Is Your Food Fit to Eat? [Op-Ed]

In several U.S. states you may be held criminally or civilly liable for anything you say or write that disparages food products.  These laws interfere with your ability to sufficiently hear from health, safety, and ethical advocates about whether or not certain foods are suitable for consumption regardless of where you actually live.

These laws have had a chilling effect on the ability of individuals and groups to speak out on the quality of manufacturers and providers of food products and in my opinion, ought to be repealed.

If you do eat food of a dubious quality or source, I encourage you to stop eating that food until you are able to gather a satisfactory amount of information about it.  If you are not able to find out how it was created, produced, or prepared for eating, you might want to think twice about why you think it's o.k. to ingest it.

States with Food Libel laws on the books:  http://www.cspinet.org/foodspeak/laws/existlaw.htm
More info on Food Libel laws:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_libel_laws

Review of "Honor thy Daughter" - Book About Psychedelic Therapy for People with Cancer

I haven't read this book myself, but the review sounds really good:  http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/05/19/prweb8456488.DTL

The author is Marilyn Howell, EdD. She was trained as a biologist and earned a doctorate in education from Harvard University. She taught at Brookline High School for three decades, during which time she created and developed the first Mind/Body course in public education.

Her book, Honor Thy Daughter, can be found here: www.honorthydaughter.com

Why and How to Include People with Developmental Disabilities in your Volunteer Program

From the Family Support Center on Disabilities: Knowledge & Involvement Network (http://familysupportclearinghouse.org/)

Volunteering is a great way to become part of a community. This article has lots of information about including individuals with disabilities in volunteer opportunities. It includes arguments for why it is important to do this and how to do it, as well as information on disabling conditions and accommodations.

For more information go to ttp://www.serviceleader.org/instructors/studentpaper9

Alternative Views on Addiction and Recovery

I thought that this article about Dr. Stanton Peele might be worth posting to show that now everyone agrees on what addiction is and how to address it.  http://www.thefix.com/content/heretic

Designer Mescaline Linked to Hospitalizations and Deaths in Minneapolis and Oklahoma

The Mescaline-like designer drug 2C-E, which was originally synthesized by the founder of Ecstasy (MDMA), has been linked to serious illnesses and two deaths.

Source:  http://www.thefix.com/content/tainted-batch-designer-mescaline-linked-deaths

The Trouble with Anecdotal Evidence...

This may seem obvious, and I'm certainly getting to the point in my life where a lot of things generally bother me, but I do need to say for the record...

The trouble with anecdotal evidence is that we are mired in it as a society and as individuals and most of us don't care.

Anecdotal evidence includes any personal story or evidence which cannot be independently verified or tested.  It is an example of bad or psuedo-science, but that's another matter entirely.

My goal in this post is not to contest belief systems such as religion or mythology.  These are important social institutions that have their own merits.  Rather, my goal is to challenge the notion (yours, mine, everyone's) that a single success story or milestone reflects anything beyond the simple fact that one thing might have happened and that it might happen again to one degree or another.  Nothing more.

Please, let's get away from placing our beliefs about the world based upon simple anecdotes.  If you want to believe something, believe in science or magic or religion or aliens.  The lowest threshold for believing something about anything should be an anecdote.

Related story:  Man eats 25,000 Big Macs and has good health/low cholesterol   - Also, here's an analysis that provides more information about this story: http://180degreehealth.blogspot.com/2010/03/don-gorske-big-mac-prediction.html (I won't argue or agree with either article as there's not enough to go on)

More about anecdotal evidence: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anecdotal_evidence

Drug Testing for Welfare Recipients

Due to the fact that welfare and other public benefits recipients are no more likely to be drug users than the population at large, why are a number of states considering imposing drug tests to those beneficiaries?

Some other questions come to mind:

What are the unintended consequences of such a law? What happens to people when they lose the safety net when they already are struggling with substance abuse issues. 

What is the evidence of welfare benefits being squandered on drug use? How serious of a problem is it? 

Why is drug use the target and not other social harms such as gambling, distracted driving, alcohol use, or smoking?

Isn't drug use already proscribed for welfare recipients? For example, if you are convicted of a drug related crime you may lose your benefits. 

What is the actual projected cost-benefit-analysis of the implementation of these laws?

If anyone out there really thinks that cutting benefits for low-income people is a good policy idea, and not just a way to make political points with voters, I would like to hear why.

More reading: http://www.thefix.com/content/gop-goes-crazy-drug-testing

Possible Reasons Why Big Pharma Does Not Want to Research Psychedelics

"Psychedelics cannot be patented and are meant only to be taken in small doses."

Article: http://www.miller-mccune.com/science/researchers-re-open-their-minds-to-psychedelic-drugs-30921/

New Study Suggests that Alcohol and Drug Use can Reinforce Certain Types of Memory

The Waggoner Center for the Study of Alcohol and Addiction Research has found evidence suggesting that alcohol use can actually improve our subconscious memory to the point that we really do want to recreate the situations and feelings we experienced at the time of use.

When we drink alcohol (or shoot up heroin, or snort cocaine, or take methamphetamines), our subconscious is learning to consume more. But it doesn't stop there. We become more receptive to forming subsconscious memories and habits with respect to food, music, even people and social situations.

Source:  Science Daily http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/04/110412101627.htm