froggy queen, young and green, tiny slimy thing

made a little wind-up porcelain dragon.

The largest dam removal in U.S. history. So successful that the salmon that haven’t run freely in the river for literally over a century came back the next year. Not steady progress over a decade as expected, the very next salmon run they came home. No one alive saw salmon in that river outside the hatcheries kept by native’s tribes and the Department of Fish And Wildlife scientists desperately trying to save them. One of the activists who helped bring the suit spoke of their dying grandmother making them promise to bring the fish home, and they didn’t know how that was possible, but they spent decades doing it.

The legal basis for successfully suing the power company who owned the dams was Indigenous treaty rights to eat the fish. Eating the fish was the one thing in a century that succeeded in being a clear and legally binding right that superseded the desires of white capital and industry. I have been going to the public interest environmental law conference off and on for 20 years where a lot of organizing for Undam The Klamath happened. I’ve heard updates about every legal tact they tried as they happened, and they tried everything.

There are healthy, thriving salmon, trout, and lamprey in a rewilding and recovering Klamath River right now as a direct result of Indigenous people eating them. Of their legally binding right to eat them. They sure as fuck care more about those fish than any white vegan ever could. They are salmon people that the Creator sent Salmon to feed, while charging the People with protecting and stewarding them. It’s not possible to learn about salmon and trout in the Pacific Northwest without learning this, and it’s unambiguously racist to dismiss this symbiotic relationship.

The white vegans are trying to get all hunting and fishing banned in Oregon, and that’s quite possibly the single most catastrophic thing that could be done to the animals here because we killed off all the major predators of creatures like deer and without anything hunting them their numbers will explode, eat all the vegetation, destroy the ecosystem, and then die along with everything else in that failing ecosystem. Controlled hunting of deer is vitally necessary for the deer to survive. This is something Native people know, but patronizing racist savior-complex white people refuse to listen to.

I have a whole collection of Oregon’s Public Broadcasting’s documentaries about Klamath River or the larger story of fish and people in the region. If you watch nothing else, watch Klamath Dams Are Coming Out, First Salmon Ceremony, After The Dams, and First Decent (Native made). It could not be clearer that the salmon are being protected and nourished by the people who eat them, and that stewardship is a massive part of their creation myths. But it contradicts political vegan dogma so they don’t listen.

Oh cool so the CDC is just doing a media blitz to lie the groundwork for weed becoming illegal again in many places huh okay

I have never had these problems, as a chronic cannabis user, I literally ingested mould that was growing in my guts…..

But the doctors ALL blamed it on my cannabis use.

I got pamphlets and guides on how to curb my 'addiction', and they stressed real hard it doesn't matter if I used it for medical reasons, if I wanted it at all when I wasn't on it, it must mean I am addicted and need to stop.

I am 100% certain that my INGESTING MOULD issue was written down as "Cannabis Emesis Syndrome" and would get wrapped up in the data to suggest that emergency room visits among cannabis users for cannabis use is becoming higher.

Like... it's fucking biased reporting that is going to fuck a lot of us over.

Despite having an active infection, not having even used cannabis in a month or two because I was actively recovering from a surgery, I was told that it was likely CES (even though all the pamphlets they gave me said CES would ease if you didn't use again "for a few days to a week"). And my only advice when I was discharged (after staying the night, being flooded with antibiotics and hydrated via salin drip), was to cut out the cannabis. I ingested a fuck ton of mould spores that made me sick, but because I also am a chronic cannabis user because of my debilitating nerve pain and PTSD, it will have been listed in the records as CES because that is what the doctors decided to focus on. Because it's the big new scary thing.

Fuck, the surgery I was talking about before that I was recovering from was gallbladder removal - and before that my own doctor tried to blame CES for what was in fact a very inflamed gallbladder. Once I got over the rough recovery from that, the symptoms my doctor wanted to associate with CES *went away* because it wasn't CES it was an actively inflamed gallbladder that was causing the problems.

Like, people talk about fad health trends in pop culture readily enough but I think we should also turn this focus towards doctors themselves because holy shit this was a fringe theory that everyone latched on to and started reporting cases of - regardless of whether or not they fit the description.

It is absolutely HEAVILY linked to it! Weed is very often used as a way to criminalize Black people! (And other non white communities in general)

Illegal weed use occupies the role of being an extremely common crime, that the police overlook when it's convenient for them (often meaning when it's white people, especially white middle / upper class people, doing it), but then whenever they want to target a specific person, they are able to use it as the pretext.

So, my insurance has been trying to not cover my SNRI because it is new on the market and no generic available yet, so pricey.

I apply for a refill and the request gets locked for review. Again. For the 3rd time.

This time I call and immediately ask to speak to the actual doctor making these clinical decisions. Very politely. Must be a slow day because they allow it.

ME: [Teacher voice] I'm calling in regards to the SNRI you have placed a lock on. Why was this decision made?

DOC: Well, there are dozens of other medications on the market in that tier, and far cheaper for you and [insurer]. We have sent a request to your doctor to consider alternatives.

ME: I am aware of that. So, can you do me a HUGE favor and look up my prescription history really quickly and tell me how many SSRIs and SNRIs were only filled once in 2022 for me, showing they were poorly tolerated?

DOC: It looks like eight.

ME: Great job! Now, can you please look at my genetic test for psychiatric drug tolerance and tell me how many medications are listed in the safe category?

DOC: Two.

ME: Awesome! Now, can you tell me what type that other drug is that I'm not taking?

DOC: Yeah, totally, it's an MAOI.

ME: That's correct, you're really knowledgeable! Should I be taking something as dangerous as an MAOI with my other medications, or even just in general?

DOC: It's contraindicated for sure.

ME: It is! So true! So, last question since you've been incredibly smart and helpful. Is it less expensive for [insurer] to pay out for the medication knowing they already get a huge manufacturer discount anyway, or is it more expensive for them to pay for me to need potentially long-term inpatient psychiatric care?

DOC: I'll clear the code, ma'am and flag it as medically necessary. I'm sorry about this.

ME: I appreciate you SO MUCH. You have a great day now.