FUELING THE OPOID CRISIS. Louis Shalako.

Louis Shalako

The reader just got sucked in by a clickbait headline. Stick around for a minute and maybe you’ll even see why I did it.

So, I was having a bit of upper back pain and I needed to go to work this morning. I’m on the Ontario Disability Support Program, and therefore if I don’t work, I don’t eat. I say that because food banks are a national disgrace.

Not only that, but the food there is absolute shit and I’ve gotten sick off of it more than once. 

Truth is, I throw half of it out, unless it’s fit for birds and squirrels, of which I have a few. 

Lining up in front of that stinking shit-hole for a couple of hours is actually more painful than going to work for three or four hours—at least I can move around a bit, sit down from time to time without losing my place in line.

I woke up about four a.m., rolled over on my right side, and, while I didn’t exactly scream, it was enough to make sure I didn’t get back to sleep again.

The thoughts of going out in that cold parking lot and firing up the crummy old vehicle were not good.

The fact that we got a pretty big order last week, had to scramble at the last minute to fill it, and that we had exactly forty-nine dough-balls left in stock has a logic all of its own.

I got up at some point, took a half a Tylenonl-Three, (roughly fifteen milligrams of codeine there), and I was at work at 6:57 a.m. I did my job, made up a few loads of pizza dough, washed out some totes. At some point I’d had enough, so I locked up the shop and went to the boss’s house, where we talk about things and then she pays me in what is a pretty simple transaction.

So, why do I say I’m fueling the opoid epidemic, admittedly codeine is an natural opiate, not a synthetic drug, and one that is a hundred to a thousand times less potent than Oxycontin, fentanyl or a host of other substances?

Well, for one thing, I’m on ODSP and I line up at food banks—that’s a prime indicator. I say that because according to the prevalent news stories, one of the great causes of poverty in this province is mental health/addictions. The second is drug addiction and poor moral choices, the third is evilness and personal stupidity. The one thing that definitely does not cause poverty would be lack of money--apparently we have all kinds of money for dope and stuff.

At least to hear them tell it--

If you don’t believe me, listen to local radio, read your local Postmedia or Torstar publication. We are so lucky to have so many conservative news sources in this province, I can tell you that.

(Watch video here. I think I fucked up trying to embed it.)

No, ladies and gentlemen, it’s not as simple as saying that poverty results from lack of money, in fact, if you listen long enough, you will see that lack of money is the least likely cause of poverty in this province. Hell no--anything but that, right...???

Want to hear something funny? I went to the dentist for a toothache. Not seeing much on the X-Ray, he had this look on his face: looks like we got a live one here.

Of course, his assistant asks if you are on any other medications, and of course I truthfully told her I had been prescribed T-3s for back pain. This is a prime indicator in any middle-class book, of an individual, a shirker, one who just doesn’t want to work and is just out to fuck the system. A couple or three days later, what I thought was a filling fell out. When I went back, it turned out the tooth was cracked lengthwise, and it had to be pulled. So I guess I was faking it after all--right, doc...??? In the hope of getting a big whack of arm-dope or something...right?

(Their logick is often circular and therefore self-reinforcing. Not to mention self-serving and a kind of distilled hypocrisy, but what the hell you gonna do about it except beat them up once in a while, when you get the chance.) It's just that there's a big crackdown on opoids in the province. While this might not take too much dope off the streets, it will definitely cause problems for working Ontarians, which can only be a good thing...right?

Right?

Of course it will, and that's why they do it.

Sure hope this wasn’t too much truth for your bourgeois little minds.

END

Oh, dear, goodness gracious me. What a lazy little fucker, went and wrote all these books and stories, all the while collecting social benefits.

What a morally-degenerate piece of shit I must be, eh, ladies and gentlemen.

Or maybe I was just bored.

Thank you for reading.

 

The Ontario Disability Support Program Nailed. Again. Louis Shalako.

Louis Shalako

Ontario Disability Support Program                                           Mar 12/18

150 N. Christina St.

Sarnia, Ontario

N7T 8H4

Attn. Angela Adam

Dear Angela;

Thank you for Brooke Ronan's recent decision on income support.

I hereby request an internal review of this decision.

How do you do the math? Based on information you provided, the first monthly income charge is in the amount of $0.00, based on income of $467.00 less expenses, in other words, less the ($100.00 'automatic business deduction' expenses of $1200.00 divided by twelve months). So, that all totals up to zero.

The second monthly income charge is in the amount of $69.58 up until December 31/17.

“This income charge is based on your gross income of $6648.48 less expenses of $5813.50 divided by twelve months.”

So, twelve months times $69.58 equals $834.96.  The rate of claw-back is fifty percent, i.e., fifty cents on the dollar of income.

Yet you have accepted my gross income. You have accepted my allowable deductions, including phone, internet, purchase for business and professional equipment, mileage, etc. If we subtract $5813.50 from $6648.48, we get a figure of $834.98. That, at the very least, is a dollar-for-dollar claw-back. $834.98 is $1,565.02 below the $2,400.00 maximum earnings level for clients of the ODSP. That’s because you add it all together, in spite of former worker Shanno Bolton requiring me to submit two sets of books, basically just one more instance of bureaucratic harassment.

The work-related benefit is a benefit, not an ‘automatic business expense deduction’ as outlined in the guidelines. It can't be taken away, which is the reason why you are saying I will continue to receive it.

It is true, that I put one phone bill on Shalako Publishing’s books.

It makes no difference in terms of the accounting, but I would appreciate it if you would apply that to Mike’s Labour. Perhaps this will make a difference, considering how you guys do the math.

You also tried to pull this stunt on my last year.

Editor's Note. Even if they were half right, (which they ain't) the claw-back could not possibly exceed $417.49. It would still be bullshit, but it proves just how bogus their math is.

END

Louis has all kinds of books and stories available from iTunes.

Thank you for reading.