Open Thread

Presidential election today in Mexico.

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43 Responses to Open Thread

  1. claygooding says:

    Waiting with anticipation to see what the new ruling party does,,they were pretty much controlled by the cartels when they were in charge before and will probably be just as corrupt this time,,,waiting to see if US will use mercenary forces to do black ops in Mexico or if Mexico tells US to suck a root and goes into full time drug exportation business,,,money talks.

  2. allan says:

    reposting Sunday Comix and here’s the cartoonist’s comment:

    When we talk about legalizing marijuana, we inevitably have to decide what other drugs should be legalized. Do we legalize cocaine, crack, ecstasy, meth, heroin? If not, why not? Shouldn’t we legalize all drugs, regulate them and tax them like alcohol?

    I’m all in on legalizing marijuana. Tax it and we can retire the deficit overnight. Smoke it in bars and coffee houses and have laws governing where it can be used. I don’t know about the other drugs, though. We can debate it, but it seems futile to try to outlaw stuff that people want no matter the cost. At least maybe we could have a sane drug policy that recognizes reality.

    When I worked at another newspaper long ago, one of our reporters was writing a story on marijuana use at area high schools. He asked a student, “Do you have a pot problem at your school?” The kid said, “No problem, I can get it whenever I want.”

  3. ezrydn says:

    Oh, Please, God. Not Obrador! Finished som Forex work last night, went up to catch the news and when I punched up FoxNews, was met with this placard:”De conformidad con la legislacion electoral vigente esta senal ha sido interrumpida.”

    –or–

    “Under the current electoral legislation this signal has been interrupted.”

    No other news station carries that blackout. Only Fox.

  4. thelberto says:

    let’s see if voting can change things in Mexico. i’ll be happy if it does. it’ll take some cojones to bring peace and rational drug policy to Mexico. i doubt if courage and smarts get you any further in mexican politics than they do in american politics.

  5. big rig butters says:

    And I dought jacking off to drugwarrant news stories is a good thing. Here I’ve been for the past two days been stuck in the fucking attic with no god damn egg noodles.Oh FYI darkcycle give me back my hustler porn mags. Just cause your getting annoyed that I’ve been jacking off loudly these past few weeks doesn’t mean you can puinsh me by taking my porno away.your acting like a drug warrior when you take my eye candy away and tell me its for my own good.jesus just give me a fucking bowl of water every now and then.and please for the love of L.Ron Pete can someone take me outside to go potty once in a while. This bucket Allen left me is getting pretty full. I’ve ran out of that trader joe’s wiskey that someone left me.and now my withdraws are causing sezuires.if I don’t get Kevin Sabets booty up in the attic soon I swear to god I’m gonna start rapping non sense again. Is this really what pete’s couch needs? Another little wiggle freestyle that sounds tighter than a dick in the butt. It’s getting loney up here,I could use a new A.C mine broke.also I want a girl to keep me company.any of you have a daughter for sale? Maybe 8 sheckels?please I’m getting ancy here.if I don’t get what I request I’m gonna go fail dare again.is that what you want? Is it.

  6. claygooding says:

    Cartels cast shadow over Mexico polls
    Stars and Stripes

    http://tinyurl.com/8527xeq

    “”If there is one thing almost everyone involved in divisive drug debates agrees on, it is that current President Felipe Calderon’s strategy – sending the military to battle drug gangs and attempting to arrest major leaders while seizing shipments – did not work.

    When asked if a pact between a new PRI government and gangsters could reduce violence, the senior security official simply said: “Yes.”” ‘snipped’

    My comment:
    We seem to forget that one of our most favored President’s grandfather was a bootlegger,,their wealth and power was acquired during alcohol prohibition and the same things are happening now in Mexico,,,what new leaders will the US backed prohibition bring forth from amongst today’s criminals and tomorrows leaders?

    All we can really hope for is that our children are smarter than we are and that they read history,,,no prohibition by any government/ruler has ever been successful and has destroyed many civilizations/regimes,,,even God could not enforce prohibition,,and He only had two people to watch.

    • allan says:

      even God could not enforce prohibition,,and He only had two people to watch

      LEAP’s Peter Christ was the one that introduced that little snippet to me… loved it the moment I heard it. We used it in his oped in the Star-Gazette (NY) in Feb of 2008:

      DON’T TAX DRUGS, LEGALIZE THEM

      The issue of taxing illegal drugs put forward by Gov. Eliot Spitzer is a fantasy of bizarre proportions.

      I have a better idea. Let’s regulate them. Seriously. Let’s legalize all illegal drugs, place them under strict controls of production and distribution and allow our medical community to deal with the health problems of addiction. Let’s take all the money wasted on waging the unwinnable War on ( some ) Drugs and spend it on intervention, health screening and treatment. Let’s just bypass the criminals and international cartels ( that are totally in control of the black market of illegal drugs ) and free up our police forces to deal with real crimes like theft and assault. Brilliant.

      Of course, critics of legalization will put forth their usual “but what about the children?” I say, “OK, what about the children?” Think about these basic facts: since Richard Nixon first declared the War on Drugs 37 years ago, drugs are in every community in the nation. Drugs today are so prevalent we cannot keep them out of our jails and prisons, let alone out of our communities or our children’s schools.

      Legalization is not a panacea, and no one claims it is. What we do say is that Prohibition II, the prohibition of drugs, has failed. We know the proliferation of drugs is unstoppable under current policies. What we have seen is that in spite of sending drug-sniffing dogs into our schools and testing our children’s’ urine without suspicion or warrants, those same children continuously report that illegal drugs are easier for them to purchase than legal substances, such as alcohol and tobacco.

      If we truly care about children and wish to keep them from using illegal drugs, we must follow examples of success like that of tobacco, where education has provided outstanding results in reducing use, without a single shot being fired. Part of the allure of drugs for children is that forbidden factor, the temptation of rebellion. During alcohol Prohibition, consumption of alcohol by young people increased, and so did deaths and overdoses from toxic booze produced by illegal distilleries, like bathtub gin. This is exactly what we’ve created by making drugs illegal; illegal manufacturers regulate them. Most of today’s overdoses aren’t caused by the drugs, but by what is used to “cut” them. The strength and dosage is not regulated.

      The guy selling drugs to our kids doesn’t care about their age. What he does care about is the cash they carry. However, a legal seller of alcohol or tobacco knows his business would be jeopardized if he were caught selling to underage customers.

      The fact is that these substances, by being illegal, are a greater cause of harm to society than the drugs themselves.

      If the governor is serious about solutions to the problem of illegal drugs, all he needs to do is look at a book on the history of Prohibition and the Roaring ’20s. He is also free to discuss legalization, taxation or any issue surrounding today’s drug policies with myself or any of the other former criminal justice professionals who are part of the rapidly growing organization, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition — or LEAP at http://www.leap.cc.

      Some point to alcohol Prohibition as the prime example of how a prohibition fails. I choose instead to draw upon a far older example. When Adam and Eve were living in the Garden of Eden, surrounded by paradise with all their needs met, there was only one thing prohibited to them. Yet, in spite of their perfect existence, they couldn’t resist that one temptation. I ask you, if God can’t enforce prohibition, what makes us think we can do better?

      • claygooding says:

        Thnx Allan,,hadn’t read that one,,I was doodling phrases/quips and came up with that one,,not saying I hadn’t heard similar but different quips but that was as short and concise as I could make it.

        • allan says:

          part of participating w/ MAP’s LTE writers back in da day is that someone would coin a good un, a real zinger and we’d all adopt it in one form or another… it kept all our writing fresh and evolving (of course Rob’t Sharpe was on virtual qwertyroids). Which, if I’m not mistaken, is the big edge we have over *them* – we have evolved, them… not so much evolving as devolving. And the cartels are more into dissolving… brrr…

          Another edge we have that generally gets overlooked by others/non-cannabists is the herb itself… when you go into a tavern or to a party you don’t walk up and drink outta someone’s mug… but a doob? Pass that sucker. Cannabis can be/is a social ambassador/moderator, an encourager of cooperation and easer of tensions.

          Go to a Franti & Spearhead show w/ all them potheads and then go to a Tech9 (or Dropkick Murphys) show where hard alcohol is served and hard drinkers are partyin’…

          … and thusly, I rest my case.

  7. ezrydn says:

    Voting ended an hour ago and FoxNews is still the only news outlet blocked! Wonder what they’re afraid of

  8. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .

    Why do I so often read that the countries that are really “tough on (some) drugs” haven’t got anyone who does use them? Am I recalling incorrectly that Indonesia has heinous penalties for even petty possession of cannabis? Maybe their lawmakers need to learn how to send a message?

    Kerobokan Pot Bust Opens Investigation On Prison Drug Ring
    Made Arya Kencana, Tunggadewa Mattangkilang & Zaky Pawas
    July 01, 2012

    Denpasar. The Kerobokan prison in Bali confiscated 1.4 kilograms of marijuana in a raid on Friday, adding to a long list of cases where drugs have been distributed behind prison walls.

    Three inmates were detained for drug possession after the marijuana was found in a block inside the prison, chief warden Gusti Ngurah Wiratna said.

    He added that illegal drugs were rampant among inmates, who have occasionally been sent to the hospital after being found with symptoms of drug withdrawal.
    /snip/

    The raid came three days after police officers in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, arrested a convicted drug trafficker found with a kilogram of crystal methamphetamine stashed inside his cell. The drugs were worth Rp 3 billion ($321,000).
    ———- ———- /snip/ ———- ———-

    Gories Mere, head of the National Narcotics Agency (BNN), said recently that Indonesia’s illicit drug trade has reached staggering levels, with the latest measurements putting the industry’s annual value at Rp 42.8 trillion.

    There are 3.8 million to 4.2 million illicit drug users in the country, Gories said, and 22 percent of them are students and young adults between the ages of 20 and 29.
    /snip/

    Does anyone else find the notion of “detaining” prison inmates currently serving sentences as ludicrous as I do?

    42,800,000,000,000 (42.8 trillion) Indonesian Rupiahs = $4,514,765,493.40 at the close of business on 6/29. The population of Indonesia was 239,870,000 in 2010 according to the World Bank.

    Kerobokan is Shapelle Corby’s current residence.

  9. paul says:

    The PRI takes it!

    Now, let’s watch. This next year is going to be very interesting!

    • nick says:

      I’m hoping the new president will take a less violent stance on fighting drug traffickers which will hopefully make it harder on American law enforcement to stop the drugs coming in. They have a chance to really make a stand and actually act on what they spoke about in the American Summit(or whatever it was called). I’m afraid they will just accept the USA’s blood money and continue our failed drug policy.

      IMO, if the PRI party has any sense they will just leave the traffickers alone and let the USA deal with it. It’s our appetite that supports the dealers and Mexico shouldn’t have to pay in the blood of it’s citizens and police for our drug obsession.

      • Matthew Meyer says:

        Do you really think that taking a less violent approach will make it easier for cartels to move drugs? I mean, did Calderón’s militarization make it harder?

  10. Peter says:

    Absurd article in Huffpo “How Loss of Enthusiasm Among Youth Voters Could Cost Obama the Presidency.” Focused mainly on students, it goes on for page after page without a single mention of the drug war, mmj raids or the impact of laws which destroy the lives of millions of young people, and which the president hypocritically supports:
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/01/how-loss-of-enthusiasm-could-cost-obama-election_n_1620253.html

    • Windy says:

      The president’s loss of those young students was Ron Paul’s gain and they are part of what got him the 500 or so delegates he now has. Should Ron Paul, by some strange turn of events gain the nomination (like the long shot of having the majority of delegates choose him over Romney), he will again benefit from getting their votes in November.

    • Peter says:

      Trust me, I’m a politician.
      Look what he said before his first term:

      End foreign wars
      Close Gitmo
      Not go after mmj
      Investigate the bush era crimes
      Won’t employ lobbyists
      Investigate Wall st fraud

      And no doubt I could find many more with 10 minutes to spare
      Also

      “According to ongoing discussions with Obama aides and associates, if the president wins a second term, he plans to tackle another American war that has so far been successful only in perpetuating more misery: the four decades of The Drug War.” This seems like a pretty vague lead.

      Read More http://www.gq.com/news-politics/blogs/death-race/2012/07/exclusive-in-his-second-term-obama-will-pivot-to-the-drug-war.html#ixzz1zTerJdFm

    • darkcycle says:

      Similar story in the Huff Post. http://tinyurl.com/clpppnr . Looks like the White House knows we’re upset an maybe feels a little heat.
      First: DON’T BELIEVE IT! Not for a fucking second…look where his loyalties lie and ask yourself “Why would he do a 180 now and ruin his chances for library endowments, and honorary seats on boards of directors and all that influence?” Second, he’s lied about everything else related to, well, everything…why on God’s green earth would I be willing to believe him now? But it does say we are having an impact, and they feel it. All that banging on the wall must be shakin’ the (White) House.

      • darkcycle says:

        Oh, that goes to goes to GQ too. Look at Huff post’s front page…

        • Duncan20903 says:

          But everyone is scared of Mr. Mittens!

        • B. Snow says:

          Okay I read the GQ story & while it’s really more about how young people aren’t enthused to go out and vote/volunteer for the Obama re-election campaign, disillusioned 2008 campaign workers, etc.

          I can’t tell if the “Pivot to the Drug War” is supposed to be “positive” or “negative” (regardless of which side the reader is on)…
          Is it Pivoting to
          A. Fighting the Drug War more vigorously? -OR-
          B. Ending the Drug War?
          C. OR – maybe just ending the war on marijuana and “re-upping” (as it were) the rest of the “Drug War” = on meth, cocaine, heroin, etc???

        • claygooding says:

          B. Snow,,,by now most have figured out that the war on drugs,or at least the war on opium,cocaine and meth are just smoke and mirrors,,because a war just on marijuana/hemp would never float.
          The government(replace with banks)don’t want a legal market for anyhing they are already making billions off of.

        • kaptinemo says:

          Yes, they’re scared of Mr. Mittens…putting them in the same civil rights hurt locker that they threw us into 40 years ago and slammed the door in our faces.

          No words can express my contemptuous disgust. Every time I see some DLC shill or their Useful Idiots parroting that crap on various fora, I ask them where they’ve been for all that time? We’re already in the place they are so terrified of going…and they want our help to stay out of it, after putting us there?

          The lack of self-awareness or introspection on the part of the Dem apparatus regarding the irony of their efforts would normally be seen as shocking, but for us it’s just another day in the sick, twisted version of Wonderland this country’s become.

          They’ve been screaming “Off with their heads!” (or more likely, “Off the heads.”) all this time, and then they turn around without a single bit of shame or guilt and then have the temerity to sternly warn us how bad things will get with another 1%er handmaiden who will do terrible things to us…if we don’t vote for the man who’s doing terrible things to us, already.

          So, which are they? Sociopaths or just plain stupid?

        • darkcycle says:

          “So, which are they? Sociopaths or just plain stupid?”
          I’m afraid the only answer to that question is “yes”.

    • Atrocity says:

      Darkcycle: I don’t believe it. I wound up posting the naked link simply because I couldn’t think of anything useful to add to it.

    • Servetus says:

      If the Democrats don’t have a drug war plan that includes legalization and regulation, they don’t have a plan period.

      The Democrats really need to brush up on political history. An inability to follow up on political promises is one of the things that resulted in the socialist party in Weimer Germany (SDP) being cast aside in favor of the Nazis (NSDAP) in 1933.

      This kind of neglect is a serious and continuing problem for the Democrats, yet they seem to believe they gain political capital by brushing legal reform aside. Obama’s lame excuse, that the president can do nothing to change laws, is not only historically wrong, it’s a total and completely obvious copout.

  11. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .

    It appears that the Arkansas cannabis law reform advocates have quietly collected enough signatures to put a medicinal cannabis patient protection law on the ballot this November.

    Marijuana drive meets signature goal

    I suppose the bad news is that we’ll be subjected to a bunch of lame “but I didn’t inhale” and “no dope in Hope” puns.
    ———- ———- ———- ———- ———-

    Is it my imagination or does Señor Peña Nieto look like the head of the Mexican cartel who married Nancy Botwin in the 5th season of Weeds?

  12. “I don’t know about the other drugs, though.”

    Why do we continue to hear/see such nonsense. There’s NO reason not to legalize Opium and Coca- the plants and products representing them in their natural potencies at a minimum.

    Imagine an alternative reality where we made caffeine and nicoine into white powder poisons. Drug policy reform must break away from the death grip around Ira Glasser etc, like some sort of twisted advice from some cigarette-pharma conflict of interest law firm to protect pharma and cigarettes:

    http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2012/06/july-4-seize-it.html

    http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2012/06/douglas-andrew-willinger-angelo.html

    http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2011/03/drug-war-tobacco-pharma-agricultural.html

    http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2008/03/it-was-criminal-mercantilism-to-protect.html

    http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2008/03/drug-warriors-ignore-history-of-coca.html

    http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2008/03/drug-warriors-ignore-pharmacokinetics.html

    And this April 1 piece:

    http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2012/04/about-drug-policy-covington-and-burling.html

    NO discussion of the drug war should overlook the reality of it as an illegal market protection scam for cigarettes- which is obvious from that p 230 chart of cigarette production with the upturns happening with the various ‘drug control’ statutes in 1906, 1914 and 1937.

    Yet we continue to see all of this ‘scholarly’ work that completely neglects this.

    http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2011/04/coca-as-tobacco-habit-cure.html

    By focusing upon MJ to the exclusion of Coca and Opium we have unwittingly extended prohibition. Why continue to do so?

  13. Servetus says:

    The czarist UNODCP is putting pressure on Uruguay to discourage the Uruguayan government from legalizing and regulating marijuana. Brazil and Argentina are likely to pay close attention to what happens in Uruguay:

    “Yury Fedotov, executive director of the UN Office on Drugs on Crime told reporters: ‘Should it happen of course that would be a serious violation of the Single convention and Uruguay is a party to this convention… I’m also aware that the President of the International Narcotic Control Board is planning an urgent mission to Uruguay to discuss the situation with the authorities of this country.’

    There is no official reaction from the US administration; drug czar Gil Kerlikowske has remained silent so far. While Guatemalan president Perez Molina warmly greeted the news, Colombia President Juan Manuel Santos, who had appeared to be favorable to open drug policy debate, was highly critical of the Uruguayan move. The Uruguayan debate must be followed closely in neighboring Brazil and Argentina where a debate on drug policy in ongoing, with Brazil scheduled to vote in July on decriminalization of possession for personal use of all drugs.”

    http://www.world-war-d.com/2012/06/29/drug-policy-reform-on-the-move/

  14. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .

    From the winner of this year’s best (alleged) journalist writing for a throwaway:

    Medical Marijuana is ‘Sham’ Just to Get High, Obama Official Says

    Why fight it? He doesn’t want our votes anyway.

  15. claygooding says:

    Police Use Excessive Force, Vandalize Marijuana Dispensary

    http://tinyurl.com/892syyd

    Long Beach Police Department officers are shown using excessive force and vandalizing a local dispensary in surveillance video footage released by collective management. ‘snipped’

    Police putting foot on perks neck,,destroying security equipment,,not seizing for evidence.

  16. Your comment is awaiting moderation?

  17. Ed Dunkle says:

    I wonder if any of the US “agencies” helped PRI regain power.

  18. A while back, someone on here posted a list of the ten drugs responsible for the most accidental deaths (I recall Vioxx and acetaminophen being on there).

    Could you please post it again?

    • Byddaf yn egluro: says:

      Prescription drugs kill some 200,000 Americans every year.

      http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2011/01/deadly-medicine-201101?currentPage=all

      “An estimated 770,000 people are injured or die each year in hospitals from adverse drug events (ADEs) defined as an injury resulting from medical intervention related to a drug. Not all, but many, IF NOT MOST, of these adverse drug events are preventable.”

      http://www7.nationalacademies.org/ocga/testimony/Patient_Safety_and_Medication_Errors.asp

      * The number of deaths from drug poisonings in the U.S. has increased sixfold since 1980.

      * In 2008, more than 41,000 people in the U.S. died from intentional and accidental poisonings – Nine out of 10 were due to drugs. These deaths exceeded the number of deaths from automobile accidents making poisoning the leading cause of injury death. (CDC National Center for Health Statistics 1980 to 2008)

      Fully 40% of these deaths in 2008 involved the use of prescription opioid pain relievers such as codeine, fentanyl, hydrocodone, morphine, and oxycodone, (was 25% in 1999) – In 2008, Cocaine was involved in about 5,100 deaths and heroin was involved in about 3,000 deaths.

      http://www.webmd.com/pain-management/news/20111220/deaths-drug-poisoning-in-us-jump-sixfold

      * PRESCRIPTION PAINKILLERS: drugs like oxycodone and hydrocodone, the main ingredients in Oxycontin and Vicodin, landed 305,885 Americans in emergency rooms in 2008 — more than double the 144,644 visits in 2004, (2010 study by Samsha and the CDC)

      Overdose deaths involving these opioid pain relievers (oxycodone and hydrocodone; and synthetic narcotics such as fentanyl and propoxyphene) now exceed deaths from heroin and cocaine combined (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
      Prescription drug overdoses have been increasing in the United States over the last decade, and by 2008 had reached 36,450 deaths – almost as many as from motor vehicle crashes (39,973).

      http://www.acep.org/MobileArticle.aspx?id=82888&coll_id=720&parentid=740

      * VIOXX: On January 24, 2005, the medical journal The Lancet published on its website a report on Vioxx risks that was previously blocked by the FDA. The study found that Vioxx may have caused as many as 140,000 cases of heart disease in the United States and as many as 56,000 deaths during the five years that it was on the market. The newly published study of 1.4 million patients shows that that low doses of Vioxx increased the risk of heart disease by about 50%, and higher doses increased it by 358%.

      http://www.vioxxnews.com/

      * ACETAMINOPHEN: ( found in more than 300 products with sales in the billions of dollars annually) Acetaminophen overdoses are the leading cause of acute liver failure (ALF) in the United States, Great Britain and most of Europe. Acetaminophen toxicity accounts for approximately 50% of all cases of ALF in the United States and carries a 30% mortality. -More than 100,000 calls to Poison Control Centers, 56,000 emergency room visits, 2,600 hospitalizations and nearly 500 deaths are attributed to acetaminophen in the United States annually.

      http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hep.21926/pdf

      * ANTIDEPRESSANTS: The respected journal, PLoS ONE, published a study in June 2010, showing that men who are depressed and take trycyclic, SSRI, or any other antidepressants die at a significantly greater rate than those who don’t. – Performed in Australia, the study followed 5,276 men aged 68-88.

      “The results of this study indicate that the 6-year adjusted mortality hazard is twice as high for men with depression compared with non-depressed men and that the use of antidepressants is associated with an independent rise in mortality of 30%. .. We found that antidepressant treatment increases the mortality hazard of men by 30%, and this association is independent of the presence of clinically significant depression. .. It is also important to consider that the use of antidepressants has been associated with numerous potentially harmful effects, some of which may increase morbidity and mortality. For example, antidepressant treatment has been linked to increased risk of injurious and non-injurious falls in cross-sectional and longitudinal studies, and there is some evidence that the use of common antidepressants increases the risk bleeding in various body systems, including the central nervous system, as well as the risk of incident diabetes. In addition, recently published findings from the Nurses’ Health Study showed an increase in the number of sudden cardiac deaths associated with the use of antidepressants, a result that is consistent with our observation of an excess of cardiovascular deaths amongst men using antidepressants.”

      http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0011266

      Postmenopausal Women on antidepressants are 45% more likely than those not on such medication to have a stroke, and 32% more likely to die of any cause. – There is an increased likelihood of Hemorrhagic strokes (bleeding in the brain) which is possibly the result of the anti-clotting effect of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) which are most frequently prescribed for depression. The authors of the study noted that since post-menopausal women make up the largest segment of patients in the United States on antidepressants, the resulting increases in strokes and deaths across the country could be significant.

      http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/169/22/2128?home

      A study published in 2009 found that SSRIs interfered with the breast cancer medication tamoxifen, with tumors more than twice as likely to return after two years in women taking antidepressants compared with those taking tamoxifen alone.

      Children whose mothers take Zoloft, Prozac, or similar antidepressants during pregnancy are twice as likely as other children to have a diagnosis of autism or a related disorder.

      http://edition.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/07/04/antidepressant.pregnancy.autism.risk/index.html

  19. allan says:

    oopsie…

    GlaxoSmithKline settles drug-marketing case for $3 billion

    GlaxoSmithKline, the maker of the popular depression drugs Paxil and Wellbutrin, agreed to plead guilty to federal charges and pay $3 billion in the largest healthcare-fraud settlement in U.S. history.

    The British pharmaceutical giant agreed to pay a nearly $1-billion fine for illegally marketing and promoting a number of well-known products for uses not approved by federal drug regulators, the U.S. Justice Department said Monday. The company will pay an additional $2 billion to settle allegations in connection with its sales, marketing and pricing practices on the state and federal level.

  20. Duncan20903 says:


    Judge to rule on whether obesity is factor in man’s fitness for fatherhood

    By Gary Dimmock
    June 17, 2012

    OTTAWA — In a family court case to be ruled on soon, a judge will, in part, decide whether a 38-year-old Ottawa man is too fat to be a dad.

    The Royal Ottawa Hospital’s family court clinic, which does court-ordered assessments on parents, is now using obesity as a factor when deciding if parents are fit to raise children.

    In court filings by child-welfare authorities in the case of an obese Ottawa father who is fighting for custody of his two boys, a doctor at the family court clinic wrote:

    “Finally, (father) has struggled with obesity for years, which impacts significantly on most aspects of his life including (his) functioning as a parent. He was short of breath or winded in simply walking short distances about the clinic and he lacks both the mobility and stamina required to keep up with young and active children.

    “Once again, (the father’s) strong personal beliefs on issues, including weight loss, make it difficult for him to accept the opinions of specialists on such matters,” the doctor wrote in the assessment report.
    /snip/

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