to people... but he does know his money business.
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Comment #75 posted by Hope on August 07, 2010 at 20:45:03 PT
Had Enough Comment 67
You're so right. 
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Comment #74 posted by Hope on August 07, 2010 at 20:22:21 PT
Had Enough
I love you so much my friend. I love your stories, your knowledge, your poems, and your music.Now I see you in a busy place, plunking coins in a phone to talk to me and cheer me up.I wouldn't know you if I saw you on the street unless you called my name... but I love you. I love your good and true spirit which I feel I've come to know over these many years sharing your experiences and your thoughts as a fellow "conspirator" to make the world a better place than it is.Keep on keeping on. We're going to get this baby safely into port, no matter how rough or impossible it looks to be.
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Comment #73 posted by FoM on August 07, 2010 at 18:21:00 PT

Had Enough
I think the only way they can sleep at all at night is to drink a lot of alcohol. Oh demon alcohol sad memories I can't recall.It deadens the senses.
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Comment #72 posted by Had Enough on August 07, 2010 at 18:17:04 PT

Those Banks
Those banks are sitting on a lot of cash (our taxpayer cash) and they won’t lend it out like they were supposed to.If the cash was given out to the taxpayers instead...that money would have gone right back into the economy, government would have collected their taxes on it, the banks would have received their payments...etc...Mark Hurd CEO of HP.That man hasn’t worked a day in his life. He has never had to get up on a roof, in an attic, under a house to earn a living. He has never had to dig a trench out in the hot sun to put conduits in it then cover it back up. He has never had to deliver a Pizza, worked at a fast food chain or any other hospitality job. He has made his money off the Blood, Sweat, and Tears of others.Again...If that were one of the “small people” they would have been fired on the spot with the loss of all benefits, escorted out the door, and possibly prosecuted in some courtroom.He should be treated the same.And Gloria Allred wouldn’t have even taken the complainants call...more or less given her the time of day...These people have no conscience. If they did they wouldn’t do the things they do. How can they sleep at night???Bride says...they are so used to treating people that way all their life, that, that is a normal way of thinking for them...So they think that it is okay to screw over everybody, and suck up to others...************Spinning Wheel - High Quality Versionhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi9sLkyhhlE

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Comment #71 posted by FoM on August 07, 2010 at 18:14:12 PT

Proof of NWO from George Bush SR 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CWBTL33MpA
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Comment #70 posted by FoM on August 07, 2010 at 18:04:48 PT

Had Enough
When Bush senior talked about it being a New World Order I knew what that meant. It meant that we would soon live like third world countries. They wouldn't come up to our standard of living but we would be brought down to their standard of living. That's what is happening now. As the jobs left our country for slave labor wages the backbone of our country was crippled. They don't need us to make money because they go where they can manipulate people to work for meager salaries. Corporations have no conscience. That's why I have a hard time with people yelling about free market enterprise. It will be our destruction.
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Comment #69 posted by FoM on August 07, 2010 at 17:57:06 PT

Had Enough
The extra work for Stick isn't easy with his heart condition but what choice did we have or we would have been in serious trouble. I pity people who are stuck in a big city right now. At least we can enjoy living in the country.
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Comment #68 posted by FoM on August 07, 2010 at 17:51:53 PT

Had Enough
I know you're right. We really needed to sell some property. We had it listed for a year. People wanted it but the banks won't loan the money. When we put a small ad in the newspaper to rent them we were flooded with calls. So many desperate people. People losing their homes. People renting that the house they are renting is getting foreclosed on. It was a terrible burden wanting to help everyone but we only had two homes to rent. 
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Comment #67 posted by Had Enough on August 07, 2010 at 17:38:50 PT

Money...It's a hit...
Yes...It’s been hard on many people the last few years...This Depression we are in is not a natural economic cycle...It was contrived by a few to re-distribute the wealth.This is a word wide issue going on here.Where did all the money go? It sure didn’t just up and disappear...It went somewhere else...To the wealthy few who can’t get enough...AIG...Wall Street Banksters robbed our Treasury with the help of The Federal Reserve (privately owned Central Bank) under the guise of “too big too fail”So they take our money spread it amongst themselves and live high on the hog while others are thrown to the curb.General Motors...another company that American Taxpayers bailed out is now about to invest close to $500 million in its Ramos Arizpe plant in northern Mexico to produce a new line of engines as well as a new vehicle...The investment will directly create 390 jobs in Coahuila state, where Ramos Arizpe is located.
Another $215 million will go toward upgrading the factory's production lines to build a new vehicle for the domestic and international markets, she said, noting that the investment will be key to maintaining 400 jobs.That is GM’s thank you to the very people who kept them in business. That money should be invested in America, not a foreign countryAnd...Mark Hurd CEO of Hewlett-Packard just got caught doing hanky panky with a subordinate...His punishment...more than 30 million dollars severance package. 2.5 million in cash, the rest in stocks and things. Gloria Allred is the attorney representing the subordinate...I wonder what her cut of the deal will be???If that were one of the “small people” they would have been fired on the spot, and escorted out the door.Anytime something is purchased that has the Hewlett-Packard label on it, a portion of that retail price to the consumer, helps pay for all that severance package, Gloria Allreds cut, and then some.American Taxpayers bailed out the banking industry...Their thanks are...Sky high interest rates on credit cards, and a holding back on loans for housing and small business.I have no animosity for someone becoming wealthy as long as they truly earn it, but this stuff is just getting repulsive. People are being thrown out on the streets, the middle class has been eliminated, less than 1% of the population controls more than 60% of the wealth...this cannot go on much longer.************Pink Floyd - Money - Live 8http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xl6NfQyNLto

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Comment #66 posted by FoM on August 07, 2010 at 16:50:32 PT

Had Enough
I understand. It has been very hard for us too the last couple of years. We're still here and hanging on. 
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Comment #65 posted by Had Enough on August 07, 2010 at 16:34:21 PT

We Must Believe...
HopeI miss not being here too...but I’ve been checking in on a regular basis...and I take your comment as a compliment, and I thank you..If I can make someone smile...I feel as though I’ve acually accomplished something of importance...Been jumping through many hoops of late...and everytime I clear one hurdle, someone throws another hoop up in the air to jump through.And that is where I’ve been...Taking care of stuff, stuff mankind shouldn’t even have to deal with...But the wealthy/greedy ones keep life complicated for the not so wealty ones.But...at least I was able to overcome most of the obstacales and I’m still able and willing to overcome what gets thrown my way...so far...And I keep thinking that things could be much, much worse than thet really are...So I will leave you with this for now...************Crystal Gayle Muppets Show "We Must Believe in Magic"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlHTa0JpvbQ&feature=related***Mad is the captain of Alpha CentauriWe must be out of our mindsStill we are shipmates bound for tomorrowAnd everyone here's flying blind***Mad is the crew bound for Alpha CentauriDreamers and poets and clownsBold is the ship bound for Alpha CentauriNothing can turn it around***Oh, we must believe in magicWe must believe in the guiding handIf you believe in magicYou'll have the universe at your command************The rest of the Lyricshttp://www.lyricsdownload.com/gayle-crystal-we-must-believe-in-magic-lyrics.html
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Comment #64 posted by FoM on August 07, 2010 at 15:58:33 PT

Hope
Vent away and keep sharing your burden because we love you. We can't fix it for you or we would. I hope our love can give you strength during this most difficult time in your life. Like Had Enough said: It's always the Darkest before the Dawn.
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Comment #63 posted by FoM on August 07, 2010 at 15:54:06 PT

Had Enough
I miss seeing you around. You always bring us such good vibrations and music too.
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Comment #62 posted by Had Enough on August 07, 2010 at 15:37:09 PT

Sister Hope
“It's always the darkest before the dawn”"and don't worry about the darkness, for that is when the stars shine the brightest”***You are of strong spirit...like the horses you admire...you will overcome.Hardly a day goes by that I don’t think of you and your situation...and this place...Be strong...Be free...

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Comment #61 posted by Hope on August 07, 2010 at 14:57:09 PT

"In a nasty time of it now"
No doubt. This is possibly the thickest of the worst chemo battle right now. Treatment three of four. Chemo's bad. The poking is bad,too. I got to the point at one time in the hospital if a medical person pulled a ball point pen out of their pocket, I would reflexively nearly jump out of my skin. My eyes got round and zeroed in on whatever they were taking out of their pocket. They mostly used tiny butterfly needles with yellow wings. If they were all in my hand at one time, my entire had easily would have been covered in them. Even out on the fingers and up on the wrists. Yellow butterflies. They had to take it all from one hand... because the other arm and hand had blood clots. If they were all there at one time... there would easily have been fifty of them.I got past that and grew less jumpy about it. Not liking it by any means but not jumping. The jumping was a powerful fear reflex and it was very unpleasant. I couldn't afford it, energy wise. In it's way, that reflex was almost as painful and draining (lol) as the blood drawing. People woke me up twice a night, every three hours or so, for over a week to poke me and draw blood. They took it in the daytime, too... of course.I regained some relative calmness about it which made it easier.Scares, even mild ones somehow reverberate and feel even worse under the influence of these powerful chemicals flowing and swimming and bubbling and killing cancer, and doing God knows what in me.The poking and the pricks are bad but I think the cutting's worse. I think the cutting is worse even than the chemo and some of it's worst and more alarming or painful undesirable effects. Chemo after-pain has made me cry, at least once, maybe twice, and being scared of chemo has made me tear up a time or two. The cutting and all that attends it are the worst of all... so far. I still have more surgery to go. And then the radiation.Either the cancer will kill me or all these people that are doing their best to help me, and I, and Love, Good Grace, and Mercy, will kill the cancer.I'm hoping for the latter.
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Comment #60 posted by FoM on August 07, 2010 at 11:48:22 PT

Hope
Thank you. I am so glad I don't have to care for them too! LOL! 
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Comment #59 posted by FoM on August 07, 2010 at 11:47:00 PT

Hope
Hang in there. You are in a nasty time of it now. 
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Comment #58 posted by Hope on August 07, 2010 at 11:43:11 PT

Comment 56
I'm so happy for you!That sounds wonderful. It is wonderful to even just look at horses. Especially horses you don't have to take care of yourself.I love seeing and watching my neighbors' animals. It's like a free gift and I don't have to feed them and pay their vet bills, but I do really enjoy watching them. They make the pastoral scenes around me perfect. They often graze, rest in the shade, or bed down just a few feet from the house and they like watching us, too. Plus I can do them the favor of just keeping a bit of an eye on them and can report to their owners if there is some trouble.Blessings on your new neighbors and yourselves!
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Comment #57 posted by Hope on August 07, 2010 at 11:33:33 PT

I haven't called anyone
because I've about lost my mind and can only complain and berate and rant and rave these days.Or just be a lump of ... lumpishness.big sighIt'll pass... and I'll survive... but meantime... it's a bit rough and strange and unpleasant.Well duh.And I lost Paint with light's phone number and haven't found his email... and Had Enough's and they were so good to call and comfort me.:0(Well... duh... some more.Sitting here on my bed with my hat on like a big lump on a log... with a hat on.Good grief... I feel crazy... and look it, too.
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Comment #56 posted by FoM on August 07, 2010 at 08:31:19 PT

Hope and Everyone
After a couple weeks of trying to find two families to rent our places we finally got it done. I had lost my voice just answering the calls. LOL! What a big relief. It's been since 1993 that I have had a horse in my barn and now I will have 2 horses to enjoy seeing in the pasture. One young girl wants a horse so maybe there will be 3 in time. 
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Comment #55 posted by FoM on August 07, 2010 at 08:06:49 PT

BGreen
You got mail. Thanks Hope!
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Comment #54 posted by Hope on August 07, 2010 at 06:41:59 PT

Actually
I was going to send her your email address just now,BGreen. I thought I already had.But what I thought and what I did don't always line up so well these days.On the way, though, FoM.
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Comment #53 posted by Hope on August 07, 2010 at 06:40:15 PT

Yes, BGreen
You got it right, almost to the exact words of my oncologist.:0)
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Comment #52 posted by BGreen on August 07, 2010 at 06:39:12 PT

I think nothing of the kind, FoM
No, my email address isn't the same but you can get it from Hope. She can also forward the picture of Mrs. Green and I on the beach in the Riviera Maya in Mexico that I sent her. She can also send me your email address if that's OK with you. I guess I should say if it's OK with Hope since I'm asking her to do all of this. :) I can call you since it doesn't cost me anymore than the cost of my plan no matter where I call in the US.Well, I'm off to water my garden. The 100 degree weather hasn't been kind to my tomatoes at all. Oh, well, I've been munching down the salsa we've made with our own tomatoes and peppers so at least we got something for our hard work. Our organic salsa is yummy!The Reverend Bud Green
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Comment #51 posted by FoM on August 07, 2010 at 03:59:21 PT

BGreen
I didn't want to think that I haven't called you because I didn't want to talk with you. For money reasons we dropped our long distance service. I wish I had your e-mail address. If it's the same one you used when you registered on CNews I can probably find it. 
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Comment #50 posted by FoM on August 07, 2010 at 03:56:55 PT

Hope
You know you are welcome. I don't like political talk either. I look at issues from how I feel not from a political view. 
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Comment #49 posted by BGreen on August 07, 2010 at 00:07:41 PT

Hope re: post 38
I would like to remind you of something I wrote to you a month ago:You continue to take care of yourself and keep up with your great outlook. You are going to beat this cancer like a dirty rug. You are going to float like a butterfly and sting like a bee as you kick the cancer's a$$ like Mohammad Ali. We're going to stop the cancer in it's tracks just like rush hour traffic in Dallas.I hate to say "I told you so" but you can give me a little bit of credit for my foresight and premonition.You go, girl!Bud
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Comment #48 posted by Paint with light on August 06, 2010 at 22:33:57 PT

vent if you need to, Hope
You are among friends.I can only speak for myself, but I enjoy seeing your spirit soar as you search for the best for all.You really worry more about the rest of us than you do about yourself.There are so many injustices in the world that it is easy to want to cure them all.I for one am very glad you have chosen ours as the one to speak your mind and share your words.Get some rest and we will "git" after them again tomorrow.Legal like alcohol......rubbing.
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Comment #47 posted by Hope on August 06, 2010 at 22:22:07 PT

Comment 44 and 45
We are close... and thank you for the good advice and comfort you always give me, FoM. Thank you so much.
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Comment #46 posted by Hope on August 06, 2010 at 22:17:18 PT

I hate political talk...
I only got involved in speaking out against the drug war and cannabis prohibition because our own government was killing and terrorizing and imprisoning our own citizens and other people over it. It was so wrong. I couldn't hold my tongue. It was just wrong.This other political stuff is out of my realm and over my head. It seems necessary... even now for the sake of my health and recovery... that I not discuss or argue in any way any of these other political issues and not let them get me worried and upset or that my opinions, however fleeting they may be, worry or upset anyone else, especially people I feel close to like I do my fellow commenters here. I never talk about these issues to other people for the very same reasons, and I can't believe I even went as far into this subject as I did... even with my friends here. It only upsets me and I can't do a thing about it. Thoughts passing through my mind aren't necessarily the ones I hold dear or value or will have the same feelings about tomorrow.I hate that I got any of you upset and disappointed with me over any of this stuff.Love on and keep doing the best you can... which is what you all do best.Forgive me... and may this thread pass quickly into oblivion, because of lots of good news... and my words not remembered or held against me.:0(Good night, dear friends. 
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Comment #45 posted by FoM on August 06, 2010 at 20:21:49 PT

Hope
We are getting closer day by day. Our day is much closer then it was when we started this journey over 10 years ago.
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Comment #44 posted by FoM on August 06, 2010 at 20:19:45 PT

Hope
It is one of the things in life that the only choice you have is to do it. Keep your eyes on when you will be healthy again and when you are deep in the valley your friends will hold your hand and love you all the more. 
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Comment #43 posted by Hope on August 06, 2010 at 20:17:41 PT

Comment 41
That's true. They don't have much blessing power it seems... just hurting power.I want them to stop hunting and hurting people over it though... and that would be so good and the right thing to do."Legalize it!"
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Comment #42 posted by Hope on August 06, 2010 at 20:08:42 PT

There's definitely a roller coaster quality to it.
But I was telling someone the other day it's a lot like riding a runaway bob sled through a forest fire down a flaming mountain side. All you can really do is hang on for dear life.It's rough... but as I've been told... rather ominously, I thought, by people that have been or are going through it..."It's do-able". They never look you in the eyes when they say that, it's seemed to me.They can't say it's easy, or even tolerable, and they don't want to scare you... so they just say "It's do-able".It is, so far. I'm still alive.
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Comment #41 posted by FoM on August 06, 2010 at 20:02:23 PT

Hope
Blessings from the powers that be don't mean nuttin! LOL!
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Comment #40 posted by Hope on August 06, 2010 at 20:01:48 PT

There are quite a few fishing stories
in the Bible... just not that one!But I have read the Tao... although it's been over thirty years ago. I hope it wasn't I that got my relative confused in the first place! My relative is one of my brothers. I don't know why I used the term "relative". Guess I didn't want to claim him. Because we've argued about that. I've told him many times that we have to care for the poor... especially those in our immediate family and that that's in the Bible... of which he, like me, is supposed to be a believer. And he likes to come back at me with "fishing lessons".:0)Got news for him next time we talk.
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Comment #39 posted by FoM on August 06, 2010 at 20:00:00 PT

Hope
You're doing great. You are riding this roller coaster very well. 
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Comment #38 posted by Hope on August 06, 2010 at 19:53:45 PT

Do you suppose just eating or vaporizing it,
or even smoking it would help? It doesn't have to be injected into the tumors? I've been reading that study. I don't understand it yet. Usually the cures they speak of from cannabinoids in these studies, involves injecting the cannabinoid or endocannabinoid directly into the tumors.Also, I don't know if that's the kind of tumor I have. I've been searching through all my papers and I'm not sure I have any written diagnosis or explanations since the very first one where it just said ductile, invasive, aggressive and all that. I know it's not hormone receptor positive...which is very good. By the way, yesterday the oncologist told me, "We're kicking that cancer's butt!" She was very happy. So was I. It's shrunk drastically. More than half of it has shrunk away... maybe more. Got my third round of Adriamycin and Cytoxan yesterday and the Nuelasta injection today. Miserable as the Nuelasta makes me and much as it hurts... she said it's keeping me out of the hospital... except for the blood clot episode of course. But the Nuelasta keeps me from getting every infection that comes along. It's crazy that we're "allowed" in this country by the "authorities" to be injected legally with drugs that can kill instantly or slowly... but not one that obviously might help and it's not poisonous... but it might make us feel good and we might like it... and that would be a major problem... to the authorities. Aaargh. I need some steroid induced rage right now to express my rage over people, including me, being denied the herb... and the ones they catch, punished... severely for using it... but I'm just too tired to find it... the rage, I mean. Maybe it will come back tomorrow. Brrr. I really don't want it to come back though. Right now... I'm not in that stage. I think I used up all the steroids they injected me with already. So I'm pretty meek right now... watching for the truck that wants to run over me and drag me around in circles for a few days.Going through my papers a while ago... looking for a diagnosis of what kind of cancer I have, what it's called besides just breast cancer...I noticed a notice that I should notify the doctor if I use any "over the counter" or "herbal" medicines... to get his or her approval. They had quotes on them like that.It seems to me... in Texas and plenty of other states... and with insurance companies prowling through everything (I know they have to, of course. It's their job) and wanting to find excuses to deny care or treatment... that would be a pretty bad idea to mention certain "herbal" medicines to any one.I told one doctor that although I had quit smoking regularly some time ago ... I had smoked a cigarette with a friend that shared with me the weekend before (yes... stupid me...I know)and the doctor, upon hearing that, said, "I urge you to quit smoking"... and checked a box that charged about a hundred and fifty dollars for "smoking cessation counseling".:0(I can just imagine what would happen if I asked them if I could try consuming an illegal herb with their blessing... smoking or in any fashion.Don't want to think about it.
 
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Comment #37 posted by FoM on August 06, 2010 at 19:40:28 PT

Hope
You're welcome. We are to be fishers of men and maybe that got mixed up that way. Fishers of men are to go out and do things that are mentioned we should do like it Matthew 25:34-40. That's how you catch fish in that context in the Bible in my opinion.
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Comment #36 posted by Hope on August 06, 2010 at 19:09:51 PT

Comment 31
Well that's a good comeuppance for me. I get a little too confident in myself, obviously.:0)One always needs their comeuppances.I remember it so well, "Give a man a fish. Feed him for a day. Teach him to fish and feed him for a lifetime."I did have a Tao years ago. I must have learned more than I thought there.Apparently it wasn't it's "mate". Not in the collection of scriptures known as the Bible. It apparently only became so in my mind. I guess it could qualify as a balancer, though and just not have made the cut, or even known of, by the people that made the cut. Something that wise could easily qualify as God Spirit given by those who believe in such, and it could have been given to Lao Tzu as easily as anyone else.Thanks.I really do appreciate being corrected when I'm wrong. It keeps me from going around repeating wrong information some more.I can hardly wait to tell my relative that he's been wrong about that "Scripture" all these years. I maybe just took his word for it... and because I'd read the Tao years ago... it just sounded right. It's difficult to imagine he ever read the Tao... but who knows.Lots of people get Ben Franklin quotes mixed up with Scripture. Ah well, wisdom is wisdom... we just have to know what we are actually quoting.And now I know better. Thank you.
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Comment #35 posted by FoM on August 06, 2010 at 17:21:44 PT

Hope
But the real thing has always been available everywhere. I have never heard anyone say that cannabis can't be found. 
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Comment #34 posted by Hope on August 06, 2010 at 16:44:40 PT

 :0(
Happy that these amazing cannabinoids are being researched and used... but very unhappy that we, here in "The Land of the Free" have no legal access to this help. It is extremely disturbing.Extremely.
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Comment #33 posted by FoM on August 06, 2010 at 12:31:15 PT

Hope
Cannabinoids Reduce ErbB2-Driven Breast Cancer Progression Through Akt Inhibition***Abstract:Background:ErbB2-positive breast cancer is characterized by highly aggressive phenotypes and reduced responsiveness to standard therapies. Although specific ErbB2-targeted therapies have been designed, only a small percentage of patients respond to these treatments and most of them eventually relapse. The existence of this population of particularly aggressive and non-responding or relapsing patients urges the search for novel therapies. The purpose of this study was to determine whether cannabinoids might constitute a new therapeutic tool for the treatment of ErbB2-positive breast tumors. We analyzed their antitumor potential in a well established and clinically relevant model of ErbB2-driven metastatic breast cancer: the MMTV-neu mouse. We also analyzed the expression of cannabinoid targets in a series of 87 human breast tumors.Results:Our results show that both Ä9-tetrahydrocannabinol, the most abundant and potent cannabinoid in marijuana, and JWH-133, a non-psychotropic CB2 receptor-selective agonist, reduce tumor growth, tumor number, and the amount/severity of lung metastases in MMTV-neu mice. Histological analyses of the tumors revealed that cannabinoids inhibit cancer cell proliferation, induce cancer cell apoptosis, and impair tumor angiogenesis. Cannabinoid antitumoral action relies, at least partially, on the inhibition of the pro-tumorigenic Akt pathway. We also found that 91% of ErbB2-positive tumors express the non-psychotropic cannabinoid receptor CB2.Conclusions:Taken together, these results provide a strong preclinical evidence for the use of cannabinoid-based therapies for the management of ErbB2-positive breast cancer.Complete Information: http://www.molecular-cancer.com/content/9/1/196
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Comment #32 posted by FoM on August 06, 2010 at 10:28:01 PT

WP Blog: D.C. Rules for Medical Pot Program
By Washington Post Editors August 6, 2010District officials released regulations Friday that will govern the city's implementation of its medical marijuana program.Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's (D) administration has been drafting regulations to license dispensaries, track doctors and users, and identify where to allow the wholesale production of marijuana. The rules would now undergo a public comment and review period, which could take months.“All District residents deserve access to the full slate of medical treatments available,” Fenty said in a statement Friday. “My Administration will work to ensure that medical marijuana is dispensed safely and efficiently.”According to the guidelines, qualifying patients must be city residents, must register with District government, and have a qualifying medical condition. The rules also impose fines and the prospect of criminal prosecution for patients who possess marijuana or paraphernalia not authorized by the program.Caregivers should be at least 18 years of age, must register with the city and would face fines and prosecution if they operate outside the city's guidelines.Physicians are required to be in good standing to practice in the city, must register with the District and have a legitimate doctor-patient relationship with program participants.Those seeking permits to operate dispensaries must file a business proposal with the city that includes proposed location, staffing and security plans, and specify cultivation plans when applicable, among other rules.Copyright: 2010 Washington PostRead the rules here. -- http://www.dcregs.dc.gov/Gateway/IssueList.aspx
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Comment #31 posted by FoM on August 06, 2010 at 10:13:36 PT

Hope
I don't think that is in the Bible.Give a Man a Fish, Feed Him For a Day. Teach a Man to Fish, Feed Him For a Lifetime.Lao Tzu, the founder of Taoism, is credited with making this statement.http://hubpages.com/hub/BibleFishing
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Comment #30 posted by Hope on August 06, 2010 at 09:11:27 PT

And there are some poor that are unable to glean
the portion left to the poor, the afflicted, the bereft, the widows, and the orphans. It should be taken to them and shared and some visiting done. We're talking about our fellow human here. Our brothers and sisters of all colors, shapes, sizes, and conditions. We are the same "flesh"... the same beings. We are a species and fellow humans are truly, for real our brothers and sisters, and we are part of a major endeavor...being humans... together.To those that lean more to the fishing lessons Scriptures than to the "Portion to the poor" ones. The verses about "teaching a man how to catch fish" being a great blessing beyond just handing him a fish.... I think that means maybe you could help him find work or just give him some help and not make it more difficult than it already is.Do the "Portion to the poor" and the "Fishing lessons" cancel each other out as being some sort of absurdity at that point? Is it some sort of indication of some sort of foolishness or worthlessness in Scriptures or their validity as wisdom and philosophy, or understanding? I don't think so. They are not contradictions or direct opposites. They are "mates". Balancers. It's said every Scripture has one. It's mate. That balances it.
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Comment #29 posted by FoM on August 06, 2010 at 08:36:40 PT

dongenero
You made my day. Thank you so much.
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Comment #28 posted by dongenero on August 06, 2010 at 08:30:51 PT

FoM said
"I look at it this way. In the Bible you had to leave some of your crop for the poor."I love you Fom. You are such a good soul.For all the ideological bickering and politicization of entitlement issues, broken down into minutia of distracting details, you distill the subject to it's most basic concept.You do that often. It's a gift you have. What is the "right" and "moral" thing to do? I don't mean in an organized religion way but, in a common human decency way. Even though some may and do take advantage.
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Comment #27 posted by Hope on August 06, 2010 at 07:42:09 PT

Let there be jobs...
And no blood and urine or hair inspections to get and keep those jobs. Of course, they shouldn't be inebriated on the job... but that's an entirely different matter than what they do on their own time.Let people be free and see what they can do and not get all that into their business. If they can do well what they were hired to do then leave it at that. Blood, urine, and yanking out your hair is unreasonable search and seizure, and as our dear Peter McWilliams said, "Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do". Hiring someone to do a job isn't owning them like a piece of property. An employee can certainly be an asset... but he's not a machine that belongs to the company... or anyone.
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Comment #26 posted by Hope on August 06, 2010 at 07:30:12 PT

I love you, Vincent...
You're hearing me. What my heart is trying to say!But I promise... I'm not saying that those that need help shouldn't get it. I'm not meaning that at all...though it might look at first glance like that's what I'm saying.I'm not even saying we shouldn't have assistance programs because we have scammers that scam the system. That's an unavoidable problem... and it has to be watched... but we shouldn't even think of depriving those in need because of a few or even quite a few scammers.
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Comment #25 posted by Hope on August 06, 2010 at 07:27:26 PT

True.
A young friend of mine got involved with a particularly handsome and charismatic one of those types. We all learned a lot of hard lessons from that.One of the most dynamic men I know has been in a wheelchair since he was a child. He went to college. Teaches school. Plays and sings in a band. He helps other people and visits the sick in the hospitals. He lives what to me looks like a crushingly full life. He's an overcomer. He helps other people overcome. He's far from wealthy. He lives in an ancient mobile home. His wife has had several rounds with cancer. She never seems to slow down either. I'm amazed at them. I admire them. They are happy people, too.He didn't come from a wealthy family, so I know he had some government assistance, surely, with school, and medical care along the way.Another young friend of mine is a paraplegic. Her husband is dead from another accident. She gets government assistance in medical care, housing and home care. That's tax money very well spent, in my opinion. She's suffering, but she's not starving and back in her childhood bedroom for the rest of her life and I'm glad she can live on her own with assistance from many directions, including her family and friends. She's far from free and living in the lap of luxury... but she's not been kicked to the curb by society and treated as less than a dog and Medicaid and other assistance programs make a huge difference in the quality of her life. What I'm doing here, I think... is saying we need to use our vast tax money to help people and not just fight war and help the rich get richer and the poor get poorer... and there are programs in place to help the rich get richer... they need to be dropped and replaced with building that middle class again... and not by buying everyone a McMansion that they can't afford to keep up or pay for. And less emphasis... or no emphasis on that "trickle down" effect... which is a bunch of malarky anyway. Let's try "Trickle up".Let there be work and wages! The middle class wasn't given their middle classmanship way back when. They slogged through commutes and hard work to get it. But now it's not there to get. Let there be jobs... and not just the trickle down effect... which as we know... didn't work worth a damn. That got us where we are now. Get factories to come back here. Get jobs back here that were sent overseas.I don't think it should be one bit about taking from that rich guy what he doesn't want to give to those he looks down on and that hate and resent him and that he's afraid of. There's something way less than noble about that attitude, in my opinion... which isn't worth a plug nickel... but there it is.It's about using our tax dollars wisely... helping those that need help...and aren't out to scam anyone... and stop wanting that rich guy to be poor just because we are.Or something.
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Comment #24 posted by vincent on August 06, 2010 at 07:18:16 PT:

You make a valid point, Hope
"Redistribution of the wealth... or income... without redistribution of the work load isn't right. I don't like it when people develop a militant 'Gimme' attitude, especially if the main problem is actually laziness"Of course you're right about this Hope, I must agree. I don't like laziness, either.
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Comment #23 posted by FoM on August 06, 2010 at 06:55:14 PT

Hope
I never met anyone that was able bodied that felt that they were entitled to help. I think that has become a talking point for the conservatives. A person can look healthy in body but might not be healthy mentally.
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Comment #22 posted by Hope on August 06, 2010 at 06:48:23 PT

"Many thieves"...
Correction.I've known a few... quite a few over the years. Maybe not "Many".
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Comment #21 posted by Hope on August 06, 2010 at 06:45:20 PT

I must stop.... steroids talking here...
But I believe very much in helping the afflicted in any way... and the temporarily afflicted. I think we ought to be helping people get past this jobless situation right now and start new businesses and not lose everything.I do believe in tax money being used to assist people buy homes and education and transportation and healthcare. If we spent half of what we spend on war on that... WOW... we'd be an amazing wonderful country.I don't believe in assisting people to not take care of themselves just because it's more fun for them not to.
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Comment #20 posted by Hope on August 06, 2010 at 06:38:36 PT

That's true... about the bills
A friend of mine without insurance bumped her head really hard the other day and I wanted her to go to the emergency room. I offered to pay for it... the er fee. She wouldn't. I told her well she could sign the papers to be responsible for it and do the best she could on paying it. She wouldn't do that either. She promised she would if she showed any further signs of deterioration. She seems to be relatively alright now... five days after the fact, so I think she's alright.Yes, professional bill collectors. They'll drive you crazy. I know many of the New Poor. Many. I've had two friends that have admitted having to file bankruptcy lately. Probably more that haven't admitted it. Did you know you have to scrape up about twenty five hundred dollars to even file bankruptcy. Bill collectors drove them to desperation.I learned the hard way about credit cards and bank loans back in the seventies when I nearly lost my little home because of my ex husband and his penchant for borrowing money and not paying it back. I'd rather do without anything I can, than have to be afraid to answer the phone. Some things can't be done without of course.I really don't think anyone that's disappointed in me for these posts, is hearing what I'm saying. I'm talking about having to share my labor with able bodied people that just don't seem to think they should have to work for a living and that for some reason other people owe it to them. All the people that need our help aren't like that. I know that. I know that well. I want to help those people. My heart breaks for them and I'm distressed. It's the grown able bodied people that have an attitude of luxury being owed to them for some reason. They exist. Believe me. I've heard the words... "I don't think I should have to work" because of one reason or another... like thieves that always have an excuse for their stealing. And yes... I've known all kinds of people in my life... from the genteel to the certainly not genteel. And many thieves, and even robbers, always have a reason why it's alright to them to take other's belongings. I have real issues with that.But for helping the truly needy... no way do I have a problem with that.As far as cheats and people that scam the system... we'll always have that and it's part of the deal. It's unavoidable. It's something else I've seen lately that bothers me. Those that blatantly just come out and say, I think it's owed to me, because you have it and I don't."Well... no... or yes... I have a problem with that.Am I going to do anything about it? No. Not really. Except be appalled, and keep an eye on them. If that's the way they are... they are, and there's no changing that. Mama must have raised them to think "The world owes you a living". People are changing, I think. I think there are fewer people wanting to be wrapped up in gold chains. Ugh. A chain's a chain.I hate poverty like I hate cancer. Believe me. And I don't blame people that are afflicted by it and I do want to help them... personally and with the government programs.I'm not talking about the kid that needs grants to go to college.I'm talking about the guy with a computer, and a cell phone, an i-pod, a tv, an air conditioner, and designer jeans and fifty dollar t-shirts, that thinks he should be able to go around dynamically cool all day and not feel any need to use some of his energy to earn wages himself.They exist. I promise. They make me want to kick them in the seat of their droopy designer jeans.Maybe they'll grow up and get real some day. I've got my doubts.But do they make me want to let the truly stricken suffer? Good grief no. You know better than that. I want the elderly comfortable. My grandmother trying to keep her electricity bill down worried me a lot.Do I want anyone to not have health and medical care? Of course not. You know better than that. Do I want the vets to be living in poverty and doing without? And the children? Anybody? Of course not. I don't want an able body thirty year old man to suffer. But I'd dang sure like to see him looking for a job instead of resenting what another able bodied man has because he works hard.I don't know any super wealthy people well. But the people that I know that have nice homes and a bit of land and stuff. They work hard. They work night and day. They struggle with bills. They owe everything.I've known a few millionaires. When I was young I decided I didn't want to be rich or a millionaire. They worked and stressed so hard for what to me didn't look like it was worth it at all.I wanted to work hard enough to have a good, decent, life and I and mine have all they needed. But we didn't need Corvettes, Mercedes, or five thousand square foot homes. That's not living. That's being chained to the ground.Something I realized about some of these people I know... maybe you'll don't, that think that "rich" people owe the a life of leisure. They wouldn't help a poor grandmother or a starving child. They wouldn't mow a sick person's yard for them. They are only about stuff and their getting it.But maybe you guys have never met any of these "Dudes".
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Comment #19 posted by FoM on August 06, 2010 at 04:40:30 PT

Hope
You know how much I love you Lady. Now I wanted to mention how I see it. I do not think most people want to be handed anything. Most people want to stand on their own two feet but some never will be able to do that. When we couldn't get the homes we have for sale sold because banks are not loaning money like they did we put the homes up for rent and I was overwhelmed by phone calls. Many of the people that called were never going to be able to make it without government help. We have become a society of rich and poor and no middle class. It's true anyone can get hospital care if they need it and can't afford it but God help them when the bills start rolling in. They are hassled morning, noon and night. They will be forced into a situation that they never will be able recovery from. 
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Comment #18 posted by Hope on August 05, 2010 at 22:26:58 PT

Good night... I'm hyper exhausted..
even though I'm flowing with steroids.
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Comment #17 posted by Hope on August 05, 2010 at 22:26:11 PT

Here's a place to start if you fear
you might have cancer and have no money or insurance.The most reliable cancer treatment informationhttp://www.cancer.org/treatment/indexThere's no guarantee that treatments will save a person, any person, money, insurance or not... but it's guaranteed we all want a chance to be saved if we're facing this.And there are so many treatments. Did I choose the right one? I hope so.I believe, when I survive this... and cannabis prohibition is ended... and the drug war...I will devote some effort to seeing that people know there is help available, even if they have little or no money and no insurance.
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Comment #16 posted by Hope on August 05, 2010 at 22:06:12 PT

If you want a whole lot of money...
and you haven't inherited or won it... you have to figure out a way to try and earn it.You have to be careful about turning into a greedy, materialistic old butt, too. If that matters to you, of course.And I think, to most of us here, it does.I don't want to be greedy, materialistic, or an old butt, either. I don't want to be selfish either. I don't want to be robbed, or see other people robbed, with a gun or a piece of paper, by a guy that just wants other people's stuff for himself... because he's greedy and selfish and not just poor.And so many people think they're poor if they don't have all the latest crap. That's just wrong, too... the bald headed lady says so. That's not poor... that's greedy.
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Comment #15 posted by Hope on August 05, 2010 at 21:59:32 PT

BGreen
"Meanwhile, they spend more money on a weekend vacation than they pay me for an entire year's worth of hard labor."That's true.But this is not, "The wealthy are entitled to any damned thing they want." Maybe literal things... stuff... that can be bought with money. But you know everything can't be bought with money. Not by a long shot.And I know you love me, even enough to disagree with me and set me right when you think I've gone wrong headed... and I love you and respect you enough to realize you could be right.
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Comment #14 posted by Hope on August 05, 2010 at 21:53:05 PT

And another bad thing is...
when people don't have insurance they don't get in for check ups and people wait too long when they're sick. But they won't be denied treatment, good treatment, in this country from what I'm seeing and have seen. Trouble is, being in the insuranceless situation people might wait too long... as even some of the people with insurance have.And people suffer, and die... insurance or not. Lately, especially, I've seen so much of the joy of the survivors and the sorrow of the doomed... young and old, and sometimes even the joy of the apparently doomed, as far as this life and this flesh is concerned.But the hospitals and some doctors and nurses and technicians work very hard to see that everyone gets as good a care as they possibly can.The old derelict on skid row that gets cancer can get the same care as Ted Kennedy did, from what I can see. If he will just go get it or contact the organizations of volunteers that will get him where he needs to be to get it. Maybe not in the same hospital... but he can get it. He can't go to a fancy private clinic in Europe without someone else paying for it... but he can get the same care in some of the hospitals and clinics of this country, as any of us... if he will just go for it.
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Comment #13 posted by Hope on August 05, 2010 at 21:41:23 PT

You can't disagree with me about this.
Because I'm just meandering and thinking. I don't even agree with myself about any of it!Besides... I'm a totally bald headed woman and I'm chock full of chemicals, including steroids and I'm not all into thinking through all that well everything I say... because I'm kind of meaner now than I've ever been and I'm entitled to a little bitching. :0) And I do recognize that I disagreed with myself just a week or two ago from what I'm saying now. So it may be more chemical than I even realize.Maybe I don't have a clue... but that's how it kind of looks to me right now. Partly because I see so many people working so hard to help so many people. And yes entitlements are part of what I'm seeing and I'm really glad for those entitlements... even though I don't like the word so much. I'm seeing poor people get the same treatments as what I'm getting with good insurance... and I love that. I'm seeing that there's more right going on out there than I thought there was.Nobody can be denied the same help I'm getting with my insurance helping... and I love that... that no one is being denied. The thing is they let people worry and worry that they can't get this help if they don't have the money or insurance... and I guess they allow that... because fewer of us would have insurance if we realized that... and there would likely be less help available if that happened... sooo... once again...I must admit that I don't know... except that people really are being helped just as much as I am even if they don't have money. They probably couldn't get cosmetic surgery, or tummy tucks, or purely cosmetic breast implants... but they can get the life saving stuff... I've been very relieved to see.I'm more roided up than a major league ball player right now. Everything I'm saying is probably very steroid fueled and will be for a few days yet. Then I crash. :0(
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Comment #12 posted by Hope on August 05, 2010 at 21:23:33 PT

 uh
I knew I shouldn't have used the word "entitlement"... in this day of so much anger about it all... it was a volatile word. As a society we should see that our poor and sick and injured and unhealthy have what they need to lead as comfortable and good a life as possible. It's only right and it will truly make it much better for all of us... on whichever side of the entitlement line we're on. I don't like the word entitlement at all. I think it was invented as a way to insult and aggravate. I remember well when it was not terribly uncommon to see raggedy little kids with no shoes. That was awful. It is uncommon now... and I'm thankful for that. I was glad to see programs where really, terribly poor children could get nice school clothes and shoes and supplies just like everyone else. And yes... everyone should have enough to eat and a decent place to live whether they're capable of earning it or not. I think it's dangerous to a society when some people are so filthy, stinking, wastefully rich and some people don't know how they are going to feed their children their next meal or keep the electricity on. Also there are people that literally don't know how to take care of themselves...especially in hard situations. My family sometimes didn't have running water or indoor plumbing... but we knew how to draw up and bring in water and could heat water and knew how to take care of ourselves and stay well groomed and healthy in spite of it being a bit more difficult to achieve than it is when all the amenities are right there and ready to go. I do think people should share with those who are incapable of taking care of their own needs. Very much so. But it's got to be fair and reasonable, too. Somehow.I don't think people should be forced to give up the wages of their labor to people that just don't want more and more stuff and don't want to earn it. It bothered me when my church deacons, in deciding to help a family or not... wouldn't help the family of an alcoholic ... judging that they shouldn't help the children and the mother because the father was a drunk. I didn't like that. I think they should have helped them too... even if the dad was spending what he should have spent on caring for his family on booze and cigs. But maybe those deacons were wiser and smarter than I.And there is that parable of teaching a man to fish instead of just giving him a fish.(Don't ever want to ask one of my family members about a loan or helping out... he starts talking about "fishing lessons".)I just don't know what to do. If I could figure it out...I could save the world and everyone would have all they need all the time and a lot of what they want.I honestly hate it that anyone has to suffer about anything... even if it can logically be said that it's their own fault, somehow.*sigh* I don't even like it that anyone has to be sad. I'm very tender hearted and want everyone to have a good, healthy, happy life and all they need to make it so.People are more important than lots of stuff... and both the rich and the poor and all the in betweens would be so much better off realizing that. All of us, the rich, the poor and the between need to look to care for the people who are really suffering. Not just lacking in having all the latest stuff. People who are sick, physically or mentally or hurt or handicapped somehow. People who can't take care of themselves.I do understand where you're coming from, Vincent... and I see the value in the way you think. I don't think it's right for obviously wealthy and well to do people to be all hateful about sharing any of their financial blessings with the not so blessed... but they do. I understand how people feel that study hours and hours and hours, for days on end, for long years to get degrees and work hard to be able to earn more, and perhaps, get a fancier lifestyle and they resent someone else, that is fit and healthy and smart and could do the studying and working, but instead, demanding some of that person's hard earned income for themselves... without having to do the work that the first guy did in the first place. There's right and wrong.. and there is something wrong about that.I think government should spend part of what it gathers from everyone on the poor, to make sure they're fed, clothed, and sheltered, educated, affordable transportation, and have healthcare and hope for a future... it's just commonsense for a healthy society. That's a very important part of government's work, I think. You can call it redistributions of wealth... but I think it might be better to just a say a share for the needy. Redistribution of the wealth... or income... without redistribution of the work load isn't right.If people are poor for whatever reason and they can't afford to pay the full price for stuff... there should be help. There a should be a way... after they've done all they can and they still don't have enough to purchase the food, shelter, clothes or services and healthcare they really need... there should be some help available that they can afford. I believe their should be decent jobs for the fit and healthy. That is a very great and good thing for a community to have. I don't believe people hate to work. I believe there is a terrible shortage of decent and decent paying jobs.It's hard. But I don't like it when people develop a militant "Gimme" attitude, especially if the main problem is actually laziness. But that's what a good welfare set up is supposed to keep from happening. That's what bothered me about the lady's statement. I don't know what to do about it... but something must be done, I know, to help our fellow citizens and fellow humans.I do know that I'm tired and cranky and the more I talk I'm deeper in the ditch I didn't want to step into in the first place!I've seen Medicaid and Medicare help people and keep them from being ruined. I've seen lots of help for people that I appreciated very much and seen that it's really wonderful. I do know that some people, no matter how hard they work or try to work... they still need help.And the flip side... the bad side...is when the government steps in to help...it also assumes the right to be the nanny, the parent... and there ya go... the terrible Nanny state.*sigh* again.I wish everything could be good for everyone. Really I do. Of course I believe in helping people when they are in dangerous situations, as in can't feed or shelter the children, and no relatives or anyone to help... but I have trouble with people saying give me yours because I want it, because I think you have too much stuff and I don't.So I've rambled up one side and down the other trying to explain myself... and I still haven't. I'm still looking stingy when I'm not and hateful when I 'm not. I do care about people who are in dangerously dire straits and who need help. I really do. I just don't like the feeling that I have to help someone who is just as, maybe more capable than I am.Also... I'm going to claim chemo sickness and roid rage. I'm angry at the drop of a hat over nothing all the time... and that is probably what just happened to me when I read what that lady said.But I'm not mean, really and I do want the poor to have access to good cannabis medicine, as well as anything they else they need, just like anyone else. Also, there is menial, hard work that just doesn't take much skill and training. It's not unimportant work to keep floors clean and trash cleared. Just neglect it and you'll see how important it is. I've made my living before cleaning other people's homes. Washing windows, floors and the whole kit and kaboodle. I've waited tables for a living. I think all workers should be well paid decently and fairly for their service... of course. But I also think that the guy that has learned through studying long hours, to be a healthcare worker, or a person that devotes messy and long and crazy hours to saving people's lives and the guy that studied and studied to learn how to design safe bridges and buildings should expect a wage worthy of his service, too. Some service is more valuable and hard to come by than others. I can do some of it myself if I have to... and some of it I can not... and I need to buy that service from the one who can do it. Not be robbed ... but the guy that worked to become the bearer of that more difficult service... should be paid fairly and decently for what he does, too.And I know too, that in some places, and some situations, people can't have a garden, or grow their own food or medicine, or even learn to fish (work)or find a fishing hole (job).But there's my long and rambling effort to slog myself up out of the muddy political ditch I jumped right into without enough thought to what I was saying.*sigh*
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Comment #11 posted by BGreen on August 05, 2010 at 21:03:02 PT

Why should only the wealthy be entitled?
The wealthy are entitled to any damned thing they want. They can use the money they have and I don't to make me work long hours just to be able to eat and have a roof over my head. Meanwhile, they spend more money on a weekend vacation than they pay me for an entire year's worth of hard labor.Why do the rich never have to worry about eating, seeing a doctor or affording their medicine while they get to decide our fate by denying us any damned thing they want just because we have less than them?I'm sorry, but I am entitled to every bit as much as anybody else is. However, let's call it what it really is and that's just being fair. Can't we just be fair? Should I have to suffer more just because I don't have much money?I love you, Hope, but I disagree with you on this particular subject.The Reverend Bud Green
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Comment #10 posted by FoM on August 05, 2010 at 17:07:22 PT

Hope
Leviticus 19:9-10 KJV9 And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest.  10 And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the LORD your God.URL: http://drugsense.org/url/E01tPMuU
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Comment #9 posted by FoM on August 05, 2010 at 17:00:28 PT

Hope
I look at it this way. In the Bible you had to leave some of your crop for the poor. 
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Comment #8 posted by vincent on August 05, 2010 at 16:59:47 PT:

Hope
Although you and I agree on most things, your "entitlements" comment illustrates where our views are divergent. Since I grew up poor, I LIKE entitlements such as rent control, socialized medicine, a job being a right instead of a priveledge, and wealth redistribution. This is the exact reason why I registered as a Socialist, and not as a Libertarian. Both Socialists and Libertarians believe in legalized Marijuana, but Socialists offer programs to help the poor. Libertarians do not. 
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Comment #7 posted by Hope on August 05, 2010 at 16:50:16 PT

It's hard to figure all this out and understand it
but I know it's forced slavery when you say you have to work for me and I absolutely do not have to pay you at all for your labor, product, service, or time.
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Comment #6 posted by Hope on August 05, 2010 at 16:45:02 PT

I care about the poor, but entitlement bothers me.
"People under the poverty level and below shouldn't have to pay anything," That doesn't seem like the right attitude. It's the same kind of entitlement attitude and arrogance of someone who is very rich and thinks everything should just come to him or be his because of wealth or name or some reason or other. The price should be reasonable... but "shouldn't have to pay anything"? That doesn't seem right either."You gotta give it to me" isn't right. "Please let me have it" is one thing... but "You gotta just give it to me". No. That's wrong. Somebody grew it and processed it. That was their labor and effort and expense. If they want to give it away, that's one thing... but they shouldn't be having to give away for no recompense, what they worked to produce. That's like slavery or something.Reasonable is the key.People should be able to grow it.
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Comment #5 posted by FoM on August 05, 2010 at 12:45:54 PT

Related Article From The New York Daily News
Washington DC Law Aims To Make Medical Marijuana Affordable for Poor PatientsAugust 5, 2010URL: http://drugsense.org/url/n8auwOWr
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Comment #4 posted by Hope on August 05, 2010 at 05:07:13 PT

DC and Jonathan Magbie
Wonder what that judge that sentenced Jonathan Magbie to death for medicinal cannabis use a few years ago thinks of this new turn of events?Mr. Magbie, no doubt, would have been pleased to see that things are looking better than they did when he was viciously murdered by government idiocy, just six years ago.
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Comment #3 posted by Hope on August 05, 2010 at 04:59:30 PT

Rancher
Both those measures sound very worthwhile. I hope they pass.
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Comment #1 posted by rancher on August 05, 2010 at 00:58:14 PT:

Oregon Measure 74 also has a program to help needy
Measure 74 (formerly Intiative 28), which will be on the November ballot in Oregon, will create a regulated supply system. Licensed independent producers will supply nonprofit dispensaries. Oregon Health Authority will do medical marijuana research into quality control and other issues and M 74 creates a program ot assist indigent patients. Find out more or volunteer to help at www.regulatemedicalmarijuana.org
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