Thursday, September 23, 2010

The Failure Of Drug Policy

Cato Institute's New Podcast

Law enforcement is having a hard time fighting the war on drugs.
It has become a bloody,violent and senseless mess.

The Podcast I linked to features a law enforcement officer who thinks when the"war fails,it's time to bring the troops home".

The war on drugs isn't what we think it is.

T-Mobile And Text Censorship

Text Message Censorship

Such approval is necessary, T-Mobile added, “to protect the carrier and its customers from potentially illegal, fraudulent, or offensive marketing campaigns conducted on its network.”
It’s the first federal case testing whether wireless providers may block text messages they don’t like.


I'm pretty sure this is less about t mobile's not liking the texts and more about who they are from.

After all if a legal  medical marijuana dispensary wants to use your phone service they shouldn't be able to after all where do we think we are America?

I know I am oversimplifying the whole story but the link at the top of this from Wired explains it in much better detail.

LOL!

A great post today on Jredheadgirl 's blog .
A funny and ironic look at The World Health Organization.
It does seem like they don't have their priorities in order doesn't it?

Obesity

Obesity And The Gender Gap
 The study found that obese women were paid lower wages than their normal-weighted counterparts, while obese men did not suffer any salary loss as a result of their belt size.
How fucking pathetic.
Other than that I have no good comments on the new epidemic raging right now.

I know you have all seen it.
It's everywhere,it's the if it looks healthy it must be healthy epidemic and it's racing round the world.

My vision of the future gets dimmer and dimmer every day.
It's depressing that we don't like seeing a fat woman so it's o.k. to pay her less.

Watch out they came for the smoker's first,now it seems everyone is fair game.

Finland Taxing Chocolate

Finland To Tax Chocolate

And the reason for the return of the cocoa tax? It's seemingly got nothing to do with health concerns; "the aim is to increase the revenues from taxes, particularly in order to cover the gap caused by the abolition of the employer contributions to the basic pension insurance scheme," Helsingin says.

Hell I'm just impressed it isn't over "health concerns".

Whoops!

Oopsie

Why does a ten dollar pill get a four hundred ninety dollar markup?
Massive screwup

A doctor emails a drug rep to ask why pills are so expensive.
They get this in return.
Whoops!

Now you know why prescription drugs cost so much.

Pathetic.

Why I Signed The Vienna Declaration

Did You Know The War On Drugs Edition

The Vienna Declaration is a statement calling for the incorporation of scientific evidence into illicit drug policies. Research shows that an over reliance on drug law enforcement has resulted in overwhelmingly negative health and social consequences, yet law enforcement continues to be the dominant policy approach adopted by policymakers, at the expense of more effective public health interventions.
Prohibition doesn't work.
It didn't work with alcohol ,it won't work with tobacco and it certainly isn't working with drugs.

I don't do any drugs except for nicotine and caffeine but even I can see the war on drugs is a huge failure from any way I choose to look at it.

As a society we may have to choose to accept that drug use has been with us since we evolved and it will continue to be with us until we are extinct.
It doesn't mean we ignore it  but it might mean that we have to stop criminalizing what other people do.

There is another way.

Reading The Science Based Medicine Blog

Your Disease Your Fault
Not everyone has “the opportunity for a non-drug recovery”.  As physicians, our job is to use the best available evidence to help all of our patients.  It is not to dispense false promises, fake science, and a heaping portion of blame to those who don’t do everything we tell them to.

I haven't read alot of this blog but what I have read so far I have really enjoyed.
It seems odd to me that there are doctors out there who aren't so quick to slam people for their lifestyles.

Doctors in general seem so quick to tell you that whatever is wrong with you is because of something you have done to yourself,so this blog so far has been a refreshing read.

I'm sure eventually they will write something that upsets me,but so far that hasn't been the case.

Useless Rambling

World Action On Salt And Health


Although I understand the idea behind it,I really feel like we are starting down the same old road.
You remember the one?
Where every single thing we did was oh so reasonably explained away?


Where we got told no about smoking inside a fucking bar or a restaurant or a shopping mall or on a plane?
And we said O.K.,I understand non smoker's might not like it?
And it might be dangerous?
It might hurt innocent people?


That link scares the ever loving shit out of me for a whole slew of reasons.


Not the least of which is that soon we will all fucking live forever in a miserable stepford wife sort of exsistence,conforming and becoming exactly what they want us to be.


No more dancing,you might hurt yourself,think of the medical bills!
No more anything,now take your medically prescribed pills and eat your unsalted diet and exercise the proper amount every single day.
There's a good citizen.


I know I'm rambling but this is what this blog is for,for me to get this out of my system,so sorry for all the useless shit.