Graehstone
03-15-2006, 05:40 PM
I guess I should be thankful for the law that allows me to buy anything at all in a store, regardless the price, quality or effectiveness, without having to be afraid the police are going to crawl up my butt any minute.
Not that I still don??t fear them, a lifetime of conditioning is a hard thing to break and not something that is going to happen overnight.
What is missing is an Advocate.
Now I have only been a MMJ patient for about a year but have had my ??illnesses? for more than twenty and am a disabled Vet and unemployed.
One of the wonderful things in life was finding that Marijuana eased the muscle spasms and wrapped the pain in cotton candy and gave me a quality of life I had thought never to obtain again.
I won??t bore you with the how??s and why??s of my conditions suffice it to say I am staving off spinal surgery from degenerative disc disease; scoliosis and I also have killer migraines and a sundry of minor ailments.
When I have the opportunity to smoke/ingest some Marijuana , I am whole once more and can stand fairly upright and look my fellow man in the eyes and not his shoes, I feel like a functioning member of society again and have even upon occasion been seen with a smile on my lips.
On that damn scale (1 -10) that I am sure everyone else hates just as much as I do, I hover daily between a six and an eight with episodes of ten and past lasting days and at times a week or more.
Being a Vet and unemployed and below a certain standard of income I get my regular medications from the VA (Narcotics; i.e. Oxycodone, Vicodin and everything in between) dirt cheap.
How nice to be able to legally turn myself into a mindless, addicted, non-functioning zombie (human being) with the governments blessings.
Marijuana on the other hand, while for me personally it is a godsend and the best thing since sliced bread and ? (I could go on for hours extolling the virtues ? but you all know those things already) ? it is simply not within my meager means to purchase even a small amount to ??get me through the day.?
Having been removed from society by my illness and relegated to laptop junkie and the best damn househusband I can be, under the circumstances, for my most wonderful wife, we have to get by with one source of income.
At $60 to $90 for an eighth of an ounce it is only possible to get the ??good stuff? when tax money shows up or Christmas or birthdays, and not when I would need it most.
Back to the Advocate that is missing here.
What about the folks that have a great need but can??t either afford it or get out and get it even if they could afford it due to the fact that they don??t know anyone from that ??milieu? or those that are just to housebound to help themselves. Is there anyone there for them?
I understand the dispensaries and the need for the prices that they set as they are at the forefront and very visible and susceptible to theft, harassment and arrest. The legal and court costs are outrageous and these folks need to make some profit to even make it worth their while to keep the store open.
On the other hand, there are dispensaries opening up left and right, at least here in the San Diego area and someone is making a killing. I am going on the presumption that there are enough ??growers? out there to keep all of these open and stocked as I have yet to see any shortage of product in the few that I have had the pleasure to patronize.
Two of them where even willing to give me a 10% discount for showing them my VA card. First time in my life I have ever gotten anything like that for being a Vet, made me feel good and proud and I was very thankful.
I am not a young man anymore and I can see many other folks out there in the very same boat as I am and do not know where to go or who to talk to and sitting at home suffering when there really is no need for them to do so.
Is there someone that will champion the needs of those that can??t fend for themselves, for those that are either unable or uninformed?
We live in a two bedroom apartment so growing is out of the question even if I could somehow scratch together the money to buy all the equipment that would be needed.
Finding someone to grow for you is another major dilemma, how do you go about doing that? What are the questions that need to be asked, how does this work? Just go and hang out at the corner growers?? bistro? Take an add out in the paper? More questions, more dilemmas. I am not the only one that is in the dark when it comes to these matters.
Perhaps my agoraphobia has something to do with this as well plus not really being a people person doesn??t help matters much either. :o
At the local ASA (Americans for Safe Access) meetings that I am able to go to when I am not in too much pain, I hear folks talking about their thirty plants growing in their garden, or how the neat new hydro system is working so well and that the Volcano (Vaporizer @ $400 or so) is just the bomb.
I sit and listen and try to feel like being a part of it, but for the most part am just on the outside looking in holding that big invisible sign over my head ??Help me!?
Depending on where you live in America among the States that allow MMJ, the legal amounts that anyone can have is in the pounds, I think the highest is 12 or so, can you imagine it ? pounds?
And I just sit, hang my head and silently weep into my beard, with the little eighth that I can scratch together just a pale shadow.
One day ?
That??s my rant for the day.
"Where life is more terrible than death, It is then the truest
valor to want to live." Thomas Brown
Not that I still don??t fear them, a lifetime of conditioning is a hard thing to break and not something that is going to happen overnight.
What is missing is an Advocate.
Now I have only been a MMJ patient for about a year but have had my ??illnesses? for more than twenty and am a disabled Vet and unemployed.
One of the wonderful things in life was finding that Marijuana eased the muscle spasms and wrapped the pain in cotton candy and gave me a quality of life I had thought never to obtain again.
I won??t bore you with the how??s and why??s of my conditions suffice it to say I am staving off spinal surgery from degenerative disc disease; scoliosis and I also have killer migraines and a sundry of minor ailments.
When I have the opportunity to smoke/ingest some Marijuana , I am whole once more and can stand fairly upright and look my fellow man in the eyes and not his shoes, I feel like a functioning member of society again and have even upon occasion been seen with a smile on my lips.
On that damn scale (1 -10) that I am sure everyone else hates just as much as I do, I hover daily between a six and an eight with episodes of ten and past lasting days and at times a week or more.
Being a Vet and unemployed and below a certain standard of income I get my regular medications from the VA (Narcotics; i.e. Oxycodone, Vicodin and everything in between) dirt cheap.
How nice to be able to legally turn myself into a mindless, addicted, non-functioning zombie (human being) with the governments blessings.
Marijuana on the other hand, while for me personally it is a godsend and the best thing since sliced bread and ? (I could go on for hours extolling the virtues ? but you all know those things already) ? it is simply not within my meager means to purchase even a small amount to ??get me through the day.?
Having been removed from society by my illness and relegated to laptop junkie and the best damn househusband I can be, under the circumstances, for my most wonderful wife, we have to get by with one source of income.
At $60 to $90 for an eighth of an ounce it is only possible to get the ??good stuff? when tax money shows up or Christmas or birthdays, and not when I would need it most.
Back to the Advocate that is missing here.
What about the folks that have a great need but can??t either afford it or get out and get it even if they could afford it due to the fact that they don??t know anyone from that ??milieu? or those that are just to housebound to help themselves. Is there anyone there for them?
I understand the dispensaries and the need for the prices that they set as they are at the forefront and very visible and susceptible to theft, harassment and arrest. The legal and court costs are outrageous and these folks need to make some profit to even make it worth their while to keep the store open.
On the other hand, there are dispensaries opening up left and right, at least here in the San Diego area and someone is making a killing. I am going on the presumption that there are enough ??growers? out there to keep all of these open and stocked as I have yet to see any shortage of product in the few that I have had the pleasure to patronize.
Two of them where even willing to give me a 10% discount for showing them my VA card. First time in my life I have ever gotten anything like that for being a Vet, made me feel good and proud and I was very thankful.
I am not a young man anymore and I can see many other folks out there in the very same boat as I am and do not know where to go or who to talk to and sitting at home suffering when there really is no need for them to do so.
Is there someone that will champion the needs of those that can??t fend for themselves, for those that are either unable or uninformed?
We live in a two bedroom apartment so growing is out of the question even if I could somehow scratch together the money to buy all the equipment that would be needed.
Finding someone to grow for you is another major dilemma, how do you go about doing that? What are the questions that need to be asked, how does this work? Just go and hang out at the corner growers?? bistro? Take an add out in the paper? More questions, more dilemmas. I am not the only one that is in the dark when it comes to these matters.
Perhaps my agoraphobia has something to do with this as well plus not really being a people person doesn??t help matters much either. :o
At the local ASA (Americans for Safe Access) meetings that I am able to go to when I am not in too much pain, I hear folks talking about their thirty plants growing in their garden, or how the neat new hydro system is working so well and that the Volcano (Vaporizer @ $400 or so) is just the bomb.
I sit and listen and try to feel like being a part of it, but for the most part am just on the outside looking in holding that big invisible sign over my head ??Help me!?
Depending on where you live in America among the States that allow MMJ, the legal amounts that anyone can have is in the pounds, I think the highest is 12 or so, can you imagine it ? pounds?
And I just sit, hang my head and silently weep into my beard, with the little eighth that I can scratch together just a pale shadow.
One day ?
That??s my rant for the day.
"Where life is more terrible than death, It is then the truest
valor to want to live." Thomas Brown