cannabisnews.com: Smoked Out Smoked Out Posted by CN Staff on July 09, 2007 at 09:46:12 PT By Eric Barton Source: Pitch California -- If there’s one thing Jacqueline Patterson has learned about living in California, it’s that they have better salad dressing. It costs $30, but a bottle of her favorite dressing comes packed full of pot. “It tastes good, too,” she says. The dressing comes from one of California’s marijuana clubs, which supply weed for people who use it for medicinal purposes. Patterson moved to California from Kansas City back in February. Other than the salad dressing, little has gone right for her since she moved.I profiled Patterson back in June of last year for this story. She suffers from cerebral palsy, which causes a severe stutter and stiffens her joints, making it difficult for her to walk or move her hands. When she smokes pot, her speech becomes more clear and her motor skills improve. URL: http://www.pitch.com/2006-06-08/news/high-above-the-law/fullIn Kansas City, she spent much of her free time fighting to legalize medicinal marijuana in Missouri. But Patterson feared the state might take her four children if she continued her very public effort. Losing her kids would be too much, she says, especially after the crap she’s gone through -- including a rape, a broken neck and the suicide of her husband. Patterson says that shortly before she moved, a family member called the Missouri Department of Social Services and ratted her out as a mom who smokes pot. Patterson says a social worker paid a visit to her home in south Kansas City. When she told the social worker she was planning to move to California, Patterson says the social worker said that by doing so, she would avoid further action from the state.So Patterson packed her kids and everything she could fit into a tiny Toyota Yaris. She headed to Bolinas, a place she’d read about online. It’s a tiny fishing village 30 miles up the coast from San Francisco. The people there are famous for disliking outsiders; locals even remove highway signs that point the way to the village. The day after she arrived, Patterson enrolled the school-aged members of her brood (her kids are ages 11, 7, 5 and 3) in the Bolinas schoolhouse, and she says locals took to them immediately. “If I’ve screwed up everything in my life, at least I’ve raised my children really great,” she told me by phone recently. With $300 in the bank, Patterson and the kids moved into Smiley’s Schooner Saloon & Hotel. The place is owned by Don Deane, who Patterson says has “raised, like, 90 foster kids.” Deane took her in and gave her a place to stay for three months while she looked for something permanent. In May, though, he suggested she move in to a homeless shelter so she could be closer to social workers.She’s still there. The shelter is the Family Emergency Center in San Rafael, California. Patterson and her four kids share one room. “The shelter is essentially a dilapidated hotel room,” she says. In the middle of her room, there’s a doorway with no door; if she hangs a blanket, she can get some privacy from the kids. She’s applied for assistance to find an apartment through the Marin County Housing Authority. She says they told her the Housing Authority has no money available to help her. “They’ve basically left me homeless for six months.”At least there’s one small relief from the hard life in California. Shortly after moving there, Patterson got a California driver’s license and a physician’s referral for medicinal marijuana. Those two things mean she can get pot from one of the many marijuana clubs. Mostly, she gets the salad dressing, but sometimes she’ll buy the pot-infused candy bars or teas. If she buys the leaf variety, it’s about what it costs in Kansas City: $50 for an eighth of an ounce. Patterson says that lasts her three or four days.Patterson hopes to start her own company. She wants to produce documentaries and film one about her own life. She got inspired after filmmakers shot some video of her last year for an upcoming Showtime special, “In Pot We Trust.” It’s scheduled to air July 9. Best-case scenario: She’s working on her own documentary as soon as she gets her own place. Worst case scenario? She knows getting out of the shelter’s going to be tough, and starting her own company is out of the question if she’s still sharing space with 17 other families.As for Kansas City, Patterson says: “I think about moving back every day, because there’s no fire around the Kansas City medical marijuana movement. There is nobody to speak out for the patients. But it just isn’t safe for me there.”This weekend, Patterson is scheduled to speak at a medical cannabis rally in Nevada City, California. The kids begin summer camp on Tuesday. Showtime: In Pot We Trust: http://www.sho.com/site/announcements/20070611inpot.doSource: Pitch, The (Kansas City, MO)Author: Eric BartonPublished: July 9, 2007Copyright: 2007 Village Voice MediaContact: feedback pitch.comWebsite: http://www.pitch.comURL: http://tinyurl.com/23uylyCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #3 posted by whig on July 10, 2007 at 11:41:50 PT Roger Christie I believe in the sacramental use of cannabis. I also believe that it helps people with medical conditions who may not be otherwise believers (presently) in the sacramental. For some, it is just a way to treat pain. They should not have to join a church to have medicine.Understanding does not come before experience. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by Roger Christie on July 10, 2007 at 02:26:54 PT: Get 'religion' and win this thing. Please. Hello whoever reads this,Aloha. My heart aches at the plight of this woman fighting 'the system' for medical marijuana when there is, in my opinion, a MUCH better, faster, cheaper alternative; Cannabis as religious sacrament. It's Constitutional, a VERY powerful protection in all 50 States AND with the Federal government. Religious liberty is called "the first freedom" in the U.S.A. With religious Cannabis you don't need "medical marijuana"! It comes along with it! With a simple, effective and free "ordainment" as a Minister (see www.ulc.org), and a membership in the THC Ministry (document packages available by donation) there are no petitions to sign, no laws to pass, no doctors to beg for a 'recommendation' to use a plant he or she knows little or nothing about, no lobbying of anyone is necessary. Religious freedom is our precious inheritance! Use it or lose it. Here at the THC Ministry headquarters in Hilo, Hawai'i we are located (co-incidentially) in the Moses Building on one of the busiest intersections on the island. We have a large banner hanging outside the building stating: "THC Ministry, We use Cannabis religiously and you can, too." The cops and the D.E.A. drive by us every single day while out looking for Cannabis. :-} We're onto something here that works for us and for them.Our press release is printed on the Religion page of the local paper almost every Friday along with all the other churches here. We are totally known and respected by all levels of law enforcement here. It rocks!We were born into religious freedom in the U.S.A. It's a beautiful thing! Every State guarantees religious freedom and "getting high" is a spiritual activity. Getting high with Cannabis is known as "the high that heals". Cannabis was the original sacrament for virtually all major religions. For instance, the holy anointing oil of Moses and the Christening oil of Jesus contains Cannabis; it MUST be legal. We make it every month and dispense it to our members wherever they live. See www.taima.org for Shinto buddhist hemp history.Please see our website (www.thc-ministry.org) for testimonials of many sincere people who've used our legitimate methods successfully. Enjoy the Constitutional use of Cannabis sacrament today! All the very best to you,Roger Christie, FounderTHC Ministry The Hawai'i Cannabis (THC) Ministry [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by RevRayGreen on July 09, 2007 at 09:57:55 PT I know her I met her at a medical marijuana conference last summer in Iowa, she's a very brave woman, and like her, it's not safe for me or my kids in Iowa as well....... http://www.myspace.com/medicalmaryjane [ Post Comment ] Post Comment