A View From The Street©

HEPATITIS C

                        

                                                           HEPATITIS  C

     View From The Street

      Don DuPay

      I am on the Cannabis Common Sense cable TV show.  We continue to get inquiry's about Hepatitis C.  Hepatitis is a qualifying disease for medical marijuana.  But what is Hep c and how do we get it?

      Let's talk!

     Hepatitis is a disease of addiction, a liver disease, a viral disease.  Ite is a time bomb deposited in your body by a dirty needle that has touched the blood of another infected addict, a time bomb waiting to blow your liver out of the water and of course, you with it.  (Ray Charles died of Hep C)

     I got Hep C about 1978 when I was addicted to cocaine. I thought I had gotten away with it, not getting any disease until...about 5 years ago when I found myself getting tired all the time.  My appetite disappeared, replaced by waves of nausea.  I lost interest in sex.  When I lost interest in sex and couldn't t eat I realized I was ill. I went to my vet doctor and found out I had Hep C.  I was really stunned for there is no cure.  The vet doctor suggested chemo-therapy (interferon) and to fight off the  depression they would give me Paxil.  I said no thanks to the chemicals and did my own research. I found that the Chinese had been  treating liver disease for 2,500 years with herbs and  acupuncture.  I found that Master Dong, a Chinese physician had acupuncture points specific to Hepatitis disease 350 years ago and that's way before Paxil!  I found that there is an acupuncture clinic in San Francisco that treats Hep C specifically.  I tried the treatment with great results.  My energy improved, my attitude improved and thanks to medical marijuana, my appetite improved and the nausea lessened.  Blood tests 5 years in a row confirmed, yes, I still have Hep C but my liver is not getting any worse.

     That's how I got it and that's how I treat it.  Now...is it preventable?  Well...yes, technically, if you didn't involve yourself in IV drug use.  After all lyou will never  smash your finger if you don't pick up a hammer.  But pragmatically it is not, because a person lost in their addiction basically has no sense.  I know I didn't.  Too many times I spilled a paper of dope on the carpet and picked up the powder trying to sort out the dirt, dog hair and carpet gunk and then...stuck it in my arm.  More than once, disgusted with myself, I stuck the needle in the wall swearing never again.  But the next time I needed a fix I pulled the spike out of the wall, straightened it out and stuck it in my arm. Again!

 

     Sick addicts are not worrying about Hep C, Aids or anything else.  They need to get high, they need to get well period. So is Hep C preventable NO!  Is it sexually transmitted?  They say it is but I'm not convinced.  I was married to  two women after my drug days and neither of them contracted Hep from me.  If Hep is a blood to blood disease, the sex would have to be pretty rough.  A few people are still around that got Hep C from blood transfusions years ago. 

     How does Hep C affect me now.  Tiredness. I work 40 hours a week with out any problems but by 7 in the evening I'm all through.  If I'm going to do anything in the evening  I have to take a nap first. Second: Hep C is an eating disorder.  Food will just not go down. Personally, I would starve if I did not use Marijuana.  Only if you have an eating disorder yourself can you fully understand how another person cannot eat food.  Even with MJ it is difficult to eat. The nausea comes in waves.  Joint pain: My shoulders ache, knees ache, hips ache.  I have difficulty sleeping at night because of the pain, unless I smoke some medicine and take two aspirins.

     People with Hep must not drink alcohol.  When I  realized I had to stop drinking it was difficult.  I honestly didn't miss the alcohol that much but the habit of elbow bending after work was hard to break. I drank in the Navy after work to forget the boredom, the police after work to forget the daily 8 hours of mayhem and death.  Alcohol is insidious though.  It keeps telling you it is okey to keep drinking...just for a little while longer.

     People with Hepatitis can't drink!!  If you have Hep C and are still drinking even a little stop it.  Alcohol is a poison both for your liver and your brain.  Marijuana and acupuncture make Hep C livable and since there is no cure,  treating the symptoms is all that is left to us.

Don DuPay

THE PREDATORY GOVERNMENT

                                                   THE PREDATORY GOVERNMENT

View From The Street                                                                                   Don DuPay

     Our government is a predator eating us alive with skyrocketing drug costs and genetically engineered foods. They are bent on controlling the population. They are sophisticated, more conniving and more underhanded than ever. Totally dishonest and totally condescending.  They look down on us a poor and stupid fish, and at themselves as elitists.  George Bush in a speech to his supporters referred to them as the haves and the have mores!! 

     The government and the corporations and regulatory agencies have become one.  Dick Cheney has his company Haliburton running the logistics for our military, taking us taxpayers to the cleaners in the process. And George Bush too if you check his families connections to the Pharmaceutical companies.  He is the one that don't want pharmaceuticals re-imported from Canada.  He is the enforcement arm for the profit at any cost, to the detriment of sick Americans.  "We can't be sure they are safe," he has said.  Yeah, not safe for his wallet!!

     The government-corp predators have almost all the drugs under their control.  You see you can't get a prescription with out their permission and of course at their inflated price.  Medicine too expensive? Tough! Die!

     With the  drugs you must have for your health under their control, government started working for total control of the food supply. Without your knowledge and without your consent, you have been eating genetically engineered foods since 1996, nearly  10 years now.  70% of all the worlds corn is genetically engineered, 80% of the soy beans and 80% of the canola, and 70-80% of the worlds cotton is genetically engineered.  Here is where the line blurrs.

    The EPA, the FDA and the USDA in conjunction with Monsanto and DuPont hold 13 patents on genetically engineered food and terminator gene technology.  What is  terminator technology?  It means the corn-soy-canola-cotton will produce one crop and one crop only.  If you want to grow another crop you have to buy the seeds from Monsanto.  If your  G.E. corn is in a field next to free corn, the wind pollination will  terminate that crop too.  Buy from Monsanto-DuPont or die and thanks USDA for your participation in this crap.

     How devious and low will they get for profit?  They gave away seeds in food aid for third world countries.  And when, for instance, an Ethiopian farmer gets a bag of seeds, well he is hungry and plants them.  Monsanto rubs their hands together gleefully in anticipation of more power, more control and more money. 

     These same predators in government now allow patents on living organisms.  They clone animals now and want to clone humans so they can grow body parts for transplant.  There is a hepatitis C epidemic in America.  A built in need for new livers.  "I'm sorry sir, our patented transplantible livers are $200.000 each. pay in advance...or die!

     Is there anything the predators fear?  Yes...they fear Marijuana.  In spite of their best efforts

to make it illegal world wide it is still around in abundance.  They fear it because they can't compete with it.  They fear it because you can grow it yourself and control it yourself.  (Try growing your own aspirin or paxil or zanex.  They fear marijuana because it has no bad side effects. I remind all that in Genesis God gives all the seeds and herbs and plants to man to use...and as diligently as I have searched I don't find Monsanto or DuPont mentioned anywhere in the bible.

     So stick a  few marijuana seeds in your pocket, plant a few and hide the rest from the genetic engineers.

Don Du Pay

View From The Street

                                                                                                                       Don Du Pay

                                                                                                

                                 

ODD MAN OUT

                                                         ODD MAN OUT

                                                                                                                     Don DuPay

                                                                                                     View From The Street

     In our world of rich cultural, ethnic and yes...sexual diversity, we do not rejoice in it folks, we punish it.  We play the child's game Odd Man Out.  If you are Black in a White society you're odd and you're out.  If you are Protestant in a Catholic society you're odd and you're out.  If you are gay or bisexual or  transsexual in a straight society, you're odd and you're out.

     Why are we so intolerant of those that are not like us and just who is "us" anyway?  There have been people sexually different from the majority as far back as history records itself.  Homosexuality is not going away because humans that are sexually different are born every day.  Could it be that maybe, just maybe something that continues over the centuries is more normal than we think?

     No!  It's easier to convince ourselves that God keeps making the same stupid mistake over and over again. "Oops, I created another man that should have been a woman.  Oh well, stupid me!"

     Trying to change something that cannot change questions the credibility of our intelligence.  Perhaps we humans simply don't understand Gods grand scheme of things so in our frail ignorance we punish the  gay, the lesbian, the bi-sexual by treating them as lesser citizens.  We legislate against them, punish and harass them.  Odd man or woman out!! 

     First it makes me laugh, and then it makes me sad that people use the mantle of Christendom to persecute.  There is so much crap done in the name of God!  Gays didn't need special rights we've heard. They already have equal rights under the constitution.  On paper perhaps, but not in fact.  an gays marry?  Only in Spain.  Can gays adopt children easily? Can gays inherit their life partner's property?

     Equal rights for gays is a joke.  Over 9000 have been discharged from the military for being who they are!

     What is it that frightens us about gays?  Have you ever seen a car load of gays with baseball bats cruisin' to beat up straights? Have you ever seen a gay man jump out of the bushes to rape a straight man?  Do we really have something to fear from gays or is it our own insecurity, our irrational fear of those who are different?

     I have both gay friends and family and I'm struck not by how different they are, but how normal they are.  They want what all of us want, money, success, family, children and equality.  And what does sexual orientation have to do with any of it?

     If you're wondering am I gay, no I'm not.  But I'm compelled to speak for equal rights for all citizens.  If the constitution doesn't work for the lesbian, the prostitute, the burglar or the citizen activist, it won't work for you.

     The constitution is of prime importance. Better 10 OJ Simpsons go free than one innocent person be imprisoned!  It's a lesson I learned as a street cop!

Don DuPay

View From The Street

THE ROSE FESTIVAL AND THE HOMELESS

    

     NOW THAT THE ROSE FESTIVAL IS OVER AND ALL THE TOURISTS ARE GONE, WE LOCALS CAN GET BACK TO NORMAL LIVING.  BUT WHAT IS NORMAL LIVING?  FOR ME IT'S A COMFORTABLE APARTMENT, AN OLD CAR THAT RUNS MOST OF THE TIME AND MORE THAN I NEED TO EAT.  BUT IT'S BECAUSE I'M COMFORTABLE NOW,  THAT I ADVOCATE FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT, PEOPLE THAT HAVE NO PLACE TO LIVE, HOMELESS PEOPLE, POOR PEOPLE, AND SICK PEOPLE.

     IT'S JUST THAT THE ROSE FESTIVAL PRESENTS SUCH A DICHOTOMY.  I'M SURE YOU SAW NEWS COVERAGE, AS I DID, OF SPECTATORS MARKING OFF DESIRED LOCATIONS, CURBSIDE ON THE PARADE ROUTE, MANY CAMPED OUT TO SECURE A GOOD SPOT.  AND MY ADVOCATE'S MIND KEEPS WONDERING.....SO I'M SAYING IT HERE.....WHY DO THE POLICE LOOK THE OTHER WAY WHEN IT'S A TOURIST CAMPED OUT ON THE SIDEWALK BUT ISSUE CITATIONS AND THREATS OF ARREST TO HOMELESS PEOPLE WHO HAVE NO OTHER PLACE TO SLEEP?  WE MUST BE ON SACRED GROUND HERE IN PORTLAND BECAUSE IT IS AGAINST THE LAW TO SIT ON IT, IT'S AGAINST THE LAW TO LAY ON IT AND IF YOU ARE SO TIRED YOU FALL TO MOTHER EARTH EXHAUSTED IT'S AGAINST THE LAW TO SLEEP ON IT!!

     AT THE RISK OF TREADING ON THE WARM AFTER GLOW OF THE ROSE FESTIVAL, WE HAVE A HOMELESS DISASTER HERE IN RIVER CITY, RIGHT UNDER OUR NOSES.  AS YOU PULL BACK THE COVERS ON YOUR WARM SOFT BE TONIGHT THINK OF THE EASILY 2000 PEOPLE IN TOWN WHO ARE HOMELESS TONIGHT.  THE OVER CROWDED SHELTER SYSTEM ACCOMODATES PROBABLY LESS THAN 300.  AND BECAUSE IT'S AGAINST THE LAW TO SLEEP ON THE GROUND HERE MOST OF THESE HOMELESS FOLKS HIDE.  THEY SLEEP IN THE MIDDLE OF FIELDS, IN THE BUSHES, HIDDEN ON THE RIVER BANK, IN OBSCURE DOORWAYS AND LOADING DOCKS IN INDUSTRIAL AREAS AND UNDER FREEWAYS.

    BECAUSE OF THIS CITY'S ATTITUDE OF UNWILLINGNESS TO DEAL WITH THE PROBLEM IN ANYTHING BUT A PUNITIVE MANNER, CITY GOVERNMENT IS HIDING THE DISASTER.  I MEAN IF PDX HAD AN EARTHQUAKE OR A FIRE OR A FLOOD THAT DISPLACED A COUPLE OF THOUSAND PEOPLE THERE WOULD BE ROUND THE CLOCK NEWS COVERAGE OF THE RED CROSS AND NATIONAL GUARD SETTING UP AID STATIONS AND PORTABLE SHOWERS AND CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS OPENING THEIR DOORS FOR SHELTER AND MAYBE EVEN N.W. MEDICAL  TEAMS DOING SOMETHING LOCALLY!

     FOR THE MOST PART THE CITY'S SCARE TACTICS WORK.  IF WE FRIGHTEN HOMELESS PEOPLE INTO HIDING IN THE BUSHES AT NIGHT, BY HARRASSING THEM, NO ONE WILL SEE THEM AND PEOPLE WILL THINK WE HAVE NO HOMELESS DISASTER.

     I NEVER  COULD UNDERSTAND THE CITY'S OPPOSITION TO DIGNITY VILLAGE AT FIRST.  DID THEY REALLY WANT THOSE 90 PEOPLE BACK SLEEPING IN DOORWAYS ON BROADWAY?  WELL WE HAVE A H;OMELESS DISASTER, I'M TELLING YOU ABOUT IT AND WILL PERSONALLY ESCORT ANYONE INTERESTED ON A TOUR OF WHERE TOO MANY PEOPLE HAVE TO SLEEP.

     THE CHURCHES IN OUR TOWN, TRADITIONAL VENUES OF COMPASSION DO A REALLY GOOD JOB OF FEEDING HUNGRY PEOPLE, BUT IN SPITE OF THE BASEMENTS AND GYMS WHERE HOMELESS FOLKS MIGHT SLEEP AT NIGHT ONLY BINGO GAMES AND CHURCH SOCIALS HAPPEN.

     AND I WONDER WHY?

     I THINK IT'S BECAUSE IT'S EASY TO GIVE SOME ONE A HOT MEAL AND SEND THEM ON THEIRWAY.  YOU FEEL GOOD, BUT THEY STILL HAVE TO GO BACK TO THE CARDBOARD BOX AT DARK.  I BELINGED TO A CHURCH THAT RAN A FOOD BANK OPEN TO ALL 5 DAYS A WEEK.  SO WE SEE POOR AND HUNGRY PEOPLE EVERY DAY. WE KNOW THEY ARE HERE YET WE MAINTAIN A MISSION FOR THE POOR IN ....INDIA!!  HOW ADMIRABLE, BUT HOW DISTANT.  I THINK IT MAKES THE CHURCHES FEEL GOOD BECAUSE THEY DON'T HAVE TO SEE THEM AT NIGHT!

     WHAT CITY GOVERNMENT DOES FOR HOMELESS FOLKS IS SHAMEFULL AND WHAT STATE GOVERNMENT DOES TO HOMELESS AND SICK  PEOPLE IS SHAMEFULL TOO!

PLEASE HELP THOSE THAT ARE DOWN AND OUT IN THE BUSHES.

( I WROTE THIS EDITORIAL AFTER THE ROSE FESTIVAL LAST YEAR.  I REPEAT IT BECAUSE WE STILL HAVE A HOMELESS CRISIS. WE DO HAVE A NEW MAYOR THAT CARES MORE ABOUT THE HOMELESS AND THE CITY HAS A 10 YEAR HOMELESS PLAN THAT IS BEING IMPLEMENTED.  MORE HOUSING UNITS ARE BEING  BUILT AND MORE ARE IN THE PLANNING STAGE.  GOOD JOB SO FAR BUT WE STILL HAVE A  CRISIS!  MY BIG QUESTION IS WHAT HAVE WE BEEN DOING FOR THE LAST 10 YEARS?

DON DUPAY

CANNABIS COMMON SENSE

LIVE 7-8-05

THE $900.00 MAIRJUANA TAX

     THE STATE OF OREGON TOOK $900.000 FROM ;THE MEDICAL MJ FUND OF $1.100.000 TO WELL.....HELP PAY THE BILLS DOWN AT THE LEGISLATURE.  THE STATE ALWAYS NEEDS MORE CASH SO THEY TOOK MONEY, PAID BY SICK PEOPLE, FOR A PERMIT TO USE MJ AS MEDICINE.  GUESS WE NOW OFFICIALLY HAVE A MARIJUANA TAX, A TAX PAID ONLY BY A FEW THOUSAND SICK FOLKS. 

     HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THAT VIEWERS, WAS SOME OF THAT MONEY YOURS?  $355.00 OF IT WAS MINE!  HOW DO I FEEL ABOUT IT?  WELL LET ME TELL YOU!

     IT IS, FIRST OF ALL, A SAD STATE OF AFFAIRS WHEN OREGON NEEDS MONEY SO BADLY THEY TAKE IT FROM FOLKS WITH PAIN, INCURABLE DISEASE AND ON SOC. SEC. DISABILI;TY.  IT IS ALWAYS POOR PEOPLE,( SICK PEOPLE, THOSE WITH NO VOICE THAT GET HIT BY GOVERNMENT.  JUST LOOK AT THE CUTS TO THE OREGON HEALTH PLAN, FOOD PROGRAMS FOR CHILDREN, HELP FOR THE MENTALLY ILL, HELP AND HOUSING FOR HOMELESSNESS.  SO IF YOU'RE POOR AND SICK AND LIVE IN OREGON JUST KNOW THAT WHEN BAD THINGS HAPPEN IN GOVERNMENT IT WILL HAPPEN TO YOU FIRST.

     HAVEING SAID THAT, THE ENTIRE CONCEPT OF PAYING A FEE TO THE STATE FOR THE PRIVILEGE OF TAKING MEDICINE IS A DANGEROUS ONE.  IT IS DANGEROUS BECAUSE GOVERNMENT, WE HAVE SEEN ALWAYS NEEDS MORE MONEY AND IS ALWAYS SEEKING MORE SOURCES OF REVENUE.

     HOW DO YOU THINK THE  STATE CAME TO BE IN THE POSITION OF OPERATING VIDEO POKER, LOTTERY, AND OTHER GAMES OF (SLIM) CHANCE?

       IN THE EARLY 1960'S I WORKED VICE AS A COP HERE IN PORTLAND AND GAMBLING WAS ILL...LEGAL.  WE ARRESTED FOLKS FOR PLAYING POKER IN THEIR FRONT ROOM WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS AND POKER JOINT AFTERHOURS CLUBS WERE RAIDED.  THE MILWAUKIE ELKS WAS FAMOUS FOR IT'S BACK ROOM SLOT MACHINES AND  EQUALLY FAMOUS FOR BEING RAIDED BY THE OREGON STATE POLICE.  SO HOW DID WE GET  FROM RAIDING SLOT MACHINES IN THIS STATE TO STATE OPERATED SLOT MACHINES?  S L O W L Y.  THE STATE GOT USED TO THE MONEY AND NOW.....THE STATE CAN NOT OPERATE WITH OUT GAMBLING MONEY!!!

     NOW..YOU SEE THAT STATE TOOK $900.000 FROM THE MARIJUANA FOLKS.  THEY GOT THEIR FIRST TASTE OF "DRUG TAX MONEY."   IT IS A TAX ON SICK PEOPLE BUT IT WILL BE ON THE BACKS OF US SICK FOLKS TO CARRY THE EROSION OF MJ LAWS. IN MY VIEW THAT $900.000 IS JUST THE BEGINING, THE BEGINNING OF THE END OF MJ PROHIBITION. PART OF ME GLOATS OVER IT, BECAUSE I CAN HEAR THE TV ADS OF THE FUTURE TELLING US HOW MUCH GOOD MJ TAX MONEY IS DOING FOR SCHOOLS, FOR HEALTH PROGRAMS AND THE LIKE.  JUST LIKE THE LOTTERY ADS NOW TELL US HOW MANY PROGRAMS HAVE BENEFITED FROM THE 20 BILLION OREGONIANS HAVE LOST GAMBLING IN THE LAST 40 YEARS. 

     I'M NOT GOING TO CRY OVER THE MONEY, I'M NOT EVEN GOING TO COMPLAIN IF THEY TAKE MORE MONEY.  ISN'T THAT WHAT WE REALLY WANTED, TAX THE MARIJUANA AND LET US ALL HAVE IT?

    IF I WAS A CARTOONIST I WOULD DRAW A  CARTOON OF A LOT OF PEOPLE STANDING IN LINES AT THE STATE OFFICE BUILDING WHERE WE NOW PAY OUR MARIJUANA PERMIT TAX.  THERE WOULD BE A LINE TO PAY FOR A PERMIT FOR PAXIL, ONE FOR ZANEX, ONE FOR VALIUM, ONE FOR BIRTH CONTROL PILLS, ONE FOR EACH POPULAR SLEEPING PILL, ONE FOR HIGH BLOOD LPRESSURE MEDICINE ETC.  JUST THINK HOW MUCHG MONEY THE STATE COU7LD RAISE IN MEDICINE TAX.  KIDS WOULD HAVE SCHOOL BOOKS, HOUSING WOULD BE BUILT FOR HOMELESS, HEALTH CARE WOULD BE AVAILABLE FOR ALL AND THE SUN WOULD ALWAYS SHINE ON THE ROSE FESTIVAL.

FAR FETCHED YOU SAY? MAYBE...MAYBE NOT!!!

DON DUPAY

LIVE CANNABIS COMMON SENSE

7-1-05

E

View from the street

I welcome my tv viewers to my blog.  I will post my hemp street news editorials weekly and additionally tell you about anything else that pisses me off. (that's why i write)

Don DuPay