Melaleuca - Review of products

So I've now received two shipments of Melaleuca supplies. First package consisted of cleaning products. Second shipment consisted of body washes, lotions, tooth paste, mouth wash, hand sanitizers, lip balms, shampoo and conditioner. I also got a candle warmer for a Christmas gift. Total cost for cleaning pack was $162. Total cost for second package was $166.

I've tried many of the cleaning products now. I received the pack yesterday and went absolutely crazy cleaning the house! For those of you who don't know about the home conversion cleaning pack it comes with about a dozen or so cleaners and disinfectants, wipes, and a bunch of laundry supplies. It was a pretty big and heavy box. I have to say it was kind of fun opening it and seeing what everything was. Most of the things are concentrated so you have to dilute them and put them into spray bottles. They give you all the spray bottles already labeled, and pumps if needed. So that was kind of fun too, making all my new spray bottles.

Though upon closer examination today, I realize that the spray bottles are actually half the size of normal bottles you get in the store. So in terms of value, it isn't necessarily cheaper than buying stuff from the store.

I can see why the products and company can be so addictive and why people love them so much. First off, receiving a big box full of new products feels like Christmas! You feel like you are getting something fun and special. Also, if you aren't obsessive about reading labels and researching products to find out how green they are, you could be totally swayed into thinking that Melaleuca is amazing because all the stuff smells great, looks great, and works - and  best of all it's supposedly healthier for your home!!!

The key word here is "healthier". It doesn't say "healthy" or "non toxic" or harmless to the environment.  First of all, with environmentally friendly companies there is usually a lot more transparency in terms of listing all of the ingredients. Companies can use the word "natural" on their products and not have to back up the claim. It's just a word. Most of their products have fragrances in them, and they do not state what they consist of. Usually it's petroleum based, not particularly natural.

However, after all is said and done, the prices are not significantly more expensive and most of them are concentrated. So while a product might not be non toxic, it does gain points by being more environmentally friendly by using less water and plastic, as well as less gas to distribute the product. Particularly the laundry detergent and fabric softener. They both come in smallish containers and have 96 loads. The price is about $20. So realistically, that is very comparable to Tide, for example. Big difference being, that the smell of the Melaleuca one is nicer.

Anyway, so after cleaning my whole house (yes, I really went nuts trying everything!) these are my results.

Rustic Touch Furniture Polish: Amazing. Really. I have this table in the corner of my dining room that is often neglected for cleaning. It's solid wood, but old and second hand. We just use the whole thing to store junk really. Anyway, I took everything off of it and polished it with this stuff, and holy cow! It honestly brought the old thing back to life! I had only wiped it with water before, so I have nothing to compare it to, but it left a really nice glossy finish. It wasn't oily, and it smelled great! Very easy to use to, just a nice little spritzer bottle. So much better than using Pledge (I've used that crap at other peoples houses and I hate it).

Tough and Tender All Purpose Cleaner: I have actually used it before at someones house who is a member. As I clean houses for extra money now and again, I have used a lot of products. This product doesn't smell amazing in my opinion. It's clean smelling, but really nothing special. It works well, but not really better or worse than other things I've tried.

Tub and Tile: When I first used the stuff I was actually overwhelmed by the fragrance of it. I think I used quite a lot, and combined with all of the other products I'd used in the same area, it was all smelling very strongly. It did take a bit of getting used to the smell, it's kind of lemony and it does smell strong. However, it does work very well and after using the product a few times I grew to actually quite like the smell. In fact, several years later it's one of my favourite Melaleuca products.


Sol-U-Mel: It's a stain remover, cleaner and deodorizer. I used it on a chair (one of my cats had an accident on a chair).  I sprayed the chair, and wiped it with this stuff. It got everything fresh and clean again.

Melamagic: It's a heavy duty cleaner of industrial strength. I only used it to wash my floors. It did a great job in the kitchen. I used it for half the house on the parquet floors. However, later when I checked the label I noticed that it says it's not recommended for hard wood floors. Oops! Oh well, those parquet floors are already old and damaged (from the 70's). It seemed to clean them well anyway.

Clear Power: It's a glass cleaner. It worked well, no harsh smells. I first started using ammonia free cleaners a couple of years ago and I like this one the best.

No Work: It's a spray for your shower. You spray it after each shower and apparently it dissolves soap scum so you don't have to clean it as often. There's very little work involved, just spray it on and leave it. No rinsing or wiping. There are other products like it on the market, and I haven't ever tried any of them so I can't compare. I have been using it for two days so far and I have to say, it does seem to work. I gave the tiles a good scrub before hand so I would notice any new soap scum. So far there is none. **Update** While I did like the product, ultimately I'm lazy and did not like spraying so much after each shower. Plus the perfume smell was too strong just after a shower, so I stopped using it. But it is a good product.

Sol-U-Guard: It's a disinfectant. It smells like thyme and lemon. I like it. Though I am a bit torn, because I'm not sure if it's made of that anti-bacterial stuff which I am quite against. ***Update***While I did really like the product, I've started making my own gentle multi purpose cleaner for my kitchen counters (as a gentle daily clean).

Melapower (laundry detergent): This works well, and smells very nice too. Though I've never had a laundry detergent that I hated! Not sure how tough it is on stains though.

Melasoft (fabric softener): This is the nicest stuff I've ever used. It smells amazing, and makes things really soft. I've had complements on my blankets smelling so nice. I love it! ***update*** Three years later and I still use it! I love that it's so concentrated, you need so little to do a wonderful job! I've been using the same bottle for a year and a half and still have some left. I also have another bottle waiting unopened that I bought through a friend at the reduced price.

Melabrite: It's an optical brightener. I think it's supposed to be used instead of bleach (maybe?) but it did not seem to do anything to my clothes at all. Also, after doing research on optical brighteners I'm not so sure that adding those kind of chemicals to your clothes is necessary. Therefore, three years later I still have some left in the bottle!

There were many other products, I could spend days talking about all of them. The bottom line though is that some of the products are pretty good, overall I like the stuff. It's hard not to really. I don't like that they don't disclose a full ingredient list for things. Apparently in the U.S there isn't any law that says a company has to. Also, there aren't any strict laws that govern criteria for a company to call itself green. Therefore, I do believe that a lot of companies call themselves green and charge accordingly even though they aren't. I think that some companies are less green than others. Like that Comet stuff, gross green detergent powder to clean bathrooms. So disgusting. It only costs a dollar and the stuff will last ages. I do not think that stuff is good for the environment or a persons health, but they don't pretend to be green either. Something like Chlorox Green Works though, pretends to be green, has green in it's name, but is it really green? Well, it's colour is green so it isn't lying there. But is it just a play on words? It does not list it's ingredients and does not claim to be non toxic. Therefore, I would say it probably isn't really the safest product.

My favourite company is Method. I like their packaging, their prices are a little bit high but I really do like the products. They all smell amazing. Really. Every time I clean someones house they always comment on how nice everything smells. One of the all purpose cleaners smells like lavender. The glass cleaner smells like mint. The floor cleaner comes in almond scent or lemon. All very nice pleasant smells. They list all of their ingredients, and on each bottle it says that it's non toxic. A company can't just say that they are non toxic if they aren't. Melaleuca products do not claim to be non toxic.

What annoys me about Melaleuca is that you have to be a preferred customer to buy things at sane prices. Even then, the prices are still a bit on the expensive side but only slightly so. So you pay a little bit extra to get something you really like and then it's delivered to you (which means you are paying more for shipping). But at the regular prices it just feels like robbery. Take the furniture polish for example. That is a product that I would love to buy again. Regardless of how safe it is, it smells amazing and does a really good job. I've never seen a wood cleaner so easy to use that smells so nice. However, they charge $11.50 at the regular price, plus tax and shipping. So it comes to almost $15 for 237 ml! It costs $31.50 for 1.4 liters of laundry soap. Enough for 96 loads apparently. But after tax and shipping that is close to $40! I'm sorry, but I can buy the same thing for $20 at the health food store.

I cancelled my membership. I can still order things at the regular price, which I don't think I will as it's too expensive. I can sign up again at no cost within six months and become a preferred customer so I can buy things at the reduced rate and then I can cancel again with no hassles or charges. Though, let's face it, it IS a hassle to have to sign up and cancel (all the time and paperwork or phone calls involved) just to order some products!

As for the employment aspect of it all, I didn't try to make money. I don't think it's very easy to make a lot of money though. The person who signed me up has at least 10 people on her team that she has recruited via ads and facebook and the money she earns covers half of the cost of what she spends each month. That's a racket. I mean you have to be a preferred customer in order to recruit people and make money. Which means that you have to spend 35 points each month, which as I've mentioned works out to about $80 a month. Then you have to spend about 15 hours a week a month so that you can earn about $40 a month? What?

***Update***
Two and a half years later and I'm still using some of the products. I was lucky and managed to get my friend to order things for me so I got the preferred customer price on things.

Therefore I still use the fabric softener, laundry brightener (two and a half years later there is still some left!) furniture polish, glass cleaner, tub and tile cleaner, and I still have a couple of bottles of Melamagic - which because it is so concentrated lasts forever!

However, looking to the future I won't be able to order from my friend again as we don't live local to each other and therefore it is not convenient. So I will have to decide whether I will pay the full price for things.

Ultimately, I can use Method products for most of my cleaning needs. I also now make my own cleaning products that I know are environmentally friendly because all they have in them liquid castille soap, water, and some essential oils. They freshen up my kitchen nicely without the extra cost and chemicals.

Melaleuca - Is it a scam?

I've signed up as a preferred customer with Melaleuca. Initially I was just interested in trying out a couple of their products. A "friend" of mine has used their products for years and recently mentioned on Facebook that for only $1 you could take advantage of their products. I didn't know what any of it meant, and rather than just explain it to me she insisted that I go online with her in the morning and she'd explain everything. She told me that it would take 45 minutes. I wasn't interested in spending that much time, I just wanted to try some products that's it. She insisted the time would fly and so somehow I agreed. Next morning I got a phone call at 9:50 a.m. Apparently I needed to be online at 10 a.m for the presentation. There would be another woman who would do the presentation with her. Well, to make a long story short, the presentation lasted over an hour. I was still on the phone at 12 p.m and then they were calling Melaleuca so that I could place an order. As I was on the phone with the verification person I was told that I was knowingly agreeing to spend a minimum of 35 points per month as a preferred customer. I was like, what?!!! But dumb ass me didn't bother to ask questions I just said yes yes yes to everything and then questioned everything later.

So now later is here. I can't believe how I got sucked in to that!!! I'm so annoyed that I spent 3 hours with my friend and her co-worker on the phone and they never actually explained the fine print to me! It really wasn't at all clear what I was signing up for! 35 points per month actually works out to about $100 a month after tax and shipping!

How many personal care and cleaning products does a person need in a month? Worse even, I'm not sure that these products are worth so much money. They are crazy expensive. I did a lot of research into the company and now know the details. How it works is that it's like a pyramid scheme. They like to call it direct marketing, but it's more like multi level marketing. The prices are high so that you are forced to recruit people to join, then if people join they are roped into spending $100 a month where by you make about 5 bucks commission. So you'd need to have about 20 people recruited to get your products for free. It costs $4 for a bar of soap! Everything is supposed to be environmentally friendly and non toxic. However, after my research I fear that it's all just a big scam! That in fact, there are some natural ingredients in the products but that in fact the products are far from non toxic and are often almost as bad as what you get in the grocery store only 10 times more expensive!

So now I feel like a giant sucker. I have two orders that are on their way to my house, which will add $328 to the credit card. All for some body wash, cleaning products and cream for exzema. I already regret it and I haven't even received the packages! I am wondering if I should just cancel the whole thing and just return the package unopened. I just feel like what's the point? I'm really fussy about what kind of products I use for cleaning. I pay $5 a bottle for multi purpose cleaner, but it lists what ingredients are and it clearly says that it is non toxic on the bottle. Melaleuca products do not! They half hazardly list their ingredients but seem to be quite vague. They don't list everything in it, they don't have to by law. It's all just a big gimmick to make money off of suckers like me who think they are getting something natural, but due to crazy laws anybody can put "natural" on a product. It doesn't actually mean anything!

Anyway, I shall try the products and see how I like them and take it from there.

Never Let go - The Tragedy of Kristy Mcfarlane

I read this book about 20 years ago. It's the true story of a 14 year old girl from Toronto who became a prostitute and drug user.

It was a particularly tragic story because her mother tried very hard to get her off the streets, she spent a couple of years driving around looking for her daughter and trying to help her whenever she could.

For some reason I still think about this book, and what strikes me most is how does a seemingly normal suburban 14 year old girl end up becoming a prostitute?

I've often thought that prostitutes usually come from abusive backgrounds. But while that might often be the case, there is still a high percentage of normal kids from all different backgrounds who are simply attracted to the glamour and excitement that the city nightlife has to offer. In Kristy's case, we are not led to believe that this girl had suffered any kind of abuse.

Her mother claims to have found a diary written by her daughter that hints that her daughter was sexually active by the time she was 13. The only disfunctional aspect of Kristy's life is the fact that her parents divorced when she was a kid and that her mother re-married. Her mother claims that Kristy and the step-father got along great and that she loved him like he was her own father.

I don't actually remember what Kristy's relationship was like with her father. I don't know if she even had one, or if he was even alive by the time she was a teenager. The book really didn't go into a lot of detail over the reasons why she became a prostitute and a drug user.

They just say that she used to hang out in arcades in downtown Toronto and that she had a crush on a guy she used to see there. Apparently he used to smile at her and they kind of flirted. Then one day he started to talk to her and they spent a couple of hours together hanging out. She was supposed to be meeting a friend at the mall, but her friend was late and so she kept going back and forth between the arcade and the mall until eventually she gave up on her friend and just spent the rest of the day with the guy.

When it was time for her to go home, he pressured her into hanging out with him longer. He really put the moves on her and made her feel wanted and liked so she stayed longer. Then she tried to go home, and he was really pushy about staying with him. Eventually he suggested that she go out and turn some tricks for him. She apparently said no, and walked away. He followed her and pushed and pushed, until she finally said yes. She went and stood on some corner and got picked up and turned her first trick. Then she turned several more tricks throughout the night, until 3 a.m or something.

Then she got picked up by the police, who found a large box of condoms in her purse. After that, for the rest of the book she remains a prostitute, uses cocaine and then in the end dies of a heroin overdose in a stairwell of some building after she had supposedly gotten straight and stopped the prostitution.

I suppose at the end of the day it doesn't really matter why she became a prostitute. The story was quite interesting, learning about her mom who was so worried and upset about her. That she was crying so much for her daughter that she had to get a special cream for her face because the tears were irritating her skin. Throughout the story it was very evident that Kristy and her mom had a very strong relationship.

I just can't help but wonder what we are missing from the story. In the story of Kristy, I don't think that anything was exaggerated. There are probably many details that are missing, as there were many people who were involved in her life and I doubt that everyone who knew her came forward and provided details of exactly what happened to her. So there will always be a lot of mystery surrounding this tragic story.

Sadly, I no longer own this book, as I  lent my only copy to a relative and he apparently gave it away. I am especially saddened to find out that the book is no longer in print, so I fear I may never get a chance to read it again.







 

How to be a very thin and unhealthy teenager

I was thinking back to my teen years, as I often seem to do these days and remembering how incredibly skinny I was back then.

In fact, I was skinny my whole life until I hit my mid twenties and went vegetarian. But that's a whole other story.

As a kid I can remember vividly what my daily lunches were. Peanut butter and jam sandwich, piece of fruit (apple, orange or banana) small packet of raisins, juice box (or in the early 80's they were these little plastic bottles with tin foil covers) and sometimes there would be cake (lemon loaf, banana bread or occasionally cake with icing). I was hardly ever hungry for lunch, so I used to throw the sandwich away. Sometimes I would have a few bites of it, rarely would I eat the whole thing. I would drink the juice, usually eat the raisins and cake, and rarely eat the fruit. Gosh, the pounds of good food that got thrown away day after day, year after year.

I seem to remember eating more of my lunch in the later years of elementary school, like grade five and six. My mom started changing it up a bit and sometimes I had cheese sandwiches, or ham. No butter or any fillings of any sort. Just a slice of ham or processed cheese - never together!

For the first 3 years of high school I was really lucky, I lived within walking distance to school so I used to go home for lunch every day. My mom would usually make soup and crackers. It would either be chicken noodle, or vegetable (from cans). Sometimes I would have a grilled cheese sandwich. I can't remember if I ever had the soup with the grilled cheese though. I always ate all my lunch.

Breakfast when I was young was toast, jam and butter. That was how I said it when I was young. Usually strawberry jam, store bought. From about age 9 I started to like cereal. Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Fruit Loops, and all the other usual sugary childrens cereals.

Supper was a big challenge. I wasn't ever hungry enough to eat it. I was a very fussy eater, and there was very little that I liked. I didn't like vegetables or meat. I liked spaghetti (my mom made a home made sauce, which was very tasty) and that was about it. Each night there was meat, potatoes and vegetables and I would just pick at it. I would rearrange the food on my plate to make it look like I had eaten more than I had.

There wasn't a lot of junk food in the house growing up. No potato chips , chocolate bars or ice cream. My sister would buy her own cookies and give me some, but there was hell to pay if I ate the last cookie!!!

For some weird reason, when I was 11 I liked to come home and eat white bread with butter. It was the best! I can't imagine, I would never snack on that now!

The last two years of high school were the worst, in terms of how badly I ate. My mom stopped packing me a lunch because half of the time I would forget it at home! She should have given me lunch money in that case, because I was far too lazy to pack my own lunch! I had money from baby sitting, and maybe she figured I'd use that to buy lunch. I actually used every last cent of mine to buy pot. Whatever was left was used for cigarettes, other drugs and alcohol. Therefore, I did not eat lunch!

I also didn't eat breakfast! For some reason, in my teen years I would wake up feeling nauseous. I could manage a cup of coffee, but that's it. Even brushing my teeth was difficult, as I would often gag. Therefore, food in the morning was definitely not on.

So I would go to school after having had only a coffee. Then I would sometimes buy a cookie from the cafeteria at recess, or an ice cream sandwich. Then at lunch I would score some weed with my friends, and spend the lunch hour being stoned. My other friends who didn't smoke pot would often ask me where my lunch was, as we would all sit together and everyone was eating except me. I usually wasn't bothered, just wanted to get out there and smoke. Though admittedly sometimes I was hungry, but was too lazy to do anything about it. I hated going into the cafeteria, where all the other people were. I have always been a bit of a people phobe. So sometimes one of my friends would take pity on me and give me 35 cents and tell me to go and buy a bun from the cafeteria. Sometimes I would refuse, and she'd go and buy one for me! What a sweetie!

I ate most of my supper as a teenager. Meat, potatoes and vegetables. I also used my money to sometimes go to McDonald's on the weekends. So when I was 16 and 17 I basically lived off of one meal a day.

It's just weird, because now as a woman in my 30's I really enjoy food. A lot. Too much. I don't really smoke weed anymore, and it's been 9 years since my last cigarette. I use food to calm me when I'm stressed or depressed or need a lift. I'm a good cook, and that can be dangerous because I know how to make all the stuff that's unhealthy and fattening! Like cakes, cookies, brownies, fried food etc. I'm also not as poor as I was as a teenager, therefore I can afford to go out and eat too. I have a very healthy appetite. I pretty much always eat 3 meals a day, and have snacks too.

I tend to indulge in all the things that I felt I was deprived of growing up. My mother was very good about only having healthy stuff in the house. But whenever I'd go over to friends houses, they had chips, coke and cookies. I liked those things. So now I find that I have an extensive pantry full of ingredients to bake things. There are usually chips in the cupboard. No coke, and I don't like store made cookies. I have bought a lot of store made muffins though. I also eat unhealthy cereal in the morning, like Cheerios (which is loaded with sugar) and Special K with strawberries (just a chemical soup full of pesticides and sugar). As a vegetarian I obviously don't have meat vegetables and potatoes anymore. Many dinners involve frying things and or involve cheese. I find it very difficult to cook things that taste good and are also healthy.

Do not become a landlord in Quebec

My boyfriend and I purchased a property with his parents a few years ago as an investment. We rented it out, and for the first year everything went great. We had great tenants who paid their rent on time each month and caused no damage. However, we were not so lucky with our next tenants and eventually had to evict them.

In other countries, it's very easy to have an investment property. Often times there are property management companies that will do all the work for you, for a percentage of the rent. It's often affordable.

In Quebec, however, this is not an option. Unless you own many properties, and they generate a lot of income, then it's just too expensive to hire a property management company. For instance, if you rent out a property for $1000 a month, a management company will take at least $200 from you each month. They often don't handle everything either.

Also, if you only have one property to rent out and you want it insured, you will most likely have to pay for it yourself. You can't force your tenant to get insurance. I phoned insurance companies for quotes, and I was told it would cost around $300 for a policy that would cover fire, water damage etc. I was worried what would happen if my tenant burnt the building down. It was a townhouse condo, so if it burnt down, and thus damaged all the neighbours houses, the costs could have potentially fallen on us.

So if you want to have a company manage the property for you, and you want insurance, then after all your bills (in our case $300 a month for property tax, school tax and condo fees) you will not be left with enough money to realistically call it an investment.

But all of the above are the least of your worries when it comes to renting your property out in Quebec. This province has insane laws that protect the tenant beyond what I would call sane or fair.

You are supposed to provide your tenant with a lease. While there is a section that includes the date (start and end), it's completely irrelevant because there is only a beginning to a lease, never an end. In other words, the lease is automatically renewed every year forever, or as long as the tenant wants to live there.

Although it is "your" property, and "your" investment, the tenant can do pretty much whatever they want in there. It is illegal to force someone to give a damage deposit. Therefore, if they destroy your property it becomes your responsibility to get the money off of them to pay the damages. If the tenant is on welfare, it is highly unlikely that you will get anything back at all.  I spoke to several people at the Regie du Logement and they all said the same thing. It is also illegal to force a tenant to give you post dated cheques. Also, although technically you own the property, you can't ever get rid of a tenant unless it's through eviction for valid reasons or because you or a close family member (sibling, parent or child) plan to move in. Therefore, if you decide that you no longer want to be a landlord and would like them to leave so you can fix up your property and sell it, too bad! They can legally stay there as long as they pay rent. Period. So if you decide to sell the place, you are at their mercy every step of the way. Every time you want to go to the house to do any repairs, schedule potential buyers for visits etc. you have to give the tenant 24 hours notice. You therefore cannot ever guarantee that the house will look clean and presentable.

If you have a problem tenant, that's where things get really fun in this province. If your tenant is three weeks late in paying the rent then you can go to the Regie du logement and file an application for $66. Then approximately six weeks later there is a hearing. If the tenant has paid the rent and court fees then the case is closed and the tenant can stay. If the tenant pays the rent late every month then you are supposed to send them at least three letters asking them to pay on time. If they continue to pay late, then you can file an application, again for $66, and then in six weeks there is a hearing. If you can prove that the tenants late rent payments cause you "injury" (in other words, if it's your only property and you rely on the money to pay bills etc.), then they might evict the tenant. If you own multiple properties and do not suffer financially at all, then it's less likely the court will side with you. 

Approximately 99% of the time the judge will issue a court order which states that the tenant must pay their rent on time from now on. If they default on the order then they will be evicted. However, they can also appeal the verdict and cause delays. The laws have changed a little over the last couple of years though, and a tenant can't cause delays unless they have valid reasons. It's a lengthy process every step of the way. If the court decides to evict the tenant, then it's still not an immediate thing.  If the tenant is on a six month lease then they are given 30 days to move but if it's a year lease then they get 3 months.

The 30 days starts from the date on the verdict though, so even though you wait two weeks for it to be mailed to you, the date on the verdict is a week earlier. So that only gives the tenant 3 weeks to find a new place to live (if they have a six month or less lease). That is the only aspect I've seen in the laws that harms the tenant.

In my situation, we stupidly rented to someone without doing thorough background checks. She was a single mother with four children on welfare. To make matters worse, she had no job history, bad credit (which she told us up front) and no history of apartments she'd lived in. We demanded references, and when I phoned them both up, it was obvious that they were fake as they were unable to answer any of my questions properly, to the point that there were pauses and whispering in the background!

Warning bells went off in my head, and I definitely did not want to rent to this person. However, there were three other people who owned the property with me and I was outnumbered. Everyone else wanted to give her a chance. They felt sorry for her, and felt that sometimes people just need a break.

She paid us the first months rent before moving in. After that, however, every single month there after she was late. In all fairness, after 3 or 4 months we could have taken her to court and had a court order forcing her pay on time or else she'd be evicted. But we didn't know our rights at the time, and thought it would get better. It didn't.

After 7 months of late payments, we wrote a letter to her telling her we needed the money on the 1st. Then we had numerous conversations with her every few months telling her the same thing. Every month she had excuses. She was sick, her kid was sick, she couldn't make it to the bank, or sometimes it was just that she didn't have the money. She changed her phone number every few months and hardly ever answered the door so getting in touch was very difficult. Consequently, month after month we were left waiting at least a week for the money, never knowing when we were going to get it.

We let it go on for two years, with numerous letters, and phone calls. Each time she would say she'd change. I wanted to file the application after a year and a half into the lease, but was outnumbered again. This time the tenant was pregnant and the others didn't think it would be very nice to evict her at that time. So we gave her a "final" chance. We wrote another letter saying that we were going to file an application for eviction with the Regie if she continued to pay her rent late and that we were being nice trying to give her as many chances as possible.

She continued to pay late (in two years, she only paid the rent on time twice). After three more months of late payments we finally filed an application with the Regie du logement. She was absolutely frantic when she got the copy of the application and realized that we were trying to get her evicted.

She said that from now on she would pay us with post dated cheques. She also gave us money to pay for some of the damage her and her family had caused. Someone had kicked in the front door, and it was damaged beyond repair. It was secure, but needed to be replaced. She gave us $1000, which covered the cost for the door. However, there was also about $1000 worth of other damage which we never received.

So we had two post dated cheques from her, and she had given us the damage money to cover the front door. She seemed like she was really making an effort this time. We told her that if she paid us all the money for the damage and our court fees that we would cancel the application. However, on the day before we could cash the first cheque she called us up and told us not to cash the cheque because the money wasn't there!

That proved to us that she wasn't going to change, so we didn't cancel the application. At the court hearing the judge sided with us, as we had 10 or 11 receipts in the last year showing late rent payments. The tenant was not at all apologetic and acted like we were evil bastards for trying to steal money out of her kids mouths (by asking for the money to pay for the front door she damaged!) and by being so strict about asking for the rent money on the 1st.

The judge asked if there was an alternative date that could work for all of us, instead of always having to pay on the first of the month. We told the judge that in fact, we had tried to change the date before. I think we tried making it the third, or possibly even as late as the seventh. We tried it, and it didn't work.

The judge asked her if there was any way she could pay on the first of the month as the lease stipulates. She was unable to convince us or the judge that she could. So she was evicted.

As could be expected, she was very bitter about the whole thing and was very hostile with us when we went to her house after that. We expected rent money while she was still living there (even though legally she was only allowed to live there for half the month). Legally, we were entitled to a full months rent. She refused to give it to us. She simply asked us how she was supposed to pay for somewhere else to live and pay us too. As if that was our fault!

Two weeks before she was supposed to be out of the property one of her relatives called us and begged us to let her stay until she found a new place to live. I was against the idea, and had no sympathy after the way she had treated us. But once again, I was outnumbered and everyone else thought that it would be kind to let her stay in the property for a bit longer as she had so many children and they didn't want to see them end up on the street.

A week before the date that we had agreed was the absolute longest she could stay there I contacted her to inquire as to whether she had found a new place to live. At that point it became obvious that she had no intention of leaving and that if we allowed her to stay any longer then the court would consider her a tenant again and a new lease would have to be drawn up!

So we had to hire a bailiff. This was yet another lengthy and expensive process. When we contacted the bailiff, he took two days to deliver a notice to them saying that they had 3 days to move out, starting on Monday - apparently weekends don't count!

Of course, they still hadn't vacated the property after the 3 days. So the bailiff had to hire a team of movers to physically remove all of their belongings - all at our cost! Total cost for the bailiff was about $1100. 

Once the bailiff had insured that everything was gone, I was then left with a destroyed property.

All of the walls in the house were ruined. The place was initially covered in wallpaper, but with so many kids living in the house (it turned out that there were actually two combined families living there - so 10 kids, not 4) and all of the wallpaper was ripped and/or colored on with markers. There were numerous holes kicked and punched in the walls. Several of the doors were ripped off the hinges and very damaged, some beyond repair. The house had wall to wall carpet on two floors, it was all ruined with dirt, stains and burns. The basement was finished cheaply with vinyl floor and the walls weren't drywall. It was all ruined, the flooring was damaged, the walls were all buckling and had holes in them. 

It cost us thousands of dollars to fix up the property to sell it. Money that we were told by the Regie that we would not likely get back as the tenant was on welfare.

Which leads me to yet another reason not be a landlord in this province, at least if you are English. When you phone the Regie du logement you will never get to speak to someone who's mother tongue is English. They will speak English to you, but their level of comprehension is negligible. Therefore, you don't feel like you are getting accurate information. Many of the documents on their website are only available in French. When you receive the court verdict, the whole thing is in French. I don't even think you can obtain an English version, so have to rely on google translate. I had phoned them several times asking the same questions and I received different answers each time! They didn't understand what I was asking them! I actually got one of my friends to call them, as she is fully bilingual. I gave her a list of questions I wanted answers to. Well, the answers she got were once again different from all the answers I'd been given.

At the end of this experience, I've learned that you have to be well informed before becoming a landlord in Quebec. You need a lawyer, because the internet is filled with websites written in Frenglish legalese. There isn't anyone you can call for free accurate legal information. The Regie are not especially helpful unless you speak French. We phoned tenant hotlines but they were more knowledgeable about tenant rights. We phoned the Canadian housing and mortgage association because they have information on landlord and tenant rights. But they were useful only to a certain point.

Next, I would never rent to anyone unless they LOOK AMAZING ON PAPER. In other words, DO NOT be fooled by nice appearances or great personalities. Scam artists know how to say all the right things and put on a great show. What matters is what is on paper. Have an application form ready for them to fill out and read it carefully. Phone the references and have a list of questions ready to ask them. If they are their previous employers ask them specific questions like how long they worked there, when they started, when they left, why did they leave, were they punctual, did they get along with people, were they competent at their jobs. If it's a previous landlord, ask them how long the tenant lived there, when did they move in, when did they leave (by asking for dates you are getting specific and it will be easier to detect a liar) did they keep the house clean, did they pay their rent on time each month, were they noisy, were there any problems at all? Then do a credit check, and check for a criminal record. Although legally you can't refuse someone based on their record you can tell them you have found someone else if you don't want to rent to them.

I believe that people deserve chances too, but when you are trying to run a business (and that is what being a landlord is) you have to be logical and stick to the facts. You can't allow your emotions or feelings about the person influence your decision.

Until Quebec changes the laws to be more pro landlord though, it is just not worth the hassle. First off, landlords should have the right to demand a $2000 damage deposit before the tenant is allowed to move in. They should also be allowed to refuse people to have pets, and that if they get pets you can evict them. Same as smokers. Why is it that if you want to stay in a hotel for one night you aren't allowed to smoke unless it's a smokers room? Landlords should have the right to evict a tenant if the house and lease contract are not being respected. It should be a straight forward case that goes to court and results in eviction quickly. In other countries if you want to sell your property and need the tenants out so you can fix the place up, you simply write a letter and give them three months notice. I know, because it happened to me twice! Both times, I simply had to pack my things and leave. There was no choice, I couldn't go to court. But I understood, the owner needed his house back! That's life!

If a tenant is a pig, and you see cockroaches and you know they are ruining your house, you should be allowed to evict them! If a tenant can't pay the rent you should be allowed to contact a debt collector who will seize their personal belongings and retrieve the money for you. Most landlords are not going to want to spend years of their lives and thousands of dollars in court and bailiff fees to try and get a few thousands bucks in damages and unpaid rent. Tenants know this, and thrive on being able to get away with so much.

If you walk into a store, you can't trash the place or you will get arrested. Yet, it's ok to trash a house you rent. It doesn't matter, landlords are rich, who gives a crap about them? If you go to a restaurant, you have to pay for your meal. Or if you stay at a hotel, you have to pay for your room. Otherwise you could be arrested! Yet in Quebec, tenants can stay for at least a month in a place without going to court, and even when they are evicted (a process which takes at least 3 months) they can continue to live there rent free for at least 30 days, plus the extra week and a half it takes for the bailiff to act.

All I can say, is that unless the laws change eventually there won't be anywhere for people to rent anymore.

Quebec is known to have some of the most pro tenant laws in the world, so think carefully before deciding to become a landlord here!

Christiane F.

What is it about this book that haunts a person decades after reading it? I first read this book in the early 90's. Since then, I have read it over 20 times from start to finish and at least another 20 or 30 times to read certain parts.

Her life was actually quite tragic if you think about it. Her parents split up when she was young. When they were still together her dad was physically abusive to her as well as to her mother and sister. She didn't really have a close relationship with her mother. Her mother met another man soon after she split with her father. This guy was a bit of an asshole, he tried to act like he was Christiane's friend, but then started to try and control her, and gave her clear hints that she was simply in the way. Her sister moved in with her father. She was kind of alone.

She lived in tower block apartment buildings filled with poor people and undesirables. She was bored and had no activities to make her life more pleasant. So she took up smoking, first cigarettes then pot. She desperately wanted to be popular with the bad kids at school. She needed to have people in her life and she liked the idea of hanging out with the most glamorous students. Or that was how she saw it. She became friends with a bunch of people who liked to get stoned and drunk every day and she adopted that lifestyle. She spent most of her time ditching class and getting high with her friends. She was frequently stoned on LSD, pills and alcohol. She had cool dance clubs to hang out in where they played her favourite music, David Bowie. She had her first boyfriend and completely fell in love with him. Then he ended up on heroin. She soon followed. Before long she was addicted and was injecting herself with heroin every day. Then to support her habit she became a prostitute. So did her boyfriend. For the rest of the story she tried to quit at least a half dozen times, went through serious withdrawal only to then return to drugs.

Her life became quite grim. She was emaciated, her skin was grey and sallow, many of her friends overdosed and died, she was selling her body for money (though for the longest time denied having sexual intercourse until near the end when she describes screwing an older man named Heinz for heroin). She dropped out school, and her mother had given up on her.

In the end her boyfriend ended up in jail, one of her best friends died and her other best friend went to jail. She hit rock bottom. In the end she got off heroin, but still used hash.

She ends the book when she is 16 or so. But she ends up in the news for the rest of her life. She was a singer and put out a few albums, none especially successful. But most importantly, she was back on heroin.

She never got away from that life. But what is weird is that her life seemed glamorous and exciting when she was a teenager. A lot of people copied her life even though it was so miserable. But if anyone was to look at her life now, there is nothing glamorous about it at all. She has been living off of the royalties from the book (and possibly the movie too) ever since. She is in her 40's now, has a kid who she recently just placed in care because she could no longer take care of him due to her drug addiction.

Overall, this is not a happy story. It's really sad that she never succeeded academically after having been rejected from good schools due to her drug use. She herself seemed like a cool person, maybe that was what was so interesting about the book. It was written in her words so you really get to know her.

Maybe the story is interesting because she is young and naive and living in the moment. She fully embraces youth. She lives a bohemian peaceful type of life, rather than an angry, punk lifestyle, and seems to be down to earth.

She had a lot of friends, they were her family. Maybe that is part of what was so exciting. But either way, it shouldn't be the sort of life anyone would want to copy, and yet many people have. Instead of the book being a warning to teenagers everywhere that drugs are bad and that you should stay in school she is like a flashing neon light saying "over here, this way, come and do this it's fun!". Even though she sleeps with gross older men for money and is a total slave to heroin, her life still seems somewhat alluring.

The truth about Cannabis

There is a lot of information about Cannabis on the internet, but I just thought I would write something based on what I know.

I'm not really interested in the plant itself too much, in that I don't grow it (obviously...I don't relish the idea of spending any part of my life in jail!) so how it looks, how tall it gets, how bushy, how fat the buds are...none of that is really relevant to me.

It's interesting to learn about the different varieties and how different types of weed will create a different buzz. For instance the Sativa type of plant creates more of a head high and can cause you to be more creative, have magical thoughts and what not. The Indica variety will give you more of a body stone, which means you'll have a heightened awareness of your body while still feeling more clear headed. This is the type of weed most often used for medical Marijuana.

Cannabis is illegal, it has been for many many decades and will most likely continue to be illegal for many decades to come. The fact that there has been progress in making it legal for medicinal purposes doesn't really mean that we're any closer to seeing this stuff sold to the public. Even in Amsterdam, the laws are not as liberal as you might think. It's not actually legal there, it's decriminalized. Which means that you can legally smoke it and buy it from licensed coffeeshops but you can't have more than a certain amount on you at any time, you can only buy a certain amount at one time and you can't grow it.

Most people who use Cannabis, smoke it. It's the fastest, easiest and most convenient way to consume it. Some people eat it, but you'd need to use a fair bit (at least a gram even just for a cup of tea) and you have to use it with a fat, as it is fat soluble. I'm not sure exactly what that means, but you won't get the THC from the plant absorbed into your body without fat, it bonds to it. So in other words, you won't get stoned by just munching on a handful of weed.

Of the people who smoke it, most people smoke joints. They are fast and easy, and make smoking in public much easier. It's also much easier to share with friends that way. Unfortunately it's also the unhealthiest and least economical way to use it. Most people use tobacco in their joints for a smoother smoke and also because they think it'll make their weed last longer. It might mean that you can roll a few more joints, but the amount of weed you will need to get stoned won't change so you'll just end up rolling more joints.

Some people like water bongs. It's controversial as to whether it's any healthier to smoke this way. The theory is that the water would filter out some of the tars. There is a lot of mixed information about this on the internet though. Some people say that it also filters out the stuff that gets you stoned so you have to smoke more which makes it as unhealthy as joints. From personal experience, I'd have to disagree with that. A few hits from a bong will get me just as stoned as a joint will. It means that I use exactly what I need, no wasted weed and more control over how stoned I get. With joints you can smoke a joint quickly and then end up more stoned that you wanted.

Some people use vaporizers. Having never seen or used one, I'm no expert on how it works. I believe there is a heating element in it which controls the temperature at which the weed is heated. When it reaches a temperature that releases the THC then you can smoke it. It isn't really smoke though, as nothing has been burned, it's a warm vapour, so it's much healthier for your lungs. People that use medical Marijuana usually smoke it this way so as not to create additional health problems.

Which brings me to the actual benefits of this herb. A lot of people go around saying that it's an herb from the earth and therefore completely safe. It would be safe, physically, if you didn't smoke it. It's the smoke that causes the most problems. Any time you burn something and inhale it, it is toxic. Some people say that it is less toxic than cigarette smoke. I don't know. However, the two are smoked differently. Cigarettes have filters, which greatly help in reducing how much tar enters your lungs. Also, people that smoke weed tend to hold it in their lungs longer which isn't very healthy. Therefore, according to a lot of the info out there, one joint of weed is the equivalent to five or more cigarettes. Some people say it's like 20 cigarettes but I have a hard time believing that. I used to be a light cigarette smoker. However, there were nights when I'd go out and smoke a pack of cigarettes at a bar or a party. The next day my chest would be sore, my throat would feel scratchy and I'd be coughing a bit. I could definitely tell I'd smoked a lot of cigarettes the night before. With weed though, I could smoke a few joints and the next day not really feel very different.

Apparently there is not a single case of death directly related to weed. That is kind of a controversial statement. I'm sure that a lot of people are dead because of weed. First off, how many people have died due to gang related violence over selling or buying it? I'm pretty sure that many people have been killed by trying to steal from a field where it's being grown. There are probably a fair amount of people who have killed themselves after going through a Marijuana related psychosis. Some people develop schizophrenia which may have been triggered by weed. In other words, Cannabis does not cause the illness, but it can be triggered in individuals who might have a propensity to develop it. Well, some of those people might have gone crazy and killed themselves. Some people have died of lung cancer that might not have got it if they had never smoked. There is also a study out there saying that you are at a higher risk of developing a heart attack within the first hour after smoking. However, based on how much I have looked into any information on this I'm not sure it's accurate.

We know that there is a link between tobacco and lung cancer and there is a lot of advertising out there to discourage you from smoking. I would have thought that a heart attack would be a great scare tactic for anti drug campaigning. However so far, I've only read of one instance of a person dying from a heart attack after smoking weed. A mother in the U.K, who had a history of smoking weed, died of a heart attack at 38 years of age. It's impossible to know if she had a weak heart to start with or if she would have had the attack whether she smoked or not. There is just not any evidence that says 100% that the weed is what killed her.

I do still think that it should be legal. According to what I've read about Cannabis is the Netherlands, their crime rate has gone down and the rate of people who smoke has not gone up. I think that putting people in jail because they sell, grow, or smoke weed is just a waste of money, resources and time. But there is a lot of information on the American justice system and how they have privatized their jails so that it has become a profitable industry. They use the inmates as borderline slave labour. 25% of the worlds prison population live in the States. They have more of their population behind bars per capita than any other nation on the planet!

Clearly the war on drugs has failed. Young people are always going to find drugs. If you make drugs hard for them to get they will find more creative ways to get high. There is a legal weed you can buy in stores, which is marketed as an incense or something, but it'll get you high. However, there are no studies on what it is, or what is in it. So it's not really safe. Kids will sniff things out of aerosol tins, glue, they will steal their parents medication or find cold medication at the pharmacy. There are so many ways that a person can get high, and they will get high whether it's legal or not. It would just be a lot safer for everyone if it was legal. In the Netherlands their philosophy is that it's your body and your decision what you do with it. So by legalizing it, you aren't saying that it's healthy, and that you should use it. You are simply making it safer for people to use it who are going to use it anyway.

The same thing for heroin. There is enough evidence out there to show that using the drug is dangerous. Most people will never even try it. However, there are people out there who will try it and who will become addicted and will continue to use no matter how risky it is and no matter what they have to do to get it (steal, sell their bodies). By opening up centers for addicts you provide them with a safe place to inject with clean needles, a place to rest so they aren't passed out on the street and the possibility of getting treatment when they are ready. I also think it would be beneficial to just provide the addicts with pharmaceutical grade heroin. The catch would be that they would have to get and use the heroin at special centers. The benefit would be that it would be pure and safe. There are so many overdoses every day in Canada and the U.S and almost all of them could have been prevented if they had used clean and pure heroin. The stuff that is sold on the streets is always different, and often severely cut. The problem is that when an addict develops a high tolerance of the drug they get used to using a lot of it at one time. Let's say they usually inject a half a gram each time. If the stuff they use is usually very cut, then they can predict how high they will get. If they suddenly get their hands on very pure stuff and still inject a half a gram, they could die from an overdose.

Anyway, I'm too old be a stoner anymore. It was cool and fun when I was a teenager. It was an integral part of my identity and I chose friends based on whether they smoked. I never found a lot of people to smoke with who were as enthusiastic about it as I was, which looking back is probably a good thing. I still think it's a bit sad that our society gives young people "free passes" to be silly, party like crazy, get crazy wasted on alcohol, experiment with drugs and lot's of other things. Then suddenly you are a 30 something person and you are expected to have a good job, start a family, live in a nice house and just be "normal" which means that you don't get drunk anymore except on special occasions and even then you can't get "wasted" anymore it's just not cool. You most certainly can't smoke weed anymore. Come on, that's just for losers right? You see it in movies all the time. It's always the deadbeat loser who still lives in his moms basement, works as a cashier at a grocery store, is overweight and not overly hygienic and doesn't have a girlfriend. That's your stereotypical 30 year old stoner. They are often portrayed as being quite "dull", as in not very smart.

Of course, there also comes a time in a persons life when they start to realize their own mortality and try not to do things that will shorten their life. When you are 16 you feel like your whole life is ahead of you, so it really doesn't feel at all harmful or dangerous to get stoned or drunk. When you smoke cigarettes you know that at 16 your lungs are in pretty perfect condition and that when you stop you'll have plenty of time to heal. When you are in your 30's you don't feel like a young fresh human anymore, and you realize that smoking is terrible for your lungs, teeth and skin and you don't want to look like an old hag! With regards to getting drunk, when you are in your 30's the pain of the hangover the next day lingers in your mind as you drink and so you know when to stop. When you are 16 a hangover is a joke! Ok, I had some really bad ones where I would say that I would never drink again! But in your 30's, it's just really really awful and you end up in bed all day the next day!