The Homeless

Seems to me that if every day felt like the woman in the video and smoking a joint helped minimize that, moving to Colorado might be a solution.[/QUOTE]

Yes, I would imagine that a large percentage of the Homeless are suffering from some form of mental illness, or depression, etc. Given the sorry state of our Mental Health Care anymore, there few services available to help them. I am fully in favor of Medical Marijuana...it would probably obsolete most of the Pain Pills that Big Pharma foists on the public, but I don't think Recreational Marijuana is a good idea. The Denver folks are saying that their auto insurance rates are starting to climb because of the increased number of car wrecks in the State. Drunks are bad enough but Druggies behind the wheel can only add to the problems.
 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...lities-in-colorado-are-at-near-historic-lows/

According to the Washington Post article, since it was legalized in 2012, highway fatalies are at near historic lows.



http://www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2012/4/prweb9375729.htm?PID=6149635

NEW YORK (PRWEB) APRIL 06, 2012In a recent study, 4AutoinsuranceQuote.com, a national quote provider for online car insurance quotes, cites a strong correlation between traffic-related accidents and marijuana use. The study, which looks at statistics regarding accidents, traffic violations, and insurance prices, seeks to dispel the thought that “driving while stoned” is dangerous.
In the study, 4AutoInsuranceQuote.com points out that the only significant effect that marijuana has on operating a motor vehicle is slower driving.




So whomever you are talking to in Denver who says their rates have gone up because of increased number of car wrecks, well everything costs more and according to the Washington Post article above, exactly the opposite is true regarding 'increasing number of wrecks'. Besides, according to that insurance study (and they'd have a definite interest wouldn't they?), 'druggies' drive slower which in my mind must imply that they are taking fewer risks and driving more carefully than drunks are.
 
imp said:
Of course I noticed. That's why it came to mind that smaller cities with lower pop. but higher RATES of homelessness means those cities exceed 5%...........Incredible for any city, in my book. My wife & I were made homeless bythe Reagan Recession, in 1982, my employer laid me off on her birthday! A nice present I brought her home at 11:00AM that day. She, too, had been laid off previously. Job search, several months, zip. Dumped our nice house, traded my 1966 Mustang for a big yellow school bus, which we lived out of up in the woods of Northern AZ. How cold it was in that thing, they had no insulation at all.

Applied for food stamps, unemployment benefits ran out, we were up in Indian Country, Navajo County, a nice Mr. Sandoval, Supervisor of the Social Services there explained two reasons for no benefits, with a snicker: we had raised dough to live on selling personal belongings, AND "your skin is the wrong color". Not Native American. Would have been no questions asked benefit-eligible had I been.

Wonder at all why I question that big prejudice pendulum swinging to excess in both directions? imp
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Wow, that must have been a really tough time for you two! A Finnish arrangement would have been really good for you back then. Guaranteed basic income eh?
 

SifuPhil said:
Well, from the NORML site on Massachusetts it seems the fines are still pretty stiff for anything over an ounce.



Pot tourism was I believe always on the minds of the people pushing for legalization. It's a big part of what brings in those tax dollars - in the last fiscal year pot taxes brought in $70 million, more even than alcohol sales. Why can't they use some of that money for the homeless?
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My guess is other government departments and programs declared first dibs on that money for their own benefit.
 
http://www.mintpressnews.com/new-sc...es-benefits-of-marijuana-legalization/208751/

So schools are benefitting from the millions generated from pot sales.


'.....Along with legalization, Colorado voters approved a 15 percent excise tax on wholesale marijuana sales that is only to be used for school construction. According to another recent report from Baca, Colorado schools have earned $13.6 million in just the first five months of 2015, a sharp increase over 2014, when the tax generated a total of $13.3 million for the whole year. Putting that figure in perspective, Baca quoted a local Colorado school superintendent, who said that $40 million would fund the construction of “two well-equipped elementary schools, or one well-equipped middle school with an athletic field.” Tax revenues for Colorado schools and infrastructure are not the only benefit of legalization for the state. A study released in January by the Drug Policy Alliance showed that legalization has led to a decrease in crime....'


 
Debby said:
Wow, that must have been a really tough time for you two! A Finnish arrangement would have been really good for you back then. Guaranteed basic income eh?
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Debby, I usually refrain from talking about that part of my life, but sometimes, just sometimes,......listening to all the theoretical balderdash stirred into a kind of "soup", I become foolishly compelled to do so. It's like, look, I've seen and heard all the B.S., but most of that issues forth from the inexperienced, so here's what it was like.

We lived in those woods a year. During the early months, I built a 16X40 foot cabin, we had plenty of firewood, at 6700 ft. it got plenty cold. Managed to trade my skills for a milk goat, and 6 chickens. No running water or plumbing. We were surprised to learn there were a lot of folks living up there in the same "boat". One young guy and his wife and father were camped in an abandoned shack a few miles away; I learned they were not above thieving. One day I ran into the guy with my pistol obvious in sight, in my waistband. The guy never again suggested that I help him rob some place, nor did he dare come near ours. imp
 
fureverywhere said:
Something else to think about when you see the Home Depot icon all over the place. Big corporate doesn't care about it's worker ants. Back in the day of private industry if someone was in a bad way financially maybe the boss could give the person a shot at more hours, additional assignments for a raise...something, anything. I remember when I worked there, a sign in the break room one day. " One of your co-workers is about to become homeless, any help would be appreciated". So instead of the machine helping this person they were asking co-workers to pass the hat. Decent hours and decent wages...you shouldn't have to become homeless and employed. Plus I could just see them firing him eventually anyway. Yes we know you're living in your car, but we have a business to run and you have to be here on time...the individual's situation has no meaning to them.
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It's not just the big corporations -- it's small business, too. I know that from bitter personal experience.
 
I guess I don't get why legalization of marijuana would increase the homeless rate? Alcohol causes WAY more homelessness, job loss, domestic violence, auto fatalities, crime, etc., than marijuana ever has or will.

Does not make sense to me.
 
Butterfly said:
I guess I don't get why legalization of marijuana would increase the homeless rate? Alcohol causes WAY more homelessness, job loss, domestic violence, auto fatalities, crime, etc., than marijuana ever has or will.

Does not make sense to me.
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Nor to me, but you have to remember the demonization of pot that has been going on for over 80 years - it has soaked into the American psyche to a point where it's reflexive to blame weed for everything from homelessness to climate change.

But because alcohol is legal and is part of our "national heritage" it's usually overlooked as the true demon.

*DISCLAIMER* - I lost my sister to a drunk driver, not a stoned one, so I may be prejudiced.
 
Crap, if when they legalize it in New Jersey I might be able to afford to retire. I am a danged good gardener. Becoming a certified grower? No problem I'd be doing well.
 
fureverywhere said:
Crap, if when they legalize it in New Jersey I might be able to afford to retire. I am a danged good gardener. Becoming a certified grower? No problem I'd be doing well.
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If NJ is anything like the other legalized states you'd have to initially come up with tens of thousands of dollars just for the "privilege" of being a certified grower. Then high taxes, equipment fees, distribution worries, theft ...

It ain't easy being a legal grower. You'd do better with a hydro arrangement in your basement. ;)
 
fureverywhere said:
Bastards, they have to make everything difficult eh wot?
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A most succinct way of summing up government, in my way of thinking! Thank you!

And, benefitting you, I maylook forward to sharing, perhaps fielding the most of, commentary regarding my political beliefs. imp
 
imp said:
Debby, I usually refrain from talking about that part of my life, but sometimes, just sometimes,......listening to all the theoretical balderdash stirred into a kind of "soup", I become foolishly compelled to do so. It's like, look, I've seen and heard all the B.S., but most of that issues forth from the inexperienced, so here's what it was like.

We lived in those woods a year. During the early months, I built a 16X40 foot cabin, we had plenty of firewood, at 6700 ft. it got plenty cold. Managed to trade my skills for a milk goat, and 6 chickens. No running water or plumbing. We were surprised to learn there were a lot of folks living up there in the same "boat". One young guy and his wife and father were camped in an abandoned shack a few miles away; I learned they were not above thieving. One day I ran into the guy with my pistol obvious in sight, in my waistband. The guy never again suggested that I help him rob some place, nor did he dare come near ours. imp
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Well it does sound like it was a rough time and you must have learned to be very resourceful as a result. Obviously because you survived right?
 
I agree. It doesn't matter which state or city has the most. What matters is these people seem to have been abandoned by us in their need. If we can't take care of our present homeless and our homeless veterans, how are we going to take care of refugees?
 
Debby said:
Well it does sound like it was a rough time and you must have learned to be very resourceful as a result. Obviously because you survived right?
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Yeah, we did. But very bitterly offended by the "system" I had honored and paid into for 20 years of my adult life, when turned away by a smirking official whose power platform ego was supported through doling out funds to the indigent, only by the color of their skin. At that moment, in the guy's private office (of course an underling had done the actual review work and decision-making), my having demanded to speak to him, I may have never been more angered in my life up to that time. imp
 
RadishRose said:
Really? Who said? I want to help the homeless and I do! But I'll be damned if we cut the military in these times, gee whiz!
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But then we could re-institute the draft and get all those formerly-homeless folks into active service! :rolleyes:

No, I don't think robbing Peter to pay Paul would work in this situation ...
 
imp said:
Yeah, we did. But very bitterly offended by the "system" I had honored and paid into for 20 years of my adult life, when turned away by a smirking official whose power platform ego was supported through doling out funds to the indigent, only by the color of their skin. At that moment, in the guy's private office (of course an underling had done the actual review work and decision-making), my having demanded to speak to him, I may have never been more angered in my life up to that time. imp
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Have you / had you thought about bringing a reverse discrimination suit?
 
SifuPhil said:
Have you / had you thought about bringing a reverse discrimination suit?
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Never! I abide by the decisions of our great and respected leadership! (Though their actions enrage me more and more!). Firstly, litigation would involve lawyers, who likely knew very well that fighting in "Indian Country" is forbidden.

Secondly, I was brought up to believe in "self-sufficiency", resourcefulness, and greatest of all, self-respect. We suffered through it, we knew the conveniences of living the urban life in Phoenix, employed, overspending, over-eating, etc., would be gone. Our choice was that to join the throng of dopers, winter-squatters, beggers, and truly helpless homeless in downtown Phoenix, many lounging about in front of the State Capitol grounds, would have placed us at a level unacceptable to us as human beings.

We managed. Those folks downtown may have, too, albeit many through welfare handout. Not for us. imp
 
imp said:
Never! I abide by the decisions of our great and respected leadership! (Though their actions enrage me more and more!). Firstly, litigation would involve lawyers, who likely knew very well that fighting in "Indian Country" is forbidden.

Secondly, I was brought up to believe in "self-sufficiency", resourcefulness, and greatest of all, self-respect. We suffered through it, we knew the conveniences of living the urban life in Phoenix, employed, overspending, over-eating, etc., would be gone. Our choice was that to join the throng of dopers, winter-squatters, beggers, and truly helpless homeless in downtown Phoenix, many lounging about in front of the State Capitol grounds, would have placed us at a level unacceptable to us as human beings.

We managed. Those folks downtown may have, too, albeit many through welfare handout. Not for us. imp
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Interesting points of view.

Not being a resident of that area I cannot comment on the "no fighting in Indian Country" doctrine, but it does sound ... intriguing.

As to the second point ... I too was once - well, not rich by any modern standard, but quite well-off, shall we say. I also blew through that money like a drunken sailor - "easy come, easy go" should have been on my belt buckle.

Now that I've turned away from that life I find myself wondering ... I always was too proud to accept help of any kind but especially from the government. I would make it on my own but without help of any kind. Well, getting married and having kids changed my attitude, as well as the more mature realization that I wasn't Superman anymore.

To date I've "accepted" unemployment payments once (a nasty situation like yours - laid off from Union Carbide, couldn't find work to save my life) and one month of food stamps (I believe it was $199). Other than that like a stubborn donkey I refuse to enter into "The System".

Social Security (if I live that long) will be a different story - I paid into it, gimme' it!
 
SifuPhil said:
.....Social Security (if I live that long) will be a different story - I paid into it, gimme' it!
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Phil, FWIW, I say, TAKE IT as soon as you can. I "dropped out" in 1999, five years before S/S eligibility, struggled a bit, worked one year teaching Math in rural high school, only because the Principal all but begged me, that helped.

To do it over again, no changes! imp
 

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