Three more running for Santa Cruz council - Santa Cruz Sentinel

Part of what inspires me was being able to go to The Club (The San Francisco Cannabis Buyers Club) on more-or-less a daily basis and see, over time, the healing that took place. And to become, over time, part of a vibrant and powerful community.

It's been over ten years now since I've had that.

It's something everyone should have before they die.

I intend to make the restrictions The City of Santa Cruz (aka Compassion Central, U.S.A.) has placed on their drug-stores one of my issues; as far as I am concerned they have turned our Clubs into their Drug Dealers.

The City of Santa Cruz has demanded that dispensaries prohibit smoking at the clubs. Further, they have forced the dispensaries to sign an agreement holding them responsible if one of their clients medicates in public, with the power to revoke their license over this. This policy is crap and should be tossed in the trash. Along with the thinking that produced it.

The California Supreme Court has declared medical use is exempt from the Controlled Substances Act. I intend to defend the right of medical patients to peaceably assemble. And this includes medicating in public. Medical patients need to go places and do things. Many, if not most, have difficulty getting around. And many, if not most, of these must use public transportation. They have to buy groceries, and go to the doctor, and have dinner out or go to a movie. And they need to medicate to do this.

Over the coming weeks I will be posting my positions in my blog, which you will find at http://www.palmspringsbum.org/blog or blog.palmspringsbum.org

Santa Cruz has 1,000 units of transitional and emergency housing, and not one for medical marijuana patients. This is discrimination most heinous and I intend to do something about it.

J. Craig Canada
aka palmspringsbum

Vote for the Bum!

Are ya gonna have BeckyKOOK "manage" your campaign? Boy will we have fun with THIS one!
BWAAAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

Sheesh, pretty slim pickins' this election cycle in terms of viable desirable candidates, bummer...

palmspringsbum wrote:

Santa Cruz has 1,000 units of transitional and emergency housing,

Really? Is that county wide? Is that housing the homeless can use to transition back into the work force or to get drug/alcohol help? I'm asking because 1,000 units is a lot of housing and we seem to have a lot homeless hanging out downtown.

Santa Cruz Local wrote:

<quoted text>
Really? Is that county wide? Is that housing the homeless can use to transition back into the work force or to get drug/alcohol help? I'm asking because 1,000 units is a lot of housing and we seem to have a lot homeless hanging out downtown.

He must have gotten a lesson in Becky's KOOKmath. Just like the 40% "workforce"

What I've decided to do is maintain a page of my blog with a list of my positions. I will add items to this page, called "Position Papers", as I prepare them: http://www.palmspringsbum.org/blog/2008/08/po...

Clicking the item on this page will take you to my forum, where I have set aside a section for discussion of my issues and my candidacy. Or you can go directly to my forum: http://www.palmspringsbum.org/bbs and select the topic "City Council candidate J. Craig Canada". Or you can just bookmark this link: http://www.palmspringsbum.org/bbs/viewforum.p...

Santa Cruz Local wrote:

<quoted text>
Really? Is that county wide? Is that housing the homeless can use to transition back into the work force or to get drug/alcohol help? I'm asking because 1,000 units is a lot of housing and we seem to have a lot homeless hanging out downtown.

I haven't counted in years but that sounds possible. That would includes all of the housing for the mentally ill that are willing to work with the system, all of the long-terms substance abuse programs and clean and sober housing, family transitional housing and places like Page Smith that take single adults that want to go through their program.

As far as I know Craig is correct in that none of them will accept medical marijuana patients because they see it as a violation of their 'clean and sober' restrictions.

DBS wrote:

<quoted text>He must have gotten a lesson in Becky's KOOKmath. Just like the 40% "workforce"

The figure of 1,000 emergency and transitional beds came from an article in the Sentinel a year or two ago by either Shana McCord or Genevieve Bookwalter. I spent a while trying to find that article, without luck. I did find this, by Dan White, published 23 may 2004.

" According to the report there are 219 emergency shelter beds between April and October and 122 more beds between November and March, as well as 400 units of transitional housing countywide."

http://www.scsextra.com/story.php...

So in 2004 there were about 700 emergency and transitional beds. This is including the armory and the church groups, and 'River Street Shelter'. In the case of the armory and the church groups, a bed consists of sleeping in public, on a mat on the floor. In the case of 'River Street Shelter', a bed consists of a bunk in a room with at least 6 other people, in a facility half of which are dually addicted - with a psychiatric disability AND a substance abuse disability.

The remainder of the emergency and temporary beds are Sober Living Environments (SLEs). They drug test for admittance and participation in some sort of 12-step religion is required. The maximum time one may reside in these programs varies from 30 days to two years, to my knowledge.

The maximum time one may reside at Page Smith is 18 months. I was denied housing twice by Page Smith because I was a medical marijuana patient and because they drug test as part of the 'application' and because they consider cannabis and illicit, dangerous, addictive drug.

Here in Compassion Central, U.S.A.

Councilman Tony Madrigal filed for reelection on Friday, the last day to do so. Medical marijuana activist J. Craig Canada also was certified as a candidate on Friday. Peace activist Simba Kenyatta turned in his papers but his signatures had not been verified by the end of the day.

Simba Kenyatta is the best of these three musketeers!

We saw what Tony Madrigal was made of; when harassed a woman during a police ride along a cused like a drunken sailor during a SCPD roll call.

Craig Canada is the one issue candidate. MARIJUANA, MARIJUANA and MARIJUANA! He smokes weed 24/7/365 and wants the world to know that he's always stoned off of his can. Getting stoned cures everything according to this cannabis quack.

He also uses this comments section for his political advertising which I flag for removal...

palmspringsbum wrote:

<quoted text>
The figure of 1,000 emergency and transitional beds came from an article in the Sentinel a year or two ago by either Shana McCord or Genevieve Bookwalter. I spent a while trying to find that article, without luck. I did find this, by Dan White, published 23 may 2004.
" According to the report there are 219 emergency shelter beds between April and October and 122 more beds between November and March, as well as 400 units of transitional housing countywide."
http://www.scsextra.com/story.php...
So in 2004 there were about 700 emergency and transitional beds. This is including the armory and the church groups, and 'River Street Shelter'. In the case of the armory and the church groups, a bed consists of sleeping in public, on a mat on the floor. In the case of 'River Street Shelter', a bed consists of a bunk in a room with at least 6 other people, in a facility half of which are dually addicted - with a psychiatric disability AND a substance abuse disability.
The remainder of the emergency and temporary beds are Sober Living Environments (SLEs). They drug test for admittance and participation in some sort of 12-step religion is required. The maximum time one may reside in these programs varies from 30 days to two years, to my knowledge.
The maximum time one may reside at Page Smith is 18 months. I was denied housing twice by Page Smith because I was a medical marijuana patient and because they drug test as part of the 'application' and because they consider cannabis and illicit, dangerous, addictive drug.
Here in Compassion Central, U.S.A.

Thank you for that information, Craig. Maybe you can answer this since Becky will only give stats on homeless and not information as to what is available - if there are programs designed to help those get back on their feet, and/or become clean/sober - why do I see the same panhandlers downtown? Could they be considered the 'homeless by choice' or is there another reason?

What an embarrassing representation from Santa Cruz.

What about the public funds that Palmspringsparasite receives to lay around smoking dope all day? Does he still get to collect our tax dollars if elected?

annomynous wrote:

He also uses this comments section for his political advertising which I flag for removal...

It is not advertising. It is debate.

And if you are successful you will have given me more good publicity and name recognition than money can buy.

Instead of censoring me, you should be challenging the other candidate to participate. In my every so humble opinion.

...other candidateS...

Well, I suppose congratulations are in order. Out of all of us blowhards, NIMBYs, righties, lefties, moaners and whiners-one actually stepped up to the plate! The best and the brightest aren't always the most willing, but heck, give credit where it's due I guess. But take it from a professional PR man and SpinDoctor, you'll have to do more than continually hoard your stash of green sticky bud while you click away on the keyboard. You'll need a strategy, platform, communications (beyond topix) plan and start hitting some issues beyond freaking medical MJ. You might just win in this town. It's that desperate.

What a lame choice of candidates.

Sorry pally, but I am not going to vote for anyone who promotes smoking pot or for that matter taking any type of mind altering drugs. What the hell is happening to this city? I swear it's like the '60s are coming back to haunt us. Next thing you know it will be medical heroin smoking. PSB, looks like the diarrhea that was coming out of your butt^hole has found a new outlet.

Santa Cruz Local wrote:

<quoted text>
Really? Is that county wide? Is that housing the homeless can use to transition back into the work force or to get drug/alcohol help? I'm asking because 1,000 units is a lot of housing and we seem to have a lot homeless hanging out downtown.

I doubt the county and city would deem it fit to create 'normal' 40 hour type jobs for anyone over college age (there aren't any for that group either, nor can they normally do a 'straight 40' due to school scheduling) to 'transition them back into the workforce'.

I'm IN the workforce, with no deleterious drug habits (unless one would consider marijuana deleterious, or a 'drug habit' in any serious sense of the word, and houseless.

What is needed is housing in the range an 8-12 dollar an hour worker can afford, and that range of income DOES ALLOW for room rental, but not necessarily the concurrent security deposits et al.

What Santa Cruz is building (en masse) is $2000/mo housing for commuters they hope (Keep hoping rubes) to woo here.

FWIW, when my father died, I went looking for emergency funding to help out for a couple of months until I found other work to take up the financial slack from his subsidizing my housing while I attended Cabrillo, and I discovered THERE IS NO FUNDING unless you are already receiving government aid.

No security deposit help, no emergency rent help, no nothing.

I just read Craig's website. I admit it is a very interesting story. His narrative seems more authentic than the typical phony crap we have to endure from the politicians that come from the top 1%.

He probably even has a Hollywood script in that story. If Craig gets elected, he might actually get an offer.

Here is the plot:

Gay man gets run out of Alabama, goes to San Francisco to join the sexual revolution and becomes part of the pink bourgeoisie. As he sees his friends dying of AIDS, he goes into a deep depression that sends him into the hands of the pharmaceutical industry as a guinea pig for Prozac, which only exacerbates his manic depression, making him nuts and costing him his Silicon Valley job. He turns to marijuana and medical marijuana activism. He goes to Santa Cruz, a supposed bastion of liberal tolerance for drugs and homosexuality, but gets thrown into the streets when his landlord catches him selling dope and banging his 16 year old teenage son. He is run out of ever homeless shelter, sleeps in the streets, and pisses in public. Rejected everywhere, he decides to run for mayor, gets elected, and ends up marrying local Assemblyman John Laird in a gay marriage/420 celebration at UCSC and lives happily ever after.

DBS wrote:

What about the public funds that Palmspringsparasite receives to lay around smoking dope all day? Does he still get to collect our tax dollars if elected?

No. It would make him unable to get the funds he currently collects.