I was a drug addicted pusher on the streets of Hollywood.

I have done things and seen things in the pursuit of drugs that would make most people shy away from me in horror. How or why I am alive today, only God knows. Yes, I do believe in God, Jesus, Etc. for there is really no other way I could be here today. I ran speed for a dealer down by Gower and Hollywood Blvd, and I was one of the fastest runners around. Me and a partner moved many thousands of dollars a night. It is easy when you don't have to sleep. I begged for money to support my habit during the day, my loyal companion Incubus (God better rest his soul in a special place reserved for heroes or I don't want in) was by my side, keeping that last part of the sanity I had hidden deep within his little beagle-mutt heart waiting lovingly for his brother to return. I should be dead.

Things went bad for the dealer. Turns out me and my partner were moving to much, and a local gang wanted the territory. They almost killed me, and practically held me hostage as an example to the dealers and runners that might try to move in their territory. I turned to the police for help, trying to change my ways. They threatened to arrest me. I turned to state officials, trying to get into programs for people such as me. Apparently I could not qualify because of a $70,000 trust fund (a dead grandfather had left me and I could not even access for another decade). Then, an angel appeared to me in the form of a man. Steve was his name, and he ran a Christian marijuana clinic called Hezekiah, Inc. He was partnered with a doctor who was experimenting in getting people off of hard drugs by prescribing them medical marijuana. It worked. I started visiting the medical clinic on a regular basis, working for my pot by doing the flooring, and other work around the place. They offered me a job at a smaller clinic up north, and I accepted. They even watched my back as I ran from the gangsters that were controlling my life.

Because of this Pot clinic, and God, I am now off of drugs. I have a wife, a daughter, another on the way, a house of my own, and a life that is not in slavery to an addiction. In essence, a plant planted by God has saved my life, yet still I see it reviled, hated, or at the least disregarded by our federal government. I hoped this would change under Obama, but he instead insulted the people who asked him about it and dismissed pot as basically useless for our economy. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-4894639-503544.html

I look forward to a time when people are not backwards. Pot is not any worse than alcohol or ciggies, probably better.

To add to the part of pot getting people off of hard drugs, My friend Kat followed me a few months later, prescription in hand, she was my running partner and had been using for five years. She has now been clean for almost four years without a single relapse. My friend Lost also came up. He had been using speed for almost 20 years. He has been clean for close to four years without a relapse. My friend DeFasco followed. He was on speed for a little over a year. He has been clean for nearly four years without a relapse. My friend Dragon followed. He was addicted to a few drugs, He has been clean two years without a relapse. There were a few others as well, but I think you get the point.

Just legalize it already.

On edit:

I would also like to point out that under the Bush admin. the clinic was raided by federal officials and I lost my job. Luckily, I have developed many skills over my scant 27 years of life, and was able to find another job. Others were not as fortunate, or wouldn't have been if it was not for the owner of the clinic who opened his house to them and is now legally employing them in his new clinic elsewhere.

Thank you for sharing it...

And welcome to DU!

I too would like to legalize it. NOW.

I plan to vote for legalization in November.

This is the proper forum for your topic, but you could also have posted it in General Discussion. That forum gets a lot more traffic than this one.

Keep on posting!

I'm glad your life was saved.

And thank you for your legalization vote. I moved out of Cali because of the high cost of living, but I was a skilled hydro grower and may move back if it is legalized and the feds back off.

After all, the states should have some rights...

...and trusting us with your story...!

Pass it on, the more stories like this that people here, the closer we can get to national tolerance.

Medical pot has a lot of uses.

it is damn near a miracle drug in many respects. The corporatists hate it because they can't patent it. Worse for them, cannabis and hemp have the potential to be "game changers" for several powerful industries, the pharmaceutical industry being only one of them. They really don't want to open up this market. They would much rather keep it in the "black market" realm of criminal enterprises. One has to keep in mind, too, that prohibition has all sorts of uses. The fact that cannabis is the most commonly used illicit substance alone helps justify a whole bureaucracy and its budget. The so called 'war on drugs', with all its benefits to the militarization of our urban police forces, would be difficult to justify without cannabis prohibition. And those are just off the top of my head.

So....why should they legalize pot? What's in it for them? Just because we want it or because it is "the right thing to do"? Heh, obviously they couldn't care less about the latter.

the miracles that pot has brought about. I could list them, but it is almost 3am. Let me suffice it to say

1. at least 5 kids ages 20-30 off hard drugs, 3 of them not dealing in large amounts to others, now.

2. a 75 year old cancer ridden man who should have been barely able to move, able to move as fast as you or I.

3. at least 10 people I know of who shared their battles with depression wit me, but added that if they couldn't use pot (they refused to use the pharmacy proven addictive BS) they would be dead

4. at least 100 other stories, and this is from 1 clinic in a little over a year.

I'm fortunate to not have an addictive personality type. Although I've tried almost everything at one time or another (mostly in my wanton youth!), the only thing I'm addicted to is tobacco -- and even that habit I can quit when I'm ready to face the withdrawal.

I've been smoking cannabis since I was 19 in 1967. There have been times when I've gone years without it but now I enjoy smoking in the evenings. Not every evening but most. It is my 'kick back and unwind' inebriant of choice. I have no taste for alcohol (even wine and beer) whatever although on the rare occasion I pour myself a good Scotch.

I appreciate very much you sharing your personal story. About 20 years ago I became very interested in the so called 'War on Drugs' and in 1996 wrote this little couter-blast to it: http://www.lycaeum.org/drugwar/arm.html

What most people don't realize is there is a very strong connection between the so called 'War on Drugs' and the equally so called 'War on Terror'. Both are polices that have aims quite other than those publicly stated. Both are under the purview of 'Deep State' politics -- which is why I'm not optimistic about drug law reform at the Federal level. The 'WoD' makes no sense from the harm reduction POV and never has. But that is precisely the point. Harm reduction is not the intention of the 'WoD' any more than ending terrorism is the aim of the 'WoT'. But to understand that, one has to look beneath the surface of the media driven political circus. It's all about guns, drugs, oil and money -- or, in a word, Empire.

Same year Cannabis outlawed. Hemp rope would have cut into market share.
Hearst/Paper.
Pharma, as you said.
etc. etc.

I can't count the number of times I wish that Clinics like this(And with this kind of Strong Support) were around when I was living the Tourhead Lifestyle(Yes I'm a Deadhead)...Many of my dear friends would still be here today if this kind of thing was available "Back in the Day".

Stay Strong,
Stay Clear,
Stay Focused.

The World needs to hear from people like you,And you Write VERY Well.

Keep Writing,You're Good!

Stay Safe.

P.J.

For decades, the anti-pot drug worriers have harped on cannabis being a "gateway" drug whose use resulted -- inevitably -- in transition to "harder" drugs.

Not only has that "gateway" canard been debunked consistently in the research literature, but the real potential that cannabis has demonstrated for millennia for allowing people to abandon much more harmful substances (including alcohol and tobacco) by substituting this more benign drug is (finally) beginning to be documented and researched.

Everything old is new again. The Women's Christian Temperance Union in the late 1800s recommended that the spouses of alcoholics try to divert them to hashish instead for its more benign effects. The reality that this substitution works and allows folks to be more functional, productive and "in control" -- once again -- deserves serious attention.

Thanks so much for illustrating the idea. Here's hoping for more cannabis-tolerant and cannabis-supported recovery stories in the minutes and seconds to come.

K&R

It should be required reading for anyone concerned with drug policy.

Thank you for sharing it here.

Sounds like Cannabis saved you from the gates of Hell.

We need a telethon! :hug:

In fact, the only protest I have ever attended, I lead about 10 people on our own protesting the Bush administrations' prosecution of medical marijuana.

thanks for sharing it with us. yes, indeed this tale needs to be shared. I watch people on alcohol and am amazed it is legal when pot is not. no logic there at all.

you sound like a really kool 27 year old, and I imagine this is just the begining of the great things you will accomplish in your lifetime.

yeah to you and your family.

peace and love from

kate

Welcome to DU!

:hi: