CLibertyC

Why the ‘War on Drugs’ has been made redundant

"Professional but clandestine labs are rifling the scientific literature for new psychoactive drugs and synthesising them as fast as the law changes. Despite the free availability of substances as pleasurable as already banned drugs, we have not seen a massive increase in problem users and drug mortality rates have been falling. Even with the newly introduced 'instant bans', drug laws are simply not able to keep up. It has long been clear that the drug war approach of criminalising possession rather than treating problem drug-users has been futile. The war on drugs has not been lost, it has been made obsolete." Continue reading →

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Down With the Supremes

"The United States Supreme Court made a serious and harmful blunder in its decision in Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc. Their first holding was that a gene or portion of a gene extracted as a strand of DNA from a genome is not an invention, but something found in nature, and thus not patentable. So far, so good. Unfortunately, they erred in reaching their second holding, that a strand of cDNA, which is derived by a different process, and contains only a single gene, is patentable. This means that genes do, despite the headlines, remain patentable." Continue reading →

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Something’s not all right with Medicare

"What could possibly be so powerful that it threatens the viability of the largest revamping of health care in half a century? It’s the amount of money Medicare pays doctors for services rendered. Next year the ACA mandates that the reimbursement rate for doctors’ services be cut by 24.7 percent. If that happens without a hitch — without the first Million-Doctor March on Washington or doctors forming a union as tough as the Teamsters — the health-care cost savings envisioned by the ACA may actually come to pass because doctors will either be working for less money from Medicare or they will have said goodbye and good luck to their Medicare patients." Continue reading →

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Supreme Court rules generic drug makers cannot be held liable for defects

"The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday that makers of generic drugs already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cannot be held liable under state law for claims of design defects. In a 5-4 vote, the court ruled for Mutual Pharmaceutical Co, a unit of URL Pharma, owned by Sun Pharmaceutical Industries." Continue reading →

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Washington state pot regulators favor outdoor growth for environmental reasons

"The regulatory board overseeing marijuana legalization in Washington State is leaning toward allowing licensed growers to raise the drug outdoors, citing the much higher carbon footprint of indoor and greenhouse cultivation, board members said. The shift on cultivation rules underscores the degree to which the Washington State board is taking public feedback to heart, Chairwoman Sharon Foster said, and comes after the Seattle Times cited a 2012 study published in the journal Energy Policy saying that a kilogram of cannabis grown indoors requires the same amount of energy as 11 cross-country car trips." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWashington state pot regulators favor outdoor growth for environmental reasons

CA Medical Marijuana Dispensary Numbers Shrink in Two-Pronged War of Attrition

"Anyone who is following the situation in the Golden State at all closely has seen a numbing litany of reports of dispensaries forced out of business, including from some of the most venerable, respected, and law-abiding operations in the state. What had been the occasional raid or prosecution by the DEA or federal prosecutors during the early years of the Obama administration has turned into a heightened onslaught since the issuance of the notorious Cole memo, written by Assistant Attorney General James Cole, two years ago next week and the announcement by California's four US Attorneys that fall that they were declaring open season on dispensaries." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCA Medical Marijuana Dispensary Numbers Shrink in Two-Pronged War of Attrition

Tobacco Speakeasy: Prohibition Lite Is Making RYO Cigarettes All the Rage

"A month ago, I was sitting with some college students for lunch. After we ate, two of them took out loose-leaf tobacco and rolling papers, with filters and all. They started rolling cigarettes at the table. In some way, it looked more like poverty than a charming anachronism. Puzzled, I asked why they were doing this. The answer was what I feared: Thanks to taxes, no student can really afford pre-rolled cigarettes anymore. You can avoid those taxes by rolling your own for a fraction of the price. And so it has come to be. Students are equipping dorm rooms with rolling machines. Kids carry pouches and filters. It strikes me as very strange, like a reversal of time." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingTobacco Speakeasy: Prohibition Lite Is Making RYO Cigarettes All the Rage

The War on Asparagus

"American asparagus farms were worth just over $233 million in 1999. A decade later, those farms (or, those which still existed, as the farm sizes fell by two-thirds over that same decade) were worth just under $90 million. The drop off is stark, but it’s not because of a lack of demand from American consumers. In the 1990s, the United States started paying Peruvian farmers to grow asparagus, hoping they’d forgo growing coca (the plant used to make cocaine) and instead grow the totally legal vegetable. In 2004, the New York Times estimated that the cost of this program ran the United States around $60 million per year. The effect: a lot of cheaper-than-typical asparagus." Continue reading →

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Italy bans sale of electronic cigarettes to minors

"Italy banned the sale of electronic cigarettes containing nicotine to minors on Thursday and forbid their use in schools, amid criticism from a consumer watchdog that the move did not go far enough. Italian consumer association Codacons criticised the new law as 'utterly insufficient'. 'E-cigarettes should be banned in all public places, just like normal cigarettes. It’s not clear why the ministry believes they are dangerous, and therefore should be banned in schools, but not in other places open to the public,' Codacons president Carlo Rienzi said." Continue reading →

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European Union ministers back ban on menthol cigarettes

"European Union health ministers on Friday approved plans to ban menthol and other flavoured cigarettes as part of a crackdown on youth smoking. The proposed legislation must now be voted on by the European parliament. Irish Health Minister James Reilly, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, said it was a 'a huge step forward in the fight against tobacco use'. EU Health Commissioner Tonio Borg, himself a former smoker, said he believed the ban could be in place within three years. They also agreed to force tobacco companies to cover 65 percent of cigarette packets with health warnings and gruesome pictures." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingEuropean Union ministers back ban on menthol cigarettes