50 Years Of Failure – Total Wa$te Of Time And Money

How long does it take to see a failed social experiment for what it is – a total, abysmal failure, which has taken a wrecking ball to society?

Apparently, at least 50 years.

We learned much more quickly with beverage alcohol.

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The War On Drugs: 50 Years Later

After 50 Years Of The War On Drugs, “What Good Is It Doing For Us?”

https://www.npr.org/2021/06/17/1006495476/after-50-years-of-the-war-on-drugs-what-good-is-it-doing-for-us

When Aaron Hinton walked through the housing project in Brownsville on a recent summer afternoon, he voiced love and pride for this tight-knit, but troubled working-class neighborhood in New York City where he grew up.

He pointed to a community garden, the lush plots of vegetables and flowers tended by volunteers, and to the library where he has led after-school programs for kids.

But he also expressed deep rage and sorrow over the scars left by the nation’s 50-year-long War on Drugs. “What good is it doing for us?,” Hinton asked.

As the United States’ harsh approach to drug use and addiction hits the half-century milestone, this question is being asked by a growing number of lawmakers, public health experts and community leaders.

In many parts of the U.S., some of the most severe policies implemented during the drug war are being scaled back or scrapped altogether.

Hinton, a 37-year-old community organizer and activist, said the reckoning is long overdue. He described watching Black men like himself get caught up in drugs year after year and swept into the nation’s burgeoning prison system.

“They’re spending so much money on these prisons to keep kids locked up. They don’t even spend a fraction of that money sending them to college or some kind of school,”  said Hinton, shaking his head.

Republican President Richard Nixon explains aspects of the special message sent to the Congress, June 17, 1971, asking for an extra $155 million for a new program to start his infamous social experiment which he called the “War on Drugs.” He labeled addiction and drug misuse “a national emergency” and said the money would be used to “tighten the noose around the necks of drug peddlers and thereby loosen the noose around the necks of drug users.” In 50 years, his plan has proven to be an abysmal failure. Behind him on the LEFT is Egil Krogh, Deputy Director of the Domestic Council. At right is Dr. Jerome Jaffe, MD who Nixon recruited to lead a new drug strategy. (AP Photo/Harvey Georges)

Hinton has lived his whole life under the drug war. He said Brownsville needed help coping with cocaine, heroin and drug-related crime that took root here in the 1970s and 1980s.

His own family was scarred by addiction.

“I’ve known my mom to be a drug user my whole entire life. She chose to run the streets and left me with my great-grandmother,” Hinton said.

Four years ago, his mom overdosed and died after taking prescription painkillers, part of the opioid epidemic that has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans.

Hinton said her death sealed his belief that tough drug war policies and aggressive police tactics would never make his family or his community safer.

The nation pivots (slowly) as evidence mounts against the drug war

During months of interviews for this project, NPR found a growing consensus across the political spectrum — including among some in law enforcement — that the drug war simply didn’t work.

“We have been involved in the failed War on Drugs for so very long,” said retired Major Neill Franklin, a retired Major with the Baltimore City Police and the Maryland State Police who led drug task forces for years.

During a press conference this week, he said,

New International Guidelines For Cannabis In Treating Chronic Pain

New Guidelines Issued on Medical Cannabis for Chronic Pain

International task force shares recommendations for dosing, administering.

by Ryan Basen, Enterprise & Investigative Writer, MedPage
September 13, 2020

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Chronic pain patients can be treated with medical cannabis following one of three protocols based on patient characteristics, according to an international task force at the virtual PAINWeek meeting.

Note the words “NO OPIATES” PROMINENTLY displayed on the label.

Citing limited clinician knowledge about medical cannabis treatment and the opioid crisis, one task force member said the recommendations are timely.

“We as a task force believe it’s extremely important to bring [medical cannabis] to patients,” Alan Bell, MD, of the University of Toronto, told MedPage Today. “Our main focus was to provide directions to clinicians.”

Medical cannabis has been suggested to treat chronic pain, the task force noted, but too many providers still do not utilize it because there has not been accepted guidelines about dosing and administration. Others prescribe medical cannabis without knowing how patients can properly dose.

“There’s a huge knowledge gap and no way clinicians can fall back on a specified dosing regimen,” Bell said.

Led by Arun Bhaskar, MD, of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust Pain Management Centre in London, the 20-clinician Global Task Force on Dosing and Administration of Medical Cannabis in Chronic Pain used a modified Delphi process. Among their recommendations:

• Treat the majority of patients along the “routine” scale. This means

How Can I Keep From Getting COVID-19 ?

Preventing COVID-19 Infection

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Of necessity, the introduction is somewhat wordy, simply because it’s necessary for the purposes of clarification, and understanding the topic, which can be complex to the average layperson. While it is outside the scope of this blog to treat patients, per se, the purpose in sharing this and other information, is to inform of the latest valid scientific findings. Those who read are free to treat themselves as they see fit, as is everyone. Again, the purpose in sharing these findings is to inform. –Ed.

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Among professional scientific, medical, and research cadre the novel coronavirus is properly known as, and is called SARS-CoV-2. Colloquially, it’s known as COVID-19. SARS is the abbreviation for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, while CoV is the abbreviation for coronavirus, thus COVID is shorthand for COronaVIrus Disease, while the number 19 refers to the year in which is was first discovered. If you’re froggy enough, here’s a great read on the nomenclature.

But the point of this entry is not about the name, but about the disease, and more specifically, about preventing the disease.

And suffice it to say, that while there are naysayers who (in some cases) loudly proclaim that COVID-19 is no worse than the flu or (insert your choice of disease here _X_), or that it doesn’t affect (_X_ – insert your choice of category people group(s), young, old, middle-aged, people who live in the tropics, in Scandinavia, etc.), none of the bizarre comments or nonsensical off-the-wall “justifications” such naysayers use, none of it’s true.

Remember: Despite the unambiguously incontrovertible and overwhelming evidence that the Earth is shaped like a ball, there are some who insist that the Earth is flat.

Point being, is that there will likely always be nut cases in the world, and practically nothing that anyone says or does will change their warped, demented minds… which are like concrete – thoroughly mixed, and permanently set.

When used in the scientific medical sense, the word “novel” means new. So this coronavirus is a new type of coronavirus, meaning one which has never been seen before.

Again, not to go off the deep end (for there are plenty of people who do), but simply because a virus is new, doesn’t mean that it was “man-made” or that it was an existing virus which became “weaponized.” To make such preposterously absurd claims is not only ignorantly stupid, it is false, simply because humanity does not know everything about anything, much less everything about everything. There are plenty of things in the world that we do not know about, and there are principles in the world about which we do not now know. And in fact, there are more things about which we know little, or nothing, than there are things about which we do know.

Again, point being, is that humans aren’t “know-it-alls,” and to claim that we know practically anything the novel coronavirus is false, because we do not. Hell… we don’t even know how to treat it! The only thing we’re doing now is treating symptoms. We do the exact same thing with the common cold, for which we also have no cure, and no vaccine to prevent it.

And as regarding prevention – an ounce of which is worth a pound of cure (as the saying goes) – the only thing we can do now with the coronavirus is to MECHANICALLY prevent its spread, simply because (that we now know of) we have no ability to prevent it with a vaccine. And to be certain, when we say “mechanically” prevent its spread, we mean by physical means, by actions, not by medicine.

And that is precisely why the World Health Organization (WHO), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and other public health groups have recommended maintaining a distance of 6 feet from others while in public (aka “social distancing”), wearing a face & nose covering (mask), disposable gloves, avoiding groups of people, minimizing public outings to as great an extent as possible, along with increased hand-washing, surface cleanings (disinfecting), etc.

Because we have learned that people infected with the novel coronavirus are at least 30-50% asymptomatic (meaning that they show NO signs or symptoms of infection, not even one – which also means temperature checks at certain public places are therefore effectively USELESS at preventing spread), it is critically important to maintain the physical (mechanical) precautions (preventions) at all times when out in public.

And, because 30-50% of all persons infected with COVID-19 are asymptomatic (they do NOT show even one sign or symptom of infection), that is why 100% testing of ALL people (aka “universal testing”) is critically important.

Again, EVERYONE is on a “learning curve” with the novel coronavirus, and that means EVERYONE – all scientists, all physicians, all nurses, all researchers… EVERYONE. So no one knows it all.

Now, let’s move along toward treatment.

We’re working our way toward the topic – unlike some, or even many articles, which say nothing of any value about anything. Such articles are like saying “how to lower the death rate – prevent drowning in bath tubs,” and then talking about building and installing tubs, why you should take a shower, and how expensive it is to operate swimming pools. Utter nonsense.

So, as we know, the only thing that we can do now is treat the symptoms of COVID-19 infection. And when it comes to treating the symptoms, if the symptoms are severe enough, someone will likely be in hospital, rather than at home. Thus, they’re pretty sick. And if they’re in an ICU (Intensive Care Unit), they’re really sick. And if they’re on a ventilator, they’re seriously critically sick. So there are levels of sickness with this, and other diseases, and the severity of sickness is determined by several factors, including how many signs and symptoms are being experienced (exhibited), and how much those symptoms are interfering with their ability to maintain homeostasis – our bodies’ innate ability to maintain proper function (circulate oxygenated blood, maintain proper operating temperature, utilize nutrients in food, and excrete waste by-products from digestion).

The human body is a series of complex mechanisms, all of which work together in harmony with other body systems to continue and maintain life (homeostasis).

What we do know about the more severe cases of COVID-19, is that it affects the lungs. We’re learning also that it quite likely affects other body systems, and may also have long-term implications, but the most notable, and most immediately life-threatening, is the damage done to the lungs.

We know also that COVID-19 is characterized by inflammation of the lungs, which is, in effect, a proper response mechanism of the body gone haywire. Imagine, if you will, a huge firetruck – even the whole Fire Department – responding to a small backyard barbecue fire which is nothing more than a flare-up, and easily (and most often) extinguished by you, the cook, or someone else. No drastic measures are required.

But, imagine if, in response to

Rethinking Addiction

Perhaps you’ve studied the 12-Step program, or perhaps you’ve practiced it. I have done both. Practicing it was not as a matter of addiction, or any such thing for myself, but instead, was a part of my personal spiritual growth and development.

Over the years, I’ve heard commentary, or news features which interviewed people with divergent perspectives on 12-Step programs, most notably which were skeptical of them, and were thoughtfully seeking answers themselves for the “whys and wherefores” of substance abuse, whether it’s long-term or temporary, and whether it is a genetic fault, or if it is a personality or character flaw in response to external or internal stressors. In other words, it’s the classic “Heredity vs Environment” argument.

As I have come to view it, there is validity for both sides, but I think the stronger case is made for a combination of environment and character flaw, instead of genetic defect.

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“In his recent book, The Sober Truth: Debunking the Bad Science Behind 12-Step Programs and the Rehab Industry, Lance Dodes, a retired psychiatry professor from Harvard Medical School, looked at Alcoholics Anonymous’s retention rates along with studies on sobriety and rates of active involvement (attending meetings regularly and working the program) among AA members. Based on these data, he put AA’s actual success rate somewhere between 5 and 8 percent. That is just a rough estimate, but it’s the most precise one I’ve been able to find.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/04/the-irrationality-of-alcoholics-anonymous/386255/

The Irrationality of Alcoholics Anonymous
By Gabrielle Glaser, April 2015 Issue
Its faith-based 12-step program dominates treatment in the United States. But researchers have debunked central tenets of AA doctrine and found

How prevalent is psychiatric disorder following natural disasters?

What implications does this have for survivors of Hurricane Katrina, California Wildfires, Earthquakes, the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack on the World Trade Center, or any other disaster?

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Psychiatric Disorders And Suicidal Tendencies In Survivors Of Natural Calamities

The Lancet Psychiatry
September 10, 2015

Survivors Of Natural Calamities Require Early Interventions To Alleviate Psychiatric Disorders

Background
Survivors of natural disasters are thought to be at an increased risk of psychiatric disorders, however the extent of this risk, and whether it is linked to pre-existing psychopathology, is not known. We aimed to establish whether Swedish survivors of tsunamis from the 2004 Sumatra–Andaman earthquake had increased risks of psychiatric disorders and suicide attempts 5 years after repatriation.

Methods
We identified Swedish survivors repatriated from southeast Asia (8762 adults and 3742 children) and 864 088 unexposed adults and 320 828 unexposed children matched for

How much does Huntsville Hospital charge for procedures? You’d be surprised!

Thanks to a newly introduced aspect of ObamaCare, hospitals are now mandated to publicly show how much they charge for procedures.

Aren’t you glad?

I mean really… who goes to a grocery store or gas station and doesn’t know how much they’ll pay?

Part of market-based competition includes

News for the “Medical Marijuana”/420 crowd: Israeli firm grows “highless” marijuana strain

What if the so-called “medical marijuana” proponents could have their cake, and eat it to?

That is, what if they could have the “benefits” they claim they derive from smoking marijuana, while NOT having its intoxicating effects?

Would they still smoke it?

That would tell the story.

It certainly would.

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What a drag, Israeli firm grows “highless” marijuana

A worker tends to cannabis plants at a plantation near the northern Israeli city of Safed June 11, 2012. REUTERS-Baz Ratner

By Maayan Lubell SAFED, Israel | Tue Jul 3, 2012 9:48am EDT

(Reuters) – They grow in a secret location in northern Israel. A tall fence, security cameras and an armed guard protect them from criminals. A hint of their sweet-scented blossom carries in the air: rows and rows of cannabis plants, as far as the eye can see.

It is here, at a medical marijuana plantation atop the hills of the Galilee, where researchers say they have developed marijuana that can be used to ease the symptoms of some ailments without getting patients high.

A worker tends to cannabis plants at a plantation near the northern Israeli city of Safed June 11, 2012. Credit: REUTERS/Baz Ratner

“Sometimes the high is not always what they need. Sometimes it is an unwanted side effect. For some of the people it’s not even pleasant,” said Zack Klein, head of development at Tikun Olam, the company that developed the plant.

Cannabis has more than 60 constituents called cannabinoids. THC is perhaps the best known of those, less so for its medical benefits and more for its psychoactive properties that give people a “high” feeling.

A worker tends to cannabis plants at a plantation near the northern Israeli city of Safed June 11, 2012. Credit: REUTERS/Baz Ratner

But cannabis also contains Cannabidiol, or CBD, a substance that some researchers say has

Trojan Horse-like Therapy a New Tool in Cancer Treatment Arsenal

More exciting news in cancer treatment!

One of the perplexing things about cancer treatment (chemotherapeutics) is that the substances used to kill the tumors are poisonous… even deadly toxic. It has been, in essence, a shotgun approach. That is, while the malignant cells targeted for destruction are killed, so are other, non-cancerous cells throughout the body. It is an imprecise treatment because the intravenous treatment circulates throughout the entire body.

This new approach is – as the story describes – somewhat like the proverbial Trojan Horse.

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A New Class of Cancer Drugs May Be Less Toxic

May 31, 2012
By ANDREW POLLACK

Fern Saitowitz’s advanced breast cancer was controlled for about a year by the drug Herceptin and a toxic chemotherapy agent. But her hair fell out, her fingernails turned black and she was constantly fatigued.

She switched to an experimental treatment, which also consisted of Herceptin and a chemotherapy agent. Only this time, the two drugs were attached to each other, keeping the toxic agent inactive until the Herceptin carried it to the tumor. Side effects, other than temporary nausea and some muscle cramps, vanished.

“I’m able to live a normal life,” said Ms. Saitowitz, 47, a mother of two young children in Los Angeles. “I haven’t lost any of my hair.”

The experimental treatment, called T-DM1, is a harbinger of a new class of cancer drugs that may be more effective and less toxic than many existing treatments. By harnessing antibodies to deliver toxic payloads to cancer cells, while largely sparing healthy cells, the drugs are a step toward the “magic bullets” against cancer first envisioned by Paul Ehrlich, a German Nobel laureate, about 100 years ago.

“It’s almost like we’re

When the treatment is worse than the disease

“Simponi can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. Serious and sometimes fatal events can occur – such as infections, cancer in children and adults, heart failure, nervous system disorders, liver or blood problems and allergic reactions. Before starting Simponi, your doctor should test you for TB and assess your risk of infections, including fungal infections, and hepatitis B.”

– from a teevee commercial/advertisement for a once-a-month, self-injectable “drug/medicine” branded “Simponi” purported to treat rheumatoid arthritis

“SIMPONI^™ can lower your ability to fight infections. There are reports of serious infections caused by bacteria, fungi, or viruses that have spread throughout the body, including tuberculosis (TB) and histoplasmosis. Some of these infections have been fatal. Your doctor will test you for TB before starting SIMPONI^™ and will monitor you for signs of TB during treatment. Tell your doctor if you have been in close contact with people with TB. Tell your doctor if you have been in a region (such as the Ohio and Mississippi River Valleys and the Southwest) where certain fungal infections like histoplasmosis or coccidioidomycosis are common. Unusual cancers have been reported in children and teenage patients taking TNF-blocker medicines. For children and adults taking TNF blockers, including SIMPONI^™, the chances for getting lymphoma or other cancers may increase. You should tell your doctor if you have had or develop lymphoma or other cancers.”

– from the http://www.simponi.com/ website

The word “medication” can be simply defined as “a compound or preparation used for the treatment or prevention of disease,” while the word “cure” can be simply defined as to “relieve (a person or animal) of the symptoms of a disease or condition.”

Should a “cure” cause disease?

What the hell was the FDA thinking when they approved this “medicine”?

What sense does it make to create a “medicine” for which the company knows causes cancer? Is that not a class action lawsuit waiting to happen? Would the American Cancer Association approve this medication?

Would YOU recommend this “medicine” to your family and friends?

Would YOU take this “medicine”?

Should this “medicine” be banned?