From 1839 to 1842, the British attacked China over the Chinese government's decision to ban opium. The French joined the fray between 1856 and 1860. The military superiority of the Western powers resulted in the legalization of opium in China. Karma – in the form of China's payback to the Western powers – is a bitch.
Policy & Ethics
Methadone has been known to be an effective treatment for opioid addiction and dependency since the 1960s. Unfortunately, in this country, since 1972, the federal government segregates people with opioid use disorder from people with other health conditions that doctors treat in their offices by requiring them to travel miles each day to take a daily dose of methadone at government-approved clinics. Congress may soon undertake the first serious reform in how people get methadone in more than a half-century.
The Uniform Law Commission is an aggregation of 350 state-appointed commissioners who provide “states with non-partisan, well-conceived and well-drafted legislation that brings clarity and stability to critical areas of state statutory law.” In 1980, it drafted the medico-legal criteria for death, which were adopted by most states. In July, the Commission failed to reach a consensus on how to update a 43-year-old legal standard.
The classic ethical dilemma for autonomous driving is the "trolley problem." It's a binary choice of intentionally killing one person to avoid the deaths of multiple individuals – or yourself – while driving. But should this dramatic “edge case” be the model for autonomous vehicles’ decision-making? A group of researchers argue that more mundane driving scenarios would be better.
Was Derek Chauvin's use of force against George Floyd justified? The former police officer's attorney said yes, pointing to a controversial syndrome known as "excited delirium" to explain Floyd's frenzied behavior while in custody. Does this defense withstand scientific scrutiny? Meanwhile, 10,000 steps: it's a magic threshold often used to pinpoint fitness, but there's little evidence behind this popular idea.
In last week’s “Red State/Blue State” square-off between the governors of Florida and California, CA's Gavin Newsom touted his state’s lower per-capita overdose death rate. It might have to do with how the different states compare on harm reduction.
The recent meeting between President Biden and China's President Xi Jinping delved into the U.S. fentanyl crisis, centering on the export of fentanyl chemical precursors from China to Mexico, where they are converted into fentanyl. However, there is an inherent challenge in restricting precursor chemicals. A minimally trained organic chemist can either make them or simply use a different, unrestricted chemical. Thus, any international agreement designed to minimize fentanyl by restricting precursors is likely to fail, defeated by organic chemistry.
An email from Dr. Kan Shao, a professor at Indiana University School of Public Health, states that EPA’s current version of Benchmark Dose Software modeling is “extremely misleading and not scientifically justified.” It is very unusual for a scientist who has been deeply involved with the EPA in developing risk assessment modeling to openly criticize the EPA. This requires a deeper dive into this issue.
Exactly 10 years ago -December 2, 2013 - my first-ever published opinion piece about the erosion of pain control appeared in The New York Post. It was titled "New painful casualties of the drug war" and was written three years before the CDC's formal declaration of war on pain patients. It is frightening to look back a decade and see how much of this has come true. Plus much worse. Here is the article from the Post opinion page.
Politicians fail to understand that "gain of function" research on microorganisms can enhance public health preparedness.
In this radio conversation, Lars Larson and I discuss his concerns about the testing and approval process for new drugs and medical procedures in the United States.
If you need further evidence that politicians don't understand the fentanyl crisis they helped to create, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) has you covered. Meanwhile, we already sell some body fluids in select circumstances; will the day come when we sell body parts to the highest bidder?