An interesting item crossed my desk today. Michigan comes to market with transportation refunding deal This appears to be a PR attempt by the Governor that Michigan can borrow (via bonds) and nothing will change in consideration of the fact that the Governor Snyder and his emergency manager, Kevin Orr have included guaranteed bonds by the city …
"For 29 years, I have defended clients facing marijuana charges in the District. At every initial appearance, without fail, the judge admonishes the defendant either to stay in school or to hold down a job. But most employers in this town will not hire entry-level workers who do not have a police clearance. What crime is increasingly tripping up those looking for work? Possession of marijuana. In 1995, police in the District arrested about 1,850 people for having pot. By 2011, the number had skyrocketed to more than 6,000. There are twice as many marijuana arrests in the District as there are students graduating from D.C. high schools each year." Continue reading →
"Police in Arlington, Texas are being criticized for their tactics during a drug raid on a local farm that came up empty while allegedly damaging both the property and the crops. Several residents at the 'Garden of Eden' sustainability garden were handcuffed at gunpoint by officers during the Aug. 2 raid, which also involved a SWAT team, after an undercover officer and helicopter surveillance allegedly gave authorities probable cause to believe there was marijuana being grown on the premises. 'They came here under the guise that we were doing a drug trafficking, marijuana-growing operation,' owner Shellie Smith told WFAA-TV. 'They destroyed everything.'" Continue reading →
"For a law-abiding Casper resident with impaired vision and glaucoma, it proved a tough decision: Take expensive legal medicine, with the side effects, or use marijuana and risk imprisonment. 'It’s a real frustrating thing – do you want to risk your freedom or do you want to lose your vision?' He said. 'It’s not a choice you should have to make.' He’s not the only one to make that choice. After a motorcycle accident in 1997 shattered his pelvis and crushed his left leg from the knee down, Charlie Lake underwent 13 surgeries that left him in chronic pain. Lake said [opiate addiction] caused 'mental anguish' and other health problems until he began using marijuana." Continue reading →
"CFR Senior Fellow for Global Health Laurie Garrett writes, 'Like the SARS virus, MERS ravages the lungs of infected people, causing pneumonia and acute respiratory distress. …But unlike SARS, it also attacks the kidneys, causing renal failure.' 'There is no cure, rapid diagnostic test, or vaccine for MERS-CoV,' Garrett adds. But the ability to develop a treatment for the epidemic is being impeded by a concept known as 'viral sovereignty' – the idea that deadly viruses are the property of sovereign nations." Continue reading →
"One doesn’t often think of cancer cells themselves being vulnerable to infections, but a team of scientists in Ottawa, Ontario is using advanced mathematical modeling to engineer viruses that will infect and destroy cancer cells. The team uses predictive modeling to investigate how treatment techniques and genetic modification might allow cancer-killing (oncolytic) viruses to overcome cancer cells’ anti-infection defenses and kill them. Kaern and Bell constructed a mathematical model of the process of infection of a cancer cell with an oncolytic virus, including how the virus would replicate, spread itself and override the cancer’s biological defenses." Continue reading →
"The use of Cannabis for medicinal purposes dates back at least 3,000 years. It came into use in Western medicine in the 19th century and was said to relieve pain, inflammation, spasms, and convulsions. Studies in mice and rats have shown that cannabinoids may inhibit tumor growth by causing cell death, blocking cell growth, and blocking the development of blood vessels needed by tumors to grow. Laboratory and animal studies have shown that cannabinoids may be able to kill cancer cells while protecting normal cells." Continue reading →
"A new study conducted by the the Catholic University of Korea, College of Medicine, and published in the journal Anticancer Research, has found promising evidence that THC may be the best medicine available to treat stomach cancer, especially when traditional medicine has been ineffective. During the study researchers used cancer cells that were resistant to chemotherapy, and dosed the cells with a synthetic form of delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Researchers noted a drastic reduction in the survival rate of the cells that were exposed to the synthetic THC. Larger doses of THC led to higher rates of cancer cell death." Continue reading →
"Researchers at the University College London announced Sunday in a study published by the journal Nature Cell Biology that they’ve observed for the first time ever how cancer spreads throughout the body and metastasizes, which causes about 90 percent of all cancer deaths. Meanwhile, another major breakthrough in recent days should give hope to breast cancer patients. Scientists at the Duke Cancer Institute announced on Saturday that a drug already on the market in Europe, approved to treat osteoporosis, has the added benefit of stopping late-stage breast cancer growth in its tracks." Continue reading →
"After progress in a second round of tests using stem cells to regrow nerve fibres, the China Spinal Cord Injury Network (ChinaSCINet) has applied for regulatory approval in China for a third and final phase, which it hopes to start in the autumn. 15 out of 20 patients in the Chinese city of Kunming, who received umbilical cord blood cell transplants and intensive walking therapy, were on average able to walk with minimal assistance seven years after complete spinal cord injury. The treatment involves injecting umbilical cord blood mononuclear cells into patients’ damaged spines to help regenerate nerves, while lithium is used to promote the growth of the nerve fibres." Continue reading →