A New Low in New Mexico
I don’t know how much attention this is going to get in the press, but this strikes me as an extraordinary – and as far as I know, unique – instance of cowardice and cruelty:
SILVER CITY, N.M. (AP) — A woman was told to move out of her apartment when the landlord discovered she has marijuana for medical use.
Bobbie Wooten, 47, uses a wheelchair because she was paralyzed from the waist down in a car crash several years ago and suffers severe spasms. She joined the state’s medical marijuana program when it went into effect last year. …
“My lease provides for a drug-free environment,” said David Kotin of Kay-Kay Realty. “Obviously, she is in violation of my lease.”
I suppose Kotin will also be going through the building checking for beer, Tylenol, and coffeepots now, right? That, or he and Kay-Kay Realty are unforgivably stupid, intellectually lazy, and inhumane. Or both.
Has anybody out there heard of similar instances of housing discrimination toward qualified medical marijuana patients operating within legal limits?
Tagged with: cruelty and discrimination and ignorance and pain and patients and stupidity and victims by the author
5 comments
I think what people do in thier own dwelling is nobodys bussiness. And I think she should sue thier ass-off.I guess it would be better if she took oxycottens and drooled herself to death.I hope Carma bites them in the ass!!!
Something similar happened in Toronto. A man with AIDS has a license to grow his medicine, and he lives in public housing. Toronto Community Housing shut off his power for 3 weeks. He hasn’t been evicted, and his power eventually got turned back on. There’s also a lot of crackheads living in the same building, so they pick on the sick and dying man using a plant as medicine?
Thursday, October 16, 2008
No power for legal pot garden
City housing cuts hydro to HIV patient’s apartment
By KEVIN CONNOR
The Toronto Sun
William Palmer has a licence from Health Canada to grow medical marijuana to help him deal with his HIV — but that didn’t stop the fire department and the city’s social housing provider from calling his garden a safety risk and turning off his electricity.
That was three weeks ago and Palmer has had no electricity to refrigerate his HIV medications in his apartment in a Toronto Community Housing (TCH) building on Dundas St. E.
“A year ago I asked my landlord for permission and consent to set up my operation. I put my Health Canada licence with my application but I never got a response,” he said. “I knew sooner or later someone would make a stink about it but I never thought I would have my power turned off.”
Medical marijuana can relieve the nausea caused by HIV medications, increase a patient’s appetite and help with chronic pain. Palmer, 44, who was diagnosed with HIV in 1997, had a marijuana crop of 25 small plants.
‘LIVING IN THE DARK’
His operation was set up by a professional electrician so he said there is no safety risk.
“My plants are dead and I’m living in the dark,” he said.
On Sept. 23 Palmer was in the unit next door, occupied by his father, when he says he heard the landlord and firefighters enter his apartment.
“I had no notice from (TCH) housing that they would be entering my apartment. I heard them going in and I was paranoid and couldn’t move,” Palmer said.
“When they turned off the electricity, they put my health at risk. At least, I can store my drugs in my dad’s fridge.”
Social housing officials will look into the situation but won’t discuss specifics, citing privacy laws, according to TCH spokesman Jeff Ferrier.
Palmer’s lawyer, John Norquay, with the HIV and AIDS Legal Clinic Ontario, wrote to housing officials, noting his client is legally allowed to produce marijuana.
Norquay told housing officials they have a legal duty under the Human Rights Code to accommodate Palmer’s disabilities, in this case, HIV.
Contact: torsun.editor@sunmedia.ca
I typed in depression brain and got a lot of info on the brain and how depression may come into being. This info ishalf the battle in making marijuana legal in NM, or anywhere else, for people with depression and bi-polar disorder. All one needs to do is document how the THC calms the misfiring brain and perhaps the state Dept. of health might make an exception. I’m glad people with cancer and AIDS can smoke legally in NM, but what about me? My pain is every bit as real and these articles I mention document where that pain comes from. PLEASE PLEASE SPREAD THIS AROUND. MAYBE SOMEONE OUT THERE WILL GO TO BAT FOR US IN NM and else where.
It is truly amazing that the power of the internet can be used to magnify distorted and inaccurate misleading news into a rage.
I was warned never t0 trust everything you read in the news and now I fully understand. I just ran across this blog several months after the event.
Since this is out here forever I thought a response was in order.
I doubt anyone will read it but you never know.
Lets start with some of the missing facts and a different point of view.
1) Proper notice was delivered prior to the unit inspection.
2) The property is a multi-family apartment community.
3)She entered into written agreement not to possess drugs on the property.
4) She was not not required and choose not to ask if it would be a concern to us despite the contract she had signed.
5) She received a standard New Mexico form violation notice. We don’t like it either. She was never expected to meet its time demand but it is required to proceed in court where she could defend her right to keep her apartment.
6) We support Medical Marijuana but have concerns when it is used in a dense multi family environment, near families with children and others who do not wish to be living close enough to identify its pungent aroma.
7)We believe that property owners have the right to enforce reasonable rules including restrictions on smoking.
8)We understand the laws under which we operate and the need to make reasonable accommodations.
9)We would like to see some reasonable understanding on the part of medical marijuana advocates that use in some places may be inappropriate. What people do in their own home is one thing but what they do in a rented apartment in close proximity to others in violation of their contract is another.
10)We believe that landlords who permit medical marijuana to be grown or used on their property should be protected from Federal and State laws which put their property at risk of seizure and forfeiture.
These are new laws and they need to be fine tuned to consider unforeseen issues such as property owners rights and appropriateness around children.
I am bi polar and I believe in the medicinal calming effect marijuana has on the body. It slows down the mania and relives me of anxiety.
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