Cool Beans SF

A month in the life of the drug war
by Kurt St. Angelo
@2005 Libertarian Writers’ Bureau

Near the end of my Libertarian campaign for Marion County Prosecutor in Indianapolis in 2002, I noted stories by news partners WTHR-TV Channel 13 (NBC) and the Indianapolis Star newspaper that supported my outspoken political position against the war on drugs. There were very few news stories, if any, which did not support my view.

It is my Libertarian view that the drug prohibition policies of Democrats and Republicans are ineffective, wasteful, hypocritical, and destructive. The policies are a leading - if not the leading - cause of crime in America, including violent crimes. As odd as this may seem, Americans overwhelmingly vote for policies that actually promote crime. For example …

The first notation I made was on October 31 when WTHR reported that two suspects were arrested for shooting an Anderson, Indiana police officer in the hand during an armed robbery of a drug store. The thieves stole tens of thousands of dollars in narcotics including hydrocodone and Oxycontin.

Suspect Jack Lankford, who looked to be in his forties, admitted to being a drug addict since he was 15 or 16. That the police wanted to know if the two suspects were tied to a string of drug store heists suggests that they recognize a causal relationship between addiction, prohibition and crime that leaders of both major parties have not been willing to admit.

On November 3, the Star reported that illegal drug exchanges between the elderly is both common and risky - because such illegal drug users are “out of the loop” of doctor protection. Three days later, the Star carried an article about how between 1997 and 2000, doctors prescribed medications to adults that potentially caused 3,750 serious injuries, birth defects and deaths in children under 2 years old. Statistically, this makes drug companies and doctors hundreds of times more dangerous to children than, say, marijuana dealers.

On November 4, Steve Johnson of WTHR presented a report about car theft. He interviewed inmate Shawn Jackson who admitted to stealing cars to support a drug habit. “Every time a thief takes a car in our state it drives up every drivers’ insurance,” Johnson said. Given this, wouldn’t we be smarter to give Jackson the freedom to get drugs cheaply so that he wouldn’t need to steal cars, or as many of them? That’s what we’ve done for decades at methadone treatment centers, with the goal of reducing theft.

On November 5, the Star reported that a woman pleaded guilty to selling her Oxycontin prescriptions. Like heroin and methadone, Oxycontin is an opiate. Some users crush the tablet and swallow, snort or inject the drug for rapid and intense heroin-like highs. Surely this abuse is not rare in the over 7 million OxyContin prescriptions legally filled in the U.S. each year.

On November 8, the Star carried an AP story about seven people charged in drug-weapons plots involving al-Qaida and a Colombian paramilitary group. Without drug prohibition, these groups would get only one-tenth the money for their opium and cocaine than they do today. Prohibition is the best funding mechanism ever devised for terrorists and drug cartels. Ending it, and allowing the free market to address the demand for drugs, is the only responsible alternative.

On November 13, the Star reported that a drug dealer received 25 years for his role in importing drugs to this state. (Contrast this with WTHR’s report on November 23 about a repeat child-molester named George Vance who recently served only nine months.) Despite the success of drug stings, the police cast doubt on whether they can cut the flow of drugs. “Unfortunately, drugs have such a grip that someone else will be (ready to sell them) because there is money to be made,” said the article’s quoted expert.

On November 15, the Star reported that the state police are keeping a list of people within the state who buy painkillers prescribed by doctors. Yet six days later, the paper announced that some of the most addictive prescription drugs on the market are not monitored at all in Indiana. This means that the state is no more protecting us from prescription drug abuse than from the illegal kind. And thanks to our misguided drug policies, only the black market offers medical privacy.

Also on November 15, the Star’s web site carried an interview with Lt. Randall West, 31-year police veteran and head of the Dangerous Drugs Section of the Indianapolis Police Department. Lt. West said almost exactly what I did during my Libertarian campaign for Prosecutor: that “(a)s long as there’s a profit in dealing drugs, we’re pretty much fighting an uphill battle.”

On November 19, the Star reported that one Indianapolis pharmacy filled 120 prescriptions of narcotic OxyContin for Colts’ owner Jim Irsay. The article said that in one 24-day period last spring, Irsay got 400 tablets of the narcotic. This quantity is almost a year’s supply for thousands of other chronic pain-sufferers who needlessly struggle to get their needs met through our present system.

The Libertarian solution to our present drug mess is to treat everyone as if they owned an NFL franchise. Return to people the freedom to treat their own conditions any way they choose - just like rich Americans can now - with strong doses of expert consultation from doctors, pharmacists, nutritionists, and other health professionals. We shouldn’t have to be rich and fly to a foreign country to get our drug needs met. Advancing freedom of choice and self-responsibility, as opposed to governmental control, will improve health, cut costs and save lives.

November 23 was also a big day in drug news. The Star reported 1) that Damen Lake, a felon caught in a high speed car chase, was a crack addict wanted for robbery, 2) that an Indianapolis drug distribution company was fined $350,000 by the DEA because “hundreds of thousands of dosage units of controlled substances, such as hydrocodone and Tylenol with codeine, were missing,” and 3) that a prominent Indianapolis plastic surgeon who supplied Irsay surrendered his federal permit to prescribe narcotics.

I have to hand it to the Indianapolis Star newspaper and WTHR television. Their reporters definitely give us enough information to make good political decisions. Almost without exception, their numerous drug stories in November 2002 factually demonstrate the Libertarian view that drug prohibition cannot succeed and that it does far more harm than good.

I suspect November 2002 is similar in drug news to that of today. I invite you to use your local media to chronicle the destructiveness of our drug policies in your community. If it weren’t for prohibition, there would be fewer drug store heists, car thefts, prescription abuses, car chases, murders, and acts of terrorism. There would be less bad news to report.

The solution is political. It means voting against the political parties that gave us our dysfunctional and destructive drug policies. The ultimate solution is to free everyone from others’ control. That is the meaning of liberty. What are we waiting for?

About the Author

Attorney, screenwriter and Libertarian Party activist in Indianapolis

Yaz is different. At least we are recounted that by the manufacturers of this best-selling contraceptive pill. The reason Yasmin is so contrary is that it fuses the two hormones estrogen and progestin. Estrogen is the crucial part of almost all contraceptive pills presently on the market. It is the progestin part of Yaz that has a potassium sparing diuretic consequence in many patients that leads to Yaz side effects. Elevated potassium levels can lead to the deadly side effects.

In 2008, Yasmin was the top contraceptive pill sold in America. Yasmin has many similar side effects as other birth control pills. However, the FDA claimed that the Yaz commercials downplayed the possible serious side effects. If you are one of millions of women using the contraceptive pill named Yaz, you should be cognisant of the feasible side effects. These Yasmin side effects by no means address every single attainable illness or injury Yasmin may cause; so if you have sustained other symptoms, do not ignore the fact that Yaz may be responsible.

Symptoms or trauma could have occurred while taking Yasmin or within a few weeks after you stop using the oral contraceptive. If your injury leads to gall bladder removal months after stopping use of the product, then you may be worthy for recompense. Yaz side effects should not be taken lightly. Even if you have side effects as small as headaches, they could later turn into migraines. Legal action could mean an individual legal case against the producer of the drug, or against the doctor who urged its use. You also may be suitable for compensation through a class action lawsuit against Bayer Pharmaceuticals.

Because Verizon DSL is a major player in high speed internet, I offer this review. This is strictly a review and in no way meant as an endorsement of Verizon DSL.

Everyone wants DSL service these days. Dial-up is just too slow for the way we use the Internet today. We want our DSL service fast and we want it for a reasonable price. Verizon is just one of many companies that is jumping on the broadband DSL provider bandwagon. There are plenty of advantages with using Verizon DSL. They claim to provide quality service at a very competitive price.

The standard package from Verizon for DSL service includes things like a choice of online services, such as Yahoo and MSN. They offer technical service that is live all the time, they have a standard 30 day guarantee for services, so that if you are not happy with them as your ISP, you can ask for a full refund if it is within thirty days. They also offer you the option of having nine email addresses, so that everyone in the family can have their own. They also give you 10 MB of web space for you to use. All this can be yours for a fairly reasonable price if you choose to sign up for a one-year contract. If you prefer to have a monthly service, it will cost you more per month.

Verizon broadband service has been highly rated in several areas as compared to other ISP providers. The areas that were rated included many different areas, such as cost and billing issues. This is measured by how competitive the prices really are, and that your bill is accurate. How quickly they respond to and fix any billing problems or changes are also part of that category. Another area that is measured includes image. Verizon appears to have a good reputation among ISPs, and represents their services and prices honestly. Their performance and reliability is also considered to be very good. As for customer service, which rates how quickly problems are solved, how friendly and helpful their customer service reps are and the satisfaction of customers, they are considered to be as good as other ISP providers. They are also comparable in their email services, which measures how quickly you can send and receive email. Overall, Verizon appears to be working to provide a good service to their customers and seems to care about making sure that service is one of the best available.

Verizon DSL service offers several different types of plans to choose from. The key is to find the plan that best suits your needs for a price that you can afford. If you think that Verizon is the right company for you, check out their website and find out if they offer DSL service in your area. However, it always makes sense to comparison shop before making a final decision.

About the author:

Bob Hett offers great tips and advice regarding all aspects of DSL Internet
Get the information you are seeking now by visiting http://www.dslinternetcenter.info

It sounds like a side show, doesn’t it? It does to me. But it’s true; researchers have discovered that some varieties of seals really do sing. Indeed, male leopard seals have been heard singing complex melodies in their lonely search for a mate. Likewise, male Weddell seals, which are a very social creature, lure their mate by improvising original melodies the way a master musician would in front of an audience.

Hearing that seals sing really shouldn’t surprise any of us. Music is a central element of life. Walk through the forest at night in the eastern part of the United States and you can’t help but be moved by the symphony of sound that is created when each woodland creature sings its part.

Music moves us, often in ways that we don’t understand. For example who hasn’t been calmed by the sound of quiet singing such as a lullaby? But more than that, who can explain why cows produce more milk and chickens lay more eggs when listening to certain songs like The Blue Danube? I’ve seen many studies that verify that these observations are true, but none that I’ve seen fully explain why.

Fortunately, we don’t really have to understand why singing and music in general is so central to the world we live in to benefit from it. I doubt that Mozart or Beethoven understood it, but we have all benefited from the works of these two masters, both of whom seem to have benefited from listening to the birds sing. As a matter of fact, many people believe that Beethoven actually stole the opening to his Violin Concerto in D, Opus 61 from the song of the European Blackbird! Maybe, maybe not. But we know from Mozart’s own notebooks that he played the last movement of his Piano Concerto in G Major to his pet starling who then sang the passage back to Mozart with revisions that impressed the master. Now that’s singing worth noting!

So sing already! Join all of God’s creatures in singing and making melody. In the animal kingdom that singing comes in all forms so there’s no reason that any of us can’t join in. We might as well, the more we learn of the world around us, the more we learn that singing and making music is central to life.

If seals can sing, so can you!

About the author:

Duane Shinn is the author of over 500 music books for adults. His book-CD-DVD course titled “How To Play Chord Piano In Ten Days!” has sold over 100,000 copies around the world. He is the author of the popular free 101-week online e-mail newsletter titled “Amazing Secrets Of Exciting Piano Chords & Sizzling Chord Progressions” with over 57,400 current subscribers.

Malignant mesothelioma is a unusual and aggressive growth where no effective therapy exists even with the finding of many potential molecular targets. The final stages of MPM diagnosis and the long time that exists connects contacts and diagnosis have made it hard to comprehensively study the role of risk factors and their downstream molecular effects.

Quite a few health centres are now seeing an increasing amount of people that are suffering from mesothelioma cancer. Because of this, pathologists studying the case are given a number of problems, that are separated into those encountered in finding the differences between mesothelioma and benign changes and those seen in differentiating malignant mesotheliomas from other forms of epithelial and connecting tissue tumors. Immunohistochemistry is a major factor in diagnosis, but it should be understood with regards to the scientific setting and radiological characteristics, and taking into consideration the extensive morphological variations seen in malignant mesothelioma.

Cancer of the mesothelium is a cancer affecting the serosal cavities, an anatomic area that is frequently affected by mets, predominantly from primary carcinomas of the lung, breast, and ovary. Advances in immunohistochemistry have caused an improvement in diagnostic sensitivity and between metastatic adenocarcinoma and {malignant mesothelioma in regards to histological and cytological material. As of late, the authors group applied high throughput technology to the classification of new markers that may aid in being able to tell the difference between malignant mesothelioma from cancer in the peritoneum and ovaries, tumors cells that contain closely related histogenesis and antigenic profile. In addition to the better tools available for cancer of the serosa diagnosis, understanding the biology of malignant mesothelioma has accumulate in recent years.