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How the war on drugs became a race war, from the Dylan Ratigan Show on MSNBC.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
How the war on drugs became a race war, from the Dylan Ratigan Show on MSNBC.
A group called MarijuanaHarmsFamilies.com is flooding California airwaves with a scary-scary ad against Proposition 19, which would legalize marijuana. We don’t know who they are but we do know that there is a former Surgeon General who has come out in favor of Prop 19. She’s Joycelyn Elders, also now a professor emeritus at the University of Arkansas School of Medicine and an associate at Arkansas Children’s Hospital. Here’s a rough transcript of her comments today on GRITtv.
Laura Flanders (host): Your response to those who say those things: it harms children, it’s a gateway drug and it’ll just do terrible things to law enforcement?
Joycelyn Elders: I would say that if it does anything it will help law enforcement because they could spend more time taking care of… very harmful things. Proposition 19, as I understand it, is really for adults over 21, they can have only one ounce, it’s to be smoked in their own home or in a place that’s authorized. Now, the drug cartels regulate who buys the drug. If we regulated it or decriminalized it, it could be sold and taxed and we could use the money to do more valuable things for our bright young people.
Marijuana may not impact driving, according to a new study.
Subjects exhibit virtually identical psychomotor skills on a battery of driving simulator tests prior to and shortly after smoking marijuana, according to clinical trial data published in the March issue of the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs.
Investigators from Hartford Hospital in Connecticut and the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine assessed the simulated driving performance of 85 subjects in a double-blind, placebo controlled trial. Volunteers responded to various simulated events associated with automobile crash risk — such as avoiding a driver who was entering an intersection illegally, deciding to stop or go through a changing traffic light, responding to the presence of emergency vehicles, avoiding colliding with a dog who entered into traffic, and maintaining safe driving during a secondary (in-the-car) auditory distraction. Subjects performed the tests sober and then again 30 minutes after smoking a single marijuana cigarette containing either 2.9 percent THC or zero THC (placebo).
Investigators reported that volunteers performed virtually the same after smoking cannabis as they did sober and/or after consuming a placebo. "No differences were found during the baseline driving segment (and the) collision avoidance scenarios," authors reported.
Let the discussion begin.
Michael Jackson’s doctor has been charged with involuntary manslaughter in the pop singer’s death.
Prosecutors announced the charge Monday against Dr. Conrad Murray, a Houston cardiologist who was with Jackson when he died June 25. He faces up to four years in prison if convicted.Murray’s attorney Ed Chernoff says.
Murray will plead not guilty.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is enforcing the flavored cigarette ban provision of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (Tobacco Control Act) by issuing several warning letters to companies continuing to sell illegal flavored cigarettes to consumers in the United States through their Web sites.
The warning letters directed the companies to cease the marketing and sale of these products immediately or to take other appropriate action to bring the products into compliance with the law. Failure to do so may result in additional regulatory actions such as seizure or injunction. In addition, FDA requested a written response from each of the companies within 15 days outlining the corrective actions taken.
Enforcement of the flavored cigarette ban is FDA’s effort to remove cigarettes that contain certain candy or fruit flavors from the marketplace. Removal of these products from the market will assist in the prevention of children and adolescents from starting to smoke and in the reduction in death and disease caused by smoking.
“FDA takes the enforcement of this flavored cigarette ban seriously,” said Lawrence R. Deyton, M.S.P.H, M.D., director of FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products. These actions should send a clear message to those who continue to break the law that FDA will take necessary actions to protect our children from initiating tobacco use.”
Sneaky SOBs, are they not?
Cigarette manufacturers. Not the FDA.
Not this time.
An alleged gang-member was fatally shot near his home Thursday night in the West Side’s Austin neighborhood.
Brandon Chambers, 21, of the 100 block of North Lavergne Avenue, was pronounced dead at 9:41 p.m. Thursday at Mount Sinai Hospital, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office.
Police News Affairs Officer Robert Perez said Chambers was walking on the sidewalk in the 160 block of North Lavergne Avenue when a dark-colored car — possibly a Pontiac G6 — approached and somebody inside called Chambers to the car.
Somebody inside the car then opened fire, striking Chambers in the head, Perez said. An autopsy is scheduled for later Friday, according to the medical examiner’s office.
It’s all about drugs.
Legalize them. All of them. Regulate them. All of them.
Right now, the gangs control the drug market. And our young are dying every day.
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If you missed Countdown tonight, at least watch the last 11 minutes of tonight’s show, which was dedicated in its entirety to a call for health care reform.
I was expecting a rant. Instead, Keith personalized the issue by talking about his father. This was no rant.
Olbermann’s right. We need the medical community on our side.
Go to MSNBC to watch the entire show.
I absolutely feel nothing but profound regret learning of the death of Chris Kelly, one of the ex-governor’s closest friends and advisers. I fear that this terrible tragedy is only harbinger of things to come in the weird mess that is Rod Blagojevich’s soap opera.
I can’t even comment on Blago’s response in the aftermath of Kelly’s death, today ruled a suicide by Country Club Hills police.
Country Club Hills police confirmed today that Chris Kelly — a one-time top aide to former Gov. Blagojevich — committed suicide Saturday.
No one else is believed to have been involved in his death.
The political insider, who sources said ingested an “extraordinarily large dose of aspirin,’’ did so in a construction trailer in a lot where he kept construction equipment, police said.
A sleeping bag, photos of his three children, an empty bottle of Aleve, and an unopened box of rat poison were found at the scene near 173rd and Cicero, police said.
How tragic. What a terrible way to go.
And it’s not over. The legacy of Rod Blagojevich is shrouded in the blood of his friends.
[Country Club Hills Police Chief Regina] Evans said the suburb’s investigation has concluded the death “was an apparent suicide” and no one else was involved. “There is no evidence whatsoever of involvement by other persons.”
The chief said a friend of Kelly’s gave police a note that may have been written by Kelly. She stopped short of calling it a suicide note, and declined to describe its contents in deference to Kelly’s family.
Evans described the note as rambling and “personal in nature,” but not addressed to anyone in particular.
She said it hasn’t even been confirmed it was written by Kelly, but the “implication was it may have been.” The note has been sent to the state crime lab for analysis, she said.
What a mess. Thanks, Rod. Continue to argue for your innocence.
But, remember, Rod, the death of Chris Kelly is now your legacy.