Tag: Blane ODell

Legalize Marijuana in Virginia

close up photo of kush on glass container
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How the Repulican Party killed legalizing marijuana in Virginia.

Since January 16th, 2019 it is come to my attention that the delegates in the Commonwealth of Virginia do not care about the people that they are supposed to serve and vote on behalf of and to their benefit. I say since the 16th because the delegates of subcommittee 1 of the House of Justice Committee ruled to currently pass by indefinitely, which means to throw out and never bring back up for voting on 4 different bills that would have legalized marijuana. Now I find it ridiculous that 8 people can make a decision that can affect over 8 million Virginias.

Sounds a lot like the executives of a monopoly deciding to make changes that would hurt millions of Americans, except we could prosecute them under anti-trust laws. Maybe we should be allowed to sue and prosecute our Delegates and representatives in general when they vote against what most of the public they serve want.

Bills, HB2370, HB2079, HB2371 and HB2373 that would have made marijuana legal in the Commonwealth of Virginia were cut down by the Republican party just for spite a far as I can tell. The vote was straight across party line. One week after a Democratic Governor, Ralph Northam, called for decriminalization of marijuana in Virginia the 5 Republicans of the subcommittee 1 voted to kill the bills while the 3 Democrats voted to keep the bill alive and move them along their way towards becoming law.  As a registered Republican I can say those 5 Republican delegates did not vote for me or in a way the will improve my life.

Two Bills put forth by Delegate Steve Heretick, 1 by Del- Charniele Herring and 1 by Del.-Lee Carter, all Democratic Delegates, were voted down by the Republicans setting on the committee. I for one am tired of both the Republican and Democratic parties voting against each other just to be assholes instead of voting the way their constituents want them to vote. The polls show that the majority of Virginians are in favor of legalizing marijuana especially for medical use but also for recreational use for all those people over the age of 21.

In fact, polls by The Wall Street Journal, Gallop, and The Pew research Center show that Americans in general want the same things. A Pew poll shows that 62% of Americans support legalizing marijuana. Gallop shows that 66% wants to legalize marijuana and 94% of Americans believe the medical marijuana should be legal in every state and Commonwealth, as well as a Gallop poll that shows 53% of the Republican leadership in America support legalization. So, no matter how you put it for me you could say that this is how a Republican can learn to hate how the Republican party is serving it’s constituents and embrace the Democrats.

Or perhaps you prefer to ask questions like: How people in need of medical marijuana keep getting screwed over by the Republican party or How 5 people can make medical decisions for 1.7 million Virginians each without voting the way their district wants them to vote. I myself suffer from several medical issues that would benefit from the use of medical marijuana, but I guess I will just keep downing opioids one after the other, because that’s legal but not Marijuana, yeah that makes sense.

I think what we need to do is bombard the offices of the Delegates who voted these bills down with Emails, letters and phone calls to tell them exactly what the people of Virginia want and that if they will not vote the way we want we can and will remove them from office the next time they are up for election. In fact, here is the information for the delegates that need to change their voting to help instead of hurt Virginians by voting in favor of legalizing marijuana.

Gilbert, C. Todd (Chair) 15th E606 R (804) 698-1015 (540) 459-7550 DelTGilbert@house.virginia.gov
Bell, Robert B. 58th E311 R (804) 698-1058 (434) 245-8900 DelRBell@house.virginia.gov
Adams, Leslie R. (Les) 16th E205 R (804) 698-1016 (434) 432-1600 DelLAdams@house.virginia.gov
Collins, Christopher E. 29th E420 R (804) 698-1029 (540) 539-1724 DelCCollins@house.virginia.gov
Ransone, Margaret B. 99th E412 R (804) 698-1099 (804) 472-4181 DelMRansone@house.virginia.gov

 

These are the delegates who voted the correct way to follow what the voters in their districts want and not just to go against the other party for spite. I say we let these people know that they are doing a good job of voting in favor of helping Virginians.

 

Watts, Vivian E. 39th E203 D (804) 698-1039 (703) 978-2989 DelVWatts@house.virginia.gov
Herring, Charniele L. 46th E223 D (804) 698-1046 (703) 606-9705 DelCHerring@house.virginia.gov
Mullin, Michael P. 93rd E424 D (804) 698-1093 (757) 525-9526 delmmullin@house.virginia.gov

 

Also, let us not forget the Delegates who put forth these bills for voting and let’s tell them that we appreciate what they are doing on behalf of Virginians. Be sure to show them your support by voting them back into office the next time they are due for reelection no matter what party you are registered with. I am a Republican that will be voting in favor of these delegates when they need to be reelected to office.

Delegate Steve E. Heretick   (D) – House District 79

In-session address:

Mailing address:

  • 715 Loudoun Avenue
  • Portsmouth, Virginia 23707
  • (757) 397-9923

Delegate Lee J. Carter   (D) – House District 50

In-session address:

Mailing address:

  • O. Box 243
  • Manassas, Virginia 20108
  • (571) 261-8546

Delegate Charniele L. Herring   (D) – House District 46

In-session address:

Mailing address:

  • O. Box 11779
  • Alexandria, Virginia 22312
  • (703) 606-9705

I know there are thousands if not tens of thousands of medical patients in Virginia, not to mention other states where marijuana is still illegal, that can and need the benefits of marijuana. I can only hope that there are enough like-minded people out there who are willing to speak up and make a difference. I personally have faith that in the near future I will not have to keep Narcan on hand in case I overdose on opioids because I will be able to buy marijuana and get off the opioids completely.

Well as always I hope you enjoy my post. Some will like it, some will hate it, but all will have an opinion about it.

Thank You

Blane O’Dell

 

 

 

 

Mental Health

A while back I reposted or if you prefer shared a post that was put on Facebook (FB) about people and their ability to help or be blind to those with mental issues. They were talking about how just taking the time to talk to them can help, but I am here to say that if you do not really mean it, people will know and that’s just a sucky feeling. I would prefer that if you do not care that you just move on and leave me to my own problems. Be who you are, even if that is an asshole. After all it was Mahatma Gandhi who said:

‘It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence”. In other words, be true to who you are instead of faking being somebody you are not.

You see I have some mental issues that have made it hard for me to make any long-lasting connections, which is why even as a kid I prefered hanging out with older adults. This is not to say that I don’t like my friends and/or family, but that those deep emotional connections that people make with others tend to elude my grasp for the most part. I learned at a young age how to fake being like others. How to react in the correct way to things people said, or problems they shared with me. This is also why I hung out with people older than me a lot. This is not to say that I do or do not think that some things that happen to people are horrible or great, but it is to say that I cannot empathize with them. I cannot share that emotion with them. While faking it makes others feel better, for me it has made for a life that seems a lot longer and more difficult than it truly has been or needed to be.

Please understand that I do care in my own way. I know that my friends and or family are going to read this and think I am horrible or ungrateful for there love and caring, but that is not true. I just do not process things the same way. Now I have never shared this with many other people, as to not seem like a bad friend or family member. However, at some point in life you must accept who you are and what this life has done both to and for you. I have been very good at faking being what people needed me to be for them, however, from here on out, so that I may be happier, there will be no more pretending. Now, would people being more understanding of this help me, probably not. Would their wanting to talk to me about it improve either of our lives, no. So I do not need you to understand who I am or what I think or feel.

I do believe that if there was a deeper understanding of life itself within the human race, we would be better off. However I am going to leave it at that for now, cause if you knew how I really think or how my thought process worked. How or what the thoughts are that run through my mind, you would run in horror and think that I am a monster or at the least a terrible human being. You would also want to know how anybody could be thinking about doing those things to them selves or others. So if it seems like I do not care, just know that I do, but if you think I am not sharing my feelings with you, than you are correct. You see my crazy runs all the way to the bone.

Now I share my real life with you, not for your sympathy, if I wanted that I would look in the dictionary between shit and syphilis. I share this so that the next time you tell someone how great or horrific something that happened to you was and for a second, the look on their face is one of I do not care or I do not understand, before the correct facial expression is shown it may be a larger problem and you should not take it personally. Also before I stop this train of thought, if for some reason I just disappear for a few months, days or weeks and show back up like nothing happened, you do not want to know where I have been or what was going on in my head that made me go down the rabbit hole. Just know that it had nothing to do with you, but it was a process my mind had to go through to get me to the other side of something.

Usually, for me, it means that I was unable to keep from going down the rabbit hole to the darkest places in my soul and thoughts, but the fact that I showed back up is a good sign that I was able to crawl back out once again. It is hard to explain how it happens but imagine, if you can, the following. You are just walking down the street and all of a sudden something grabs you and pulls you down to the deepest part of an abandoned well and now you have to get past the fear and thoughts of death to climb back up and out of there, now if you can imagine that, then you might be able to imagine a little part of how I feel when it happens. Nobody tells you this, because on average we are ashamed that it happened to us and that it will happen again. Some of you will recognize this in yourself while others can’t and thank God never will and please know that no matter how much I want to, I will never be able to fully explain what caused it to happen, when it did.

However, one thing that I do see and hear that bothers me is other peoples opinions about this subject. I have many times heard people, people I like and respect say things that make no sense. I recently heard a person I worked with, who was talking about someone they knew that committed suicide, talk about how stupid he must have been. He went on for days about how stupid it was to commit suicide, that nothing was ever that bad and how it just cannot be possible to feel so low that you want to die. Most people don’t have a fucking clue how it feels or what it is like, hell we can’t explain to you either or what is causing it to happen most of the time. You have no idea wether they have a chemical imbalance or had a horrible childhood, by the way, I had a really good upbringing. My Mom made sure I never needed for anything even when she had to go without. Between my Mom and my Stepdad I never felt unloved or unwanted, so there goes your idea about me having a bad childhood and that is what has caused this. No. My Mom and Stepdad were great, my Dad was ok, my grand parents treated me like I was some kind of special diamond in the sky, as I am their only grandson on that side of the family.

You do not have a clue, nor does the medical system at large, know what has caused the process of creating a brain that wants to hurt itself, but you should actually be happy that it wants to turn the violence inward instead of outward towards others. Like I said I am not looking for your sympathy or your help, I would be happy if you just kept your fucking mouth shut about things you know nothing about. This is just how I feel, as I can’t and don’t want to speak for everyone. I thought you could use just a few things to think about before you speak.

P.S.

I’m sorry if this seems a little brash or harsh to you, or maybe I’m not.

Amends II

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Amends II

A new beginning

It’s funny, I am laying here at 3:35 in the a.m. writing this and thinking how funny this has been. Do not get me wrong, I am not saying the idea or process was funny ha-ha, but instead funny in the way that the unexpected happens. I started this little journey to rid myself of some baggage, make myself happier and hopefully give some others a chance to say what they thought about my why, how, when and where’s of my past actions. When I started writing the first post I thought I had done all I was going to do but realized while typing that I needed to apologize to three more people before I could consider my job done. It was not easy for me to say what I wanted without having to search for the words, even though I had gone over what I was going to say in my head prior to apologizing.

That is exactly what I did and things in my life have improved drastically. As it turns out there was a common theme or maybe I should say reaction from everyone that I made my amends with. Not one of them remembered things that I did being as bad as I did. So, it would seem that all those bad things I have carried with me were more about me than them. It was more about how I knew what I was doing or saying at the time was wrong. It was about saying I’m sorry and getting that weight off me. It has made a noticeable difference in me. Even before the last few people my wife noticed how much happier I was and how much tighter our connection had become.

I know how crazy or unlikely it sounds that just saying I’m sorry can make you feel so different, but that is what it has done for me. It has also allowed me to reconnect with some friends and family members that may or may not be blood but are an ingrained part of me and always will be. I should also note that not one of these people ever gave up on me, even when I abandoned them. They have shown me kindness and seem truly happy to be reconnected or to just know that my connection to them is stronger. I have gotten back a friend of the truest kind, a sister without whom I am incomplete. My connection to my wife and mom seem stronger and better to me than ever before. So, while it may not work for everyone, for me it has greatly improved my life.

P.S.

I should point out that I did not apologize to every person with whom I have been hurtful or mean in my life as some people deserve exactly what they get. This was about the ones that did not.

Until my next post, live, love and be happy with yourself or kiss my ass I am going to be happy either way.

Making Amends

Recently I realized that I was carrying a lot of baggage on my conscience. I would have these horrific nightmares about how I had ruined Peoples lives. I had no idea if it was true or just one of the voices in my head trying to get me to do something stupid to myself. However, I had some serious time on my hands to figure my problems with other people. No, that is wrong. It was not my problems with other people but instead how I had hurt some people along my life’s journey. I am not the kind of person that usually says he’s sorry.My philosophy has always been that if I said it I meant it at the time.

So with the help of Facebook I was able to reconnect with some of these people and apologize for any hurt I may have caused them. I still have a few to go, but I feel like a weight has been lifted off of my entire being. It is not important for them to accept my apology, although it is nice, but for me to make the effort to say how truly sorry I am. Now I still have a couple of people to apologize to and that is coming really fast, but I can only hope that it goes as well with the last 2 people as it has with the others that I have already spoken with.

You know I was raised in a time when men were suppose to be men. You take no shit, say exactly what was on your mind and to hell with other people’s feelings. You were never supposed to whine or cry, just suck it up buttercup and move along. I did it pretty well for these first 47 years, but I have seen how you can take someones ability to believe in themselves by saying the wrong thing or making somebody else feel like something you did was their fault or they caused it to happen.

I do not know if the last 2 will go as good as the first ones, but I can hope and know that I finally tried to do the right thing. I am also safe in the knowledge that saying your sorry does not make you less of a man, but more of a man and a better one. My wife even noticed the difference in me, She says that I seem happier and we are clicking better.  Well I have to go for now, but I will let you know how everything goes, oh and by the way connecting with the others to make my amends was great as I found out I still have friends who care.

 

Best Wishes for your futures

Blane O.

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