As many of you are now aware, yet another lawsuit has been filed against legalization of marijuana in Colorado. This one by Sheriffs in Colorado and neighboring states. The sheriffs claim that they’s been substantially and irreperably harmed, because they don’t know what to do when they encounter marijuana.
When these Colorado Sheriffs encounter marijuana while performing their duties,including under such circumstances as described in the foregoing paragraph, each is placed in the position of having to choose between violating his oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution and violating his oath to uphold the Colorado Constitution. […]
Each of the Colorado Sheriffs is aware that the CSA authorizes him to seize controlled substances as contraband, including any and all marijuana he encounters during thecourse of performing his duties, and to deliver such contraband to agents of the federal government for forfeiture and destruction. […]
If a Colorado Sheriff acts on this alternative, he will be in violation of his duty to uphold the Colorado Constitution.
Really? That’s your argument?
But this one is full of delicious outrageousness. Check out this truly tortured moment where they show they have absolutely no awareness of the history of this country:
The opportunity that federal law provides for participation by state and local officials does not mean that states are permitted to enact their own controlled-substances policies and regulatory regimes that conflict with the national controlled-substances policy. The formulation of policy for controlling and regulating these controlled substances and for balancing of controlled-substances regulation, possession, and distribution priorities is a matter exclusively reserved for the federal government. Such regulations do not fall within the state’s traditional police powers and remain the exclusive province of the federal government.
Hmmm, could you, perhaps, quote the part of the Constitution that gives the federal government, and not the states, the power to police drugs?
Fortunately, not all sheriffs are corrupt idiots. Check out this great interview with Bill Masters: A Colorado sheriff responds to peers’ pot lawsuit: ‘I don’t get it.
It’s not about the constitution. It’s about marijuana. To say it’s about anything else isn’t being completely candid with everyone. It’s about marijuana. If this was about firearms and Colorado had more liberalized firearm laws than the ATF had to enforce, then these sheriffs wouldn’t be in such a state of conflict.
In other news, Kevin Sabet interviewed new Drug Czar Michael Botticelli: Why New White House Drug Policy Chief Opposes Medical Pot, Legalization
Now a lot has been made of the fact that Botticelli is a recovering addict, and there are those who have noted that this is likely to make him more sympathetic to those who are struggling with similar issues. But the problem is that it makes him completely unable to consider the majority of the population that uses drugs non-problematically.
Here’s a really telling moment in the interview:
Botticelli: “As a person in recovery, I don’t want to be walking down the street and smell marijuana smoke. I don’t want to be walking down the street and see one more temptation because there is a marijuana dispensary down the street. We are already inundated through every vehicle in this society about issues around substance use and using drugs. I, as a person in recovery, don’t want more of that. I want less of it.”
That’s right. He wants to continue to arrest people for non-problematic use of marijuana, because it bothers him to smell it or see it.
That’s our drug czar.
Ask any law enforcement supporting prohibition this question in a public discussion: How much federal grant money did your agency receive in the last 5 years for active drug law enforcement and what part does marijuana arrests play in those programs?
Marijuana arrests count as verification to receive those grants,,the loss of those arrests,,especially in smaller urban counties,,is making it impossible to qualify,,the odor of marijuana makes it an easy bust and a non-toker can smell it longer than we can.
They can’t arrest enough meth and opiate users in Bumsquat,CO to get their grants or their nifty military surplus.
Even if that were true, it would also mean that the states *couldn’t* make drugs illegal at all in the first place.
Meaning the Sheriffs would have been in the same *exact* place they are now – all drug crimes would be *federal* crimes, which the sheriffs have no authority to arrest for in the first place.
As a recovering addict, Botticelli has the burden of re-integration into a society he could not bear without his drug (alcohol). Now, he expects society to bow down to his level and bear HIS burden for him. No, I don’t think this is how things are supposed to work. He doesn’t need to make society conform to his recovery. It’s part of his burden in recovery to confront his own demons without demonizing others. He isn’t finished with his recovery if he can’t walk past a marijuana dispensary without wanting to go drink alcohol at the local bar. Pretty tough life. I wish Mr Botticelli well.
“That’s right. He wants to continue to arrest people for non-problematic use of marijuana, because it bothers him to smell it or see it.”
In other words, he wants to arrest non-problematic drug users because HE has a problem with drugs.
This is the Pat Kennedy line on prohibition.
More Fuhrerbunker Syndrome. More (personal as well as ideological) craziness peeking out from behind ever-thinning cover.
They really do think this lawsuit has a chance when over half the country wants cannabis legal again? What does that say about how they REALLY feel about democracy?
I’ll venture a guess: contempt. Contempt for democracy, and contempt for the voters who pay their salaries and who have loaned them the power they wield. The same kind of contempt that led so many of them at Ferguson to point their weapons at their taxpaying paymasters.
They have forgotten that they have not bought that badge they wear; it, like their uniform, is livery. They are loaned, not purchased. Like as not, a sign of servitude, not mastery. That title goes to those who pay the bills. Those for whom they are now showing open contempt for, with these lawsuits.
All the symptoms of creeping fascism have been there from the beginning, but if anything makes it clear that it has become overt, this is it. This is a direct challenge to the democratic process. It is also indicative of how it seems too many of our public servants feel about that process.
For too long, the restraining leashes have been allowed to slacken, with predictable results. As the latest Justice department report on Ferguson regarding the everyday practices of LE and judges shows, it became clear that the warnings made so long ago, when forfeiture was resurrected from its moldy Revolutionary grave, about police becoming modern-day highwaymen, ‘policing for profit’ at gunpoint or ordinary citizens, usually poor ones, being jacked up in the courts, has become the (again, predicted) reality.
And that’s just one town. The rot and corruption of the DrugWar is literally everywhere. The rot has reached the heights of government…which now seeks to dictate to the voters, courtesy of this lawsuit, that their vote does not count…only the diktats of bureaucrats. While at the same time refusing to arrest the drug-money laundering banksters for fear their incarceration might further destroy the world economy they so grievously crippled.
The prohibs are truly playing with fire, here. Confidence in government is at an all-time low. I haven’t seen it this bad since the ‘malaise days’ of the 1970’s. The last thing it needs to do is pull a stunt like this. For this can set off much worse than they can possibly imagine.
Tell people their vote doesn’t count, and you tell them there is no further point in participating in a (long-suspected, but now-verified) rigged game.
The people’s reaction may not be tempered by reason…or graced by mercy.
hello everyone. Wow!! The first thing I thought when I finished reading the quote from Botticelli was that I really wanted to slap the $#%! out of him. But I realized quickly this: this is so typical. His attitude is so a-typical of people in recovery that it actually serves an important point. AA/12-Step/The “recovery” industry, they are, in their current form in America anyway, a major enemy and obstacle. Simply put, people think they’re good and doing good and that they want to do “good”. The issue is, they’re not good. Their methods kill just as many if not more (im not quoting a study, just lifes experience) then any dangerous drugs. Tough love? Heres a translation of “tough love”. Tough love is, tell yourself you’re normal, you want said loved one to be “normal” because anything else is unacceptable. Because said loved one is resistant to this “normalcy” you must ignore them, basically act as though they’re dead 100%, until they, unquestioningly do absolutely everything you want and ultimately live how you want. Until they can behave in such a way and adhere to such an ultimatum, you must behave like they are dead. ARE WE REALLY THAT SURPRISED THAT HUH, WHEN YOU TREAT SOMEONE LIKE THEY’RE DEAD, WHY, OMG! THEY ACTUALLY END UP DEAD!! FACE DOWN IN A TOILET STALL ON THE SECOND FLOOR OF A SECOND RATE SUPERMARKET ON MYRTLE AVE WYCKOFF, BROOKLYN? Then the tears and the inevitable “well, we did all we could.” NO, YOU DIDN’T. YOU DIDN’T DO THE EASIEST FREAKING THING: *ACCEPT THE LOVED ONE FOR WHO THEY ARE* WHICH IS WHY YOU SHOULD LOVE SOMEONE IN THE FIRST PLACE!
Anyway, Botticelli is so typical of a “recovery” person. Allow me to tell you, though I’m sure some of you already know, there is this unbelievable level of egoism in “recovery” amongst “recovering” people. It’s unbelievable truly. Listen to this, this is 100% the truth. In Florida, specifically West Palm Beach, Pompano, extremely so in Del Rey and the nearby areas, there is an absolutely HUGE “recovery” community. It is insanely over loaded with rehabs, detoxs, halfway, three qtr houses, programs, meetings. It is a sort of 12 step paradise. I was forced to go down there and “play the game” if you will. LOL. I love the Game of Thrones books BTW and its just so ridiculous that Drug Rehab/Drug Recovery is often like Game of Thrones. Game of Recovery, yes, I could just see the reality show now, the opening would parody game of thrones, youd have the tennis stadium in Del Rey spinning up on the board game board, you’d have the West Palm mall as another spot. LOL. Anyway, so in my several months of “recovery” hell over there Id been to many meetings. I was absolutely stunned. So many people there, young people, like 20s early 30s, would say how they had basically abandoned their infant children in other states, these children now living with their parents or whoever, while they have been down in Florida some of them for many years. It was totally okay to have abandoned their children. Their families support this as well. And they were elated. They truly believed they were doing the right thing. No, that’s insanely selfish in the most obscene way.
Have you ever noticed these “recovery” people are just impossibly selfish and self centered? Thats another of the first things I thought about when I read the Botticelli quote and I’d thought, of course. I’ve heard it thousands of times. Every single freaking thing its always about them. They fit in well in the American society. It’s quite gross to me, how selfish and self centered they are. Dude if you have to behave like such an abomination of what a natural human being is, with your “triggers” and your “steps” and your “daily inventory” and your “need to call sponsor 20x a day” insanity, well you are more “addicted” (god that is a horrible word i hate to use) then true heroin lovers. At least when we’re done, we enjoy our day. My God, they fret and they freak out and everything is about them. It’s awful.
I had a little hope maybe this guy would be good but if thats his attitude then clearly there was nothing for me to be optimistic about.
In other news, I recently read this “10 bad things about John Lennon” and I didnt care but when I saw it I figured they would have to put heroin use, knowing this society, I basically wanted to punish myself, knowing that if they said that and bastardized it I would get angry so I guess I was looking for it but when I read the list I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t listed at all. That was great!
It starts with “I am exceptional.” Which the ego soon transliterates to “I am better.”
The truth is: “I am not better than anyone else, because no one can be inferior to me.”
Good luck getting individuals to abide by that though, as it is, and will continue to be, all about “me Me and ME”.
Hey CJ– you’re still in NYC, right?
Just thought I’d warn ya — watch out for a balding, bearded, scraggly-looking dude in Manhattan who thinks he knows everything about drug abuse because he taught basket-weaving at UCLA for 19 years.
The pseudo-science of Alcoholics Anonymous: There’s a better way to treat addiction http://t.co/LOXeWGucbx
“Every year, our state and federal governments spend over $15 billion on substance-abuse treatment for addicts, the vast majority of which are based on 12-step programs. There is only one problem: these programs almost always fail.”
“Peer-reviewed studies peg the success rate of AA somewhere between 5 and 10 percent. That is, about one of every fifteen people who enter these programs is able to become and stay sober.”
This is the program at the forefront of addiction recovery and used by the courts. It’s ineffectiveness breeds more of the same. Its time for a change to something that works. It starts with ending this failed war on drugs that harms both users and helpers alike.
Michael B.
A reminder for you as you’ve clearly forgotten:
AA’s 11th Tradition states that “We need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press radio and film.”
This is to protect the alcoholic from the pressures of being seen as a poster boy for recovery, and the possibility of relapse caused by public expectations. I would remind you too that adherence to the traditions is generally considered non-negotiable in AA.
No doubt though if you do pick up you’ll blame it on the siren calls of cannabis smoke in the street.
As your sponsor should have told you (and probably has) it’s time to take responsibility for your own recovery and stop blaming your issues on others. It’s not all about you Michael.
It is a situation that is biting us in the ass right now,,nearly everyone that gets caught dealing marijuana claims they were supporting their own habit,,as if the marijuana made them do it,,no wonder it is so hard to convince LE and judges that marijuana isn’t that addictive.
Well then he probably shouldn’t act on that alternative. Hmmm, I wonder if I can leverage my demonstrated ability to solve thorny problems associated with legalization to get myself a cushy Mark Kleiman-style consulting gig with the state.
Wow, reading the Sabet/Botticelli interview, their “we view society from 30,000 feet” comes through loud and clear. The reality on the ground doesn’t match their theoretical views of how we should all conform. It’s bewildering to them. If you were to convey Paul Armentano’s point to them — that drug policy should not be based solely on worse case scenarios — they would cock their heads like a dog trying to understand what the hell you’re saying. It reminds me of the reaction of certain members of the temperance movement when alcohol prohibition became law in 1920 — they simply couldn’t grasp that after the law’s passage, everyone didn’t automatically stop drinking. Sabet often bristles when he’s compared with prohibitionists of yore. Yet he’s more like them than he cares to understand. You can often see the frustration in his face as if he’s thinking, “But I have a doctorate degree in social policy, and based on that degree I know what’s best for everyone”. He also fails to understand when he says, “Legalization is one thing in theory and another thing in practice” that the substituting the word Prohibition for Legalization makes that sentence make sense.
I’m also reminded of a brief exchange, caught on video, when Sabet spoke to Oregon lawmakers a couple of years ago warning of the dangers of cannabis legalization (this was before last year’s failed ‘educational tour’). One of the legislators asked him something like, “Do you think Oregon citizens should be able to vote on this matter?”. Sabet answered simply — arrogantly — “No”. I thought at the time, “Does he not realize he just told Oregon citizens that they should have the basic right — the democratic right — to decide for themselves removed?”. Talk about sowing the seeds of your own demise…
Sabet reminds me of Michael Douglas’ character in ‘Falling Down’ when he asks, incredulously, “I’m the bad guy?”
Yes, dude, and you’re the worst kind of bad guy. But your pathological cognitive dissonance will never let you see that fact.
Kevin Sabet’s ideological grandfathers can be found in these editorial cartoons from alcohol Prohibition. Click on any one of them, and you’ll find them…and him. It won’t be too hard to figure out which characters I am referring to.
Last nights weekly radio show Planet Green Trees
Touched on this issue with a MI.Sherriff at 40minutes
into the show.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/planetgreentrees/2015/03/06/pgt-episode-239-sherriff-john-brown-always-hated-me
Mikey thinks marijuana should be outlawed because it’s a temptation to him.
How seriously would a child molester be taken if he wanted to outlaw birth for the same reason?
If warning labels work on alcohol and tobacco then they will work on cannabis.
Pass it on!
Along with most of nature’s drugs banned in the CSA,,amazing that nearly every banned natural substance in the CSA has therapeutic efficacy,,almost as if someone didn’t want people to have access to healing plants.
A question for the couch.
On the Colorado Sheriff’s, does it matter who signs their paychecks? If it’s State-money doesn’t that tend to obligate them to honor their State’s Constitution first?
And, if not why?
That is the central problem with their suit. Not only are they not required to enforce federal law, they, according to Raich (IIRC) , are precluded from enforcing it where it conflicts with state law. They uphold the laws of their state, and that is the end of it.
Darkcycle: “They uphold the laws of their state, and that is the end of it.”
And I, for one, would be overjoyed if they would learn to do THAT correctly.
Searching for ‘sheriff’ and ‘marijuana’ produces a mix of sheriffs throughout various states who are okay with legalization, along with those who aren’t. Sheriffs’ opposition to cannabis legalization doesn’t make very much sense when all that can result is that sheriffs’ jobs will made simpler and easier by ignoring the federal marijuana laws. It’s also out of character for sheriffs to get this politically involved in a social issue, unless someone else pulls their strings.
Part of the answer could involve the non-profit National Sheriff’s Association (NSA). The NSA accepts ‘corporate partnerships’, which are actually sponsorships. Companies can even get the NSA to endorse their products. Corporate access could be pulling NSA’s strings.
Because of Citizens United we’re prevented from knowing the identities of the sponsors, but it shouldn’t be difficult to speculate who some of them might be. Drug testing and rehab industries all want to see legalization go away. Even insidious organizations such as Opus Dei can have hidden influences, depending on who runs the National Sheriff’s Association’s operations.
The anti-cannabis sentiment among law enforcement personnel is not surprising. When asked why so many police organizations are lobbying against marijuana law reform, retired Los Angeles Police Department Deputy Chief Stephen Downing said:
“It’s money. In many states, the city government expects police to make seizures, and they expect these seizures to supplement their budgets.”
“The only difference now compared to the times of alcohol prohibition is that, in the times of alcohol prohibition, law enforcement—the police and judges—got their money in brown paper bags. Today, they get their money through legitimate, systematic programs run by the federal government. That’s why they’re using their lobbying organizations to fight every reform.”
Legalizing cannabis would greatly cut into their income, be it from cash seizures, asset forfeitures, federal grants, etc. It would also take away a common excuse to do a warrantless search. Many cops justify their anti-cannabis stance by falling for the rampant, unfounded anti-cannabis propaganda that continues to plague this nation.
If you would like to hear what honest, reasonable cops have to say about the drug war in general, please visit:
LEAP – Law Enforcement Against Prohibition – http://www.leap.cc/ – ‘Cops Say Legalize‘
“LEAP envisions a world in which drug policies work for the benefit of society and keep our communities safer. A system of legalization and regulation will end the violence, better protect human rights, safeguard our children, reduce crime and disease, treat drug abusers as patients, reduce addiction, use tax dollars more efficiently, and restore the public’s respect and trust in law enforcement.”
“LEAP’s goals are: (1) To educate the public, the media and policy makers about the failure of current drug policy by presenting a true picture of the history, causes and effects of drug use and the elevated crime rates more properly related to drug prohibition than to drug pharmacology and (2) To restore the public’s respect for police, which has been greatly diminished by law enforcements involvement in imposing drug prohibition.“
If “cops don’t make laws, they just enforce themâ€,
why are police opposing marijuana?
http://shar.es/1bBSlg
“As someone who spent 35 years wearing a police uniform, I’ve come to believe that hundreds of thousands of law-enforcement officers commit felony perjury every year testifying about drug arrests.”
– Joseph McNamara, former San Jose Chief of Police
I think its crystal clear why cops are suing.
Policing for Profit
http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/1743
Forfeiture $quads.
http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/sreply/381
Police seize property and cash in questionable raids
http://on.freep.com/1AhnKTb via @freep
23,000,000 arrested x $1,000’s/y cage rental, human storage fees, slave labor and remedy rehabilitation & random whizquiz profits. Cops Xmas Confiscations and retirement Forfeitures. Fat Pharma sponsored DARE cults for Youth SWAT recruitment and Indoctrination into the world of Hate. The Ganjawar only proves you can fool most of the people all of the time, if profits are involved.
Police Officially Refuse To Hire Applicants With High IQ
Speaking of the ghosts of Prohibition 1.0, here’s a strange one. Complaints have emerged about a law in Idaho (ID Code 23-614) that “prohibits businesses that serve alcohol from showing any film containing sexually related material or basically any view of our naughty bits.â€
For theaters where wine or beer is served, this means movie goers must watch “Fifty Shades of Grey†without a corresponding alcohol buzz, unless they smuggle in their own brewski or white wine.
Laws such as these are why we need more than just a single, commonly accepted recreational drug.
David Nutt back in the news again, this time comparing the 50 year repression of research into the therapeutic value of psychedelic drugs with the church’s censorship of Galileo and the telescope.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/professor-david-nutt-why-i-think-the-terminally-ill-should-take-lsd-10092213.html
Botticelli’s job is the carrying out of a human rights abuse. His job is among other things, to ensure people that use a drug other than alcohol, tobacco and caffeine have to purchase their drug of choice from the black market and to run the risk of being imprisoned, fined or otherwise persecuted. He will say or do anything to cloak his mission in acceptability. The salient point here is that he does not oversee the oppression of people that use an extremely dangerous drug, alcohol (or tobacco & caffeine). He is however happy to oversee the persecution of the minority of people that use other drugs. He promotes treatment, but I would dare to say that he would not have been and is not currently accepting of anyone being arrested and imprisoned for using or possessing alcohol.
Botticelli always has that “deer in the headlights ” look about him. He’s not a thug like John Walters ,Bennet or Leonhart.
He’s just some guy who got thrust into this job because no one else thought it was worth the hassle so Botti recalls the standard garden variety drug war propanganda on cue cause that’s his job and he’s gonna to it right. Ya mon
I’m sure he understands our point of view , after all he’s no stranger to a recreational buzz.
My only thoughts on Bowlofchili is the same as every person that ever took that job,,they agreed to lie to the American people,,the people that pays their salary,,,fucketh them and every one of them needs a 2 inch “D” lasered on their forehead so all of America can shun them the way they have caused America to shun marijuana users.
Botticillin
Is the latest medical curative
For rashes that include
Egocentric manipulations
Federal trough sucking
And anti-social projections
Available now in many forms from your local illicit drug dealer
Responsible use of any psychotropics makes a mockery of his and others’ (largely self-inflicted) ordeals.
Responsible users stand as a rebuke to an entire (parasitic) industry that assumes that all Humans are little more than slaves to their nervous systems…and thus bad behavior under the influence can be excused as biologically hard-wired ‘weakness’.
Of course, in their minds, only abstention can ‘redeem’ the chemical ‘sinner’…who suffers from the Original Sin of having been born with endogenous endorphin receptors in their brains and bodies, like all Deity’s chillun’ do.
Rather than look deep into the abyss that is in their own souls, afraid they’ll see their reflections staring back, they instead seek to make other people’s lives abyssal. Up to now they’ve done a superb job of it.
But now their past is catching up with them. The tide has definitely turned…against them. The fuse for the reform powder keg sitting under prohibition has been lit.
The prohibs perched atop the edge of prohibition can look down and see the fuse sparking towards the keg, and try as they might, no matter how much urine they use, or how well they aim, they can’t put it out. But still they stand there, as time runs out, thinking they can get in the one lucky whizz before they’re blown up along with their precious prohibition.
Stupid. Singularly stupid. And we pay these people’s salaries…
Not even abstention can redeem the substance sinner. Once that great black mark has been recorded in The Book of Criminal Records, the miscreant is cast into the abyss for ever more. Drug war collateral damage will follow the sinner around for the rest of their lives and might as well be a scarlet letter “A” for addict on the chest. This is Botticelli’s legacy in his new job and I don’t envy him the cognitive dissonance that must involve.
Speaking of stupid prohibition tricks, if anyone is thinking the drug war in Mexico is failing, the governments of the United States, Canada and Mexico beg to differ.
Those respective governments see success and failure differently from what you and I as ordinary citizens view it to be. Success, in this case, is reserved for the plutocrats and bureaucrats, and their tricks work only on their behalf:
Marijuana: The gateway to the 2016 presidential race
Brookings blog http://tinyurl.com/mpwbcwg
“…marijuana has garnered presidential attention. The issue will only become more pressing as more states decide to loosen their laws through decriminalization, medical expansion, or outright legalization.”
“Because marijuana is an issue that no president will be able to ignore, it is an issue no presidential candidate will be able to avoid.”…
Well, Kaptinemo “The fuse for the reform powder keg sitting under prohibition has been lit.”
Yes it has.
It appears that the 2016 election is the Democrats’ to lose. Reading that piece, the entire Democratic platform is tied together by rope made of cannabis (hemp). If they can present their platform as a tidy package where all the elements are connected to cannabis, along with a proposal to control, regulate and tax it, they will be winners by a landslide. If they can’t, and the Republicans can present their untidy package, including state’s rights etc. they could win by a slim margin.
I don’t see any Republican candidates on the horizon with enough integrity to save them. You are talking about a party with a speaker who is an embodiment of “the rat pack”
I don’t see any Republican candidates on the horizon with enough integrity to save them.
If America gets mad enough the (R) party will lose every seat they run for.
The poor refuse to vote,,they think it’s rigged,,their vote doesn’t make any difference and other (R) brainwashing propaganda keeps them out of the voting booth.
I am thinking chili cook offs and free hotdogs might bring some in.
My guess is the candidates will loathe addressing the drug war in Mexico, something so awful information about it has deliberately been suppressed by participating governments using political word games involving the word ‘cartel’. That makes Mexico’s drug war and its drug economics the perfect topic with which to harass political contenders in 2016, along with the better known domestic drug issues.
I have no doubt that Melvin Sembler and Barbara Sembler and Partnership for a Drug Free America aka Straight Inc are connected to groups like Project SAM or No2Pot or they literally started all these anti Cannabis groups up
Hey FREEMAN, yes, I am in NYC. I am mostly based out of the LES (lower east side) though as anyone in this world out here will tell you, lots of what we do and who we know cause us to need to be in Hipsterville, the Hispter Capital of the world, Brooklyn USA (it used to just be Williamsburgh but they’ve basically taken over the whole burrough now.) It has been a brutal winter. I tell you that as a young child I was sent to these places that have picked up steam in recent years – and I have a question for any legal minded folks though in just a moment – I was sent to adolescent programs. These range from “wilderness camps” to “lock down RTCs” and “therapeutic boarding schools.” This would take a long long long time to explain. I will just say that I spent 3 years in 4 different places. It is like a form of jail for kids. In some of these programs they expose you to “recreational therapy” which is these out door type things. Some of these things, looking back, its incredible how its legal. Taking 12 “emotionally disturbed” (though most of us were normal kids I swear to you, we were just misunderstood, again, a long discussion for another time.) Snow shoeing, me, and other strictly city young people, in below 0 weather, its scary to think about it. Very easily some of that surface they forced on us couldve opened up and killed us. It was, until homelessness, the coldest I thought I’d ever feel. but im telling you guys, after a day of running around on the streets, first things first guys, your feet go. Thats it. Incase any of you are young people who like I was and am, do drugs, and have family that do not approve, and thus maybe you may find yourself one day homeless, there are many “lessons” you learn through experience. When the first time it happens, the moment occurs to you that you are truly no longer welcome you need to go and its undebatable, you may be inclined to grab a suitcase, pack up, and head out. Thats a big mistake. Dont do that. Listen, grab a hearty back pack, take the bear minimum. Trust me. You wont be changing clothes for a very long time, you dont need 5 t shirts, 5 sweaters etc. Take the warmest stuff you got, several socks, take a few back ups, maybe two of your favorite books but otherwise all the food you can store. The other thing is, and back to the point, your feet will go young man/woman, so, I know converse sneakers are all the rage now but they are the WORST possible sneaker for a life crisis. Take a hearty, strong boot, youll cherish it forever. But yes, after a day of running around, youll feel exhausted, but the whole point im making here is the cold. That cold you feel in homelessness it is beyond deadly, it is, so blindlingly painful I’m telling you. It has literally killed and will continue to. Even in Florida, where I’ve been homeless as well for some time, the cold. Heres another great lesson i learned, any future homeless bound folks who may live in the south or Florida. Listen, that beach that is so warm and nice during the day? DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT SLEEPING THERE AT NIGHT. I had a problem in West Palm with the police literally trailing me because I tried to sleep on a bench at one point they woke me to tell me that it was illegal, like in many cities you can just find an out of the way place under a scaffold (ie NYC) and youre fine. But in this West Palm I was told that it, and its neighboring cities are “incorporated” thus it was illegal to sleep there. So I had to find a way to ditch the cops AND sleep. So i passed the city limit, doubled back after I’d gotten passed the boarder some ways and went to the beach thinking AH PEACE AT LAST but no, the beach, with its water coming in, dude it is BRUTAL FROST. BRUTAL.
AHHh sorry I got a bit off topic back to FREEMAN yes sir I do live in NYC now, and in continental North/Central/South America, the only other places Id live, barring knowing someone in a place that I dont list, itd be Portland Oregon (despite not being a major city, I read that it is #2 for heroin use in the USA behind NYC, being born from Portland Oregon, I am very proud!) so Portland, Oregon, Las Vegas, Nevada, Vancouver, Canada, these are my favorite places in the continent from Alaska to the bottom of Argentina (to be fair though, I have been to nearly every state in the US but aside from Costa Rica as a youth, not anywhere in Central or South America so its not fair but I just dont know the territory.)
As I have said though I have been in the process of getting my European citizenship through my father who is born in Italy. The EU citizenship will allow me to get to England where I do have friends and where I intend to get on Heroin maintenance. I have spoken about this ad nauseum for years but the plan is sure fire as I have been in touch with a doctor from a facility in England though to protect things I will not name names out in the open like this, though privately I would be happy to tell anybody whose interested and help them find out if they too would qualify for heroin/true opiate maintenace (your options are Morphine, Dilaudid, Oxycontin, Hydrocodone and others. I honestly, if this dream works out, will not be on heroin maintenance, more likely one of the others, NOT BY CHOICE mind you but due to ease of access etc.) We have been working on this for some time. I was at the Italian consulate at 72nd st over a year ago, we’d already waited a year for the appointment. When my father came to NYC from Ellis Island he spoke no English and was a young lad of 7 years old. They anglicized his name, Giuseppe, to Joseph. Now he never looked into the official stuff but the thing is the Government of Italy has always known my father as Giuseppe, the USA has always known my father as Joseph. So what happened when we went to the consulate was that he had to legally change his US name to Giuseppe on everything. All legal documents, bank accounts, drivers liscence, marriage licence, birth certificates etc. etc. Its been a crazy process but it wouldnt matter because the consulate made us take another appointment another year in advance (itll be in a few months.)
So if youve read this and you are interested and wondering about yourself but not sure and unsure about contacting me, well, contact me, but ill give you this little bit of info too so you can know more if you qualify, but basically, the deal is this:
heroin maintenance is legal in a handful of countries in Europe and England. Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands/Holland, and Belgium. DESPITE DECRIMINALIZATION IN PORTUGAL, to my knowledge, they DO NOT HAVE IT THERE.
Now, straight off the bat, Switzerland is NOT EU and you will not have a chance unless you are a SWISS citizen, so if youre not, then that’s off the table.
The other places heres the deal. In ALL OF THEM EXCEPT ENGLAND, their programs are like US Methadone programs in that you will have to go to a clinic between 2 to 4 times a day to get your heroin. Now, most of the time you will have to be able to demonstrate you are a 10-20 + year long user who has tried other treatments before without success including having tried methadone atleast twice.
Now ENGLAND of them all is the one place where you can actually get BI-WEEKLY prescriptions. So the deal is this, you have to be a British or EU citizen and the reason is because Britain and EU have a treaty/alliance whereby citizens of either can live in the other and receive all the public/health benefits of the country.
In my case, my father was born in Italy. But in alot of European countries a grandfather/grandmother will work as well. Even a spouse. If youre adopted, as long as you were adopted before the age of 18, you too can claim your heritage.
So thats that.
Now the important thing, sorry. Mr. Freeman please tell me about this character youve mentioned. Who is he and why is he coming here? Is he of the enemy/a prohibitionist? Is he going to be homeless while hes here? Because if he is of the enemy and looking to live on the street and mingle with the street dwellers please tell me now there are absolutely ways we have of dealing with this in our community. NO, nobody will get hurt *MOST LIKELY* but he will know hes not welcome and he will have nowhere to sleep and he definitely wont get access to stuff because you have to be, uhm, in the good graces of the community lets just say for that to happen. But the description you gave is a kind of common look out here on the street, can you tell me more about this fellow and if you would recommend something be done about him because Im kind of in the dark??? cool, thank you thats actually very kind of you to give a heads up because I kid you not guys, 2 years ago there was a fellow out here we called him collectively “the big lebowski” because thats who he looked like. This guy was VERY VERY clever and he was a narc and I’m telling you guys, he totally infiltrated and busted ALOT of my friends and I mean some of whom were CLOSE friends. Infact, I was almost his 3rd victim. We didnt know at the time what he really was and I’d run into him with another friend and like I said he was very clever, he said the right things, dropped the right names, etc that I started looking to see if I could “help him” (im sure you know what I mean) but fortunately time wasnt on his side and by the grace of god nobody answered my calls so I couldnt help him but no doubt if they did I’dve gone down for a year or more, some friends who he got are just getting out of prison now. So yes it is good to know thank you Freeman.
AH! the legal question! i forgot. Im sorry. So heres my legal question to any with any legal insights.
So as a youth as I was in this facility the type I described above, for transparency, ill just be totally upfront and public, the place was called The Academy at Swift River. I was there from 2001-2003.
Now heres the question. Many of the students, some of which were there alongside me and DEFINITELY I called them friend, have died. Like, these “youth treatment places” they all have alumni deaths but ASR (academy at swift river) the number of alumni deaths is UNBELIEVABLE. It is I believe over 20 and the place held 100 students at a time i believe. The number is staggering. The frightening thing is, lots of the deaths of alumni are suicide. Some are drug related and a very small number are genuine accidents/natural deaths. But my question is, there is no doubt clearly that the facility has traumatized its alumni. but with the high death rate, is there a way to sue them? I mean, I understand a year or two ago they finally went out of business but all along they were owned by a parent company which still operates tons of these “youth” programs and is like, the biggest or one of the biggest parent companies of these youth programs. I believe the company is called “Aspen Youth”. So in lieu of the fact that so many have died that went there, those who live have been traumatized, do I have any ground to stand on for a legitimate lawsuit??? Thank you friends.
ahhh!!! its Mark Kleiman, that’s who you’re talking about!! Ahh! oh, he wont be on the streets LOL. I misunderstood. Oh these piece of garbage. He’ll fit in fine, the cities got garbage everywhere. well uh, i hope he has a very unpleasant time here and yes if I should run into the founder of Jurassic park/bad Santa Mark kleiman, i’ll be sure to let him know how much i hate him. LOL
across the river from oregon lies North Bonneville, WA. the city owns it’s own cannabis dealership: http://tinyurl.com/kyyjlqu
note to Boticelli… I hear Indonesia is nice all year… don’t let the door hit you in the proverbial!
So will this be another drug kzar that will never meet with hostile press? Never answer an impromptu question?