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What Getting Carded for Sudafed Says About the Drug War

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If you’re coming down with a cold this winter and you stop by the local pharmacy to pick up some pseudoephedrine (commonly sold as Sudafed), you will get carded, but it has nothing to do with age. Pseudoephedrine is a key ingredient in methamphetamine. And since 2006, pharmacies have been carding cold sufferers to track their purchases and ensure they do not buy more pseudoephedrine than is legally allowed (3.6 grams per day or 9 grams per month).

The law, however, has done more to inconvenience chronic cold sufferers than curb methamphetamine abuse.   [Read more…]

Is Organic Food Really Organic?

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Food labeled and sold as organic often isn’t

In an article entitled “Canada’s Organic Nightmare” put out by the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, authors Mischa Popoff and Patrick Moore contend that many foods labeled as USDA organic may not actually be up to that standard because there is a lack of field testing in Canada, and, furthermore, free trade agreements allow the importation of such foods into the US. There are also “organic equivalency” agreements with other countries that allow imported organic food to be considered as equivalent to that grown in Canada. Popoff and Moore contend that organic crops and livestock are not tested in Canada before they are certified thus making certification essentially meaningless. Inspections consist of checking out the records at organic farms to see if the paperwork is in order, but the actual products are not tested making it more likely that the records could be falsified.   [Read more…]

San Diego’s Victory Pharmaceuticals Implicated in Fraudulent Kickback Scheme

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The Washington Post reported on Dec. 27, 2012, that Victory Pharmaceuticals, headquartered in San Diego, was forced to pay $11.4 million to resolve Federal, civil and criminal liabilities related to kickbacks to doctors in return for prescribing their drugs. Victory is a privately held company, founded in 2003, and is focused on acquiring, developing and marketing products to treat pain and related conditions. As it turns out, part of the marketing strategy was to offer kickbacks to doctors in return for prescribing its products.

The kickbacks included tickets to professional and collegiate sporting events, tickets to concerts and plays, spa outings, golf and ski outings, dinners at expensive restaurants, giving a doctor money to help make a house payment, paying for a doctor’s staff’s outing to a strip club, including “lap dances” for the female staff and offering a doctor and his staff an all-expense paid trip to Las Vegas. A former sales representative for Victory, Chad Miller, blew the whistle on them and received $1.7 million for his efforts.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line(ish): Gun Porn Edition

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NRA’s Wayne LaPierre proves that yes, he is crazy; SDG&E efforts to pass 2007 wildfire costs to customers thwarted (for now); UCSD Med Students pledge funds for free clinics; #18/15 Aztecs roll to finals of Diamond Head Classic

As if last Friday’s press conference—in which he fielded no questions—wasn’t bad/damaging enough, National Gun Fetish Association (otherwise known as the NRA) chief Wayne LaPierre took to the airwaves again on Sunday morning to plead his and his organization’s case…..or to further prove how absolutely batshit crazy he is. It’s hard to tell exactly which.

  [Read more…]

The Best Year of My Life; Thank You

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Hey gang.

As you read this, I’m in New Orleans. It’s gonna be a rajun’ Cajun Christmas for this columnist.

That means I’ll be excused from writing the Starting Line five days a week for the rest of this year. Having knocked out a couple of hundred columns in 2012, I’m ready to relax. Recharge. And visit a place that, for all my traveling, I’ve never been to before.

Some folks like to wrap up the year by listing the “top stories” for the proceeding twelve months. I’d like to take a different approach today …   [Read more…]

Is the Political Tide Turning … for the Oceans and the Environment?

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By David Helvarg / Blue Notes / December 17, 2012

We just had an election in which the public seemed to see the need for larger changes in society. And of course changes of any kind tend to come in waves. Along with the emergence of a new demographic profile of the U.S. electorate we saw people in a number of states voting for Gay marriage equality, legalized use of marijuana and in California, a tax increase to help save public education.

At the same time Super Storm Sandy’s impact on the shore put climate change front and center on the public policy agenda for any politician willing to take the heat from the fossil fuel industry. Unfortunately, while average people may be open to big changes the two party political system has become far more polarized and incremental than it once was. That’s why the keystone laws that protect America’s oceans like the Clean Water Act, Marine Mammal Protection Act, Coastal Zone Management Act and others are now close to middle age. The Clean Water Act is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.   [Read more…]

Sex In San Diego: When Religious Rules Trump Science

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By Sarah Seltzer / Alternet

Savita Halappanavar, who died in Ireland after being denied a pregnancy termination, was a young wife eager to have more children when she learned that her pregnancy went wrong.

A Hindu, she organized celebrations for her expat community in Galway, one of Catholic Ireland’s more liberal cities.

Even as she begged the hospital to abort her doomed pregnancy, suffering and in horrible pain, they refused to do so until the fetal “heartbeat” faded away, telling her, “this is a Catholic country.”   [Read more…]

“Covered California” Health Benefit Exchange Wraps Up Productive Year

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by Linda Leu/California Progress Report

The Board of Directors of Covered California, the state’s new Health Benefit Exchange, met yesterday in Sacramento to continue its work implementing a reformed healthcare market in compliance with the federal Affordable Care Act of 2010. The 15th and final Board meeting of 2012 wrapped up a productive year with little sign of slowing down as we race toward the January 1, 2014 mandate.

In his Executive Director’s Report, Peter Lee reported that Covered California has had positive conversations with the federal government related to the state’s Exchange Establishment grant request submitted last month. Covered California staff also reported on the progress of the development of the IT system, the California Healthcare Eligibility, Enrollment and Retention System (CalHEERS), and the Service Center. Regarding the establishment of Stakeholder Advisory Groups, Lee announced that the list of those chosen to serve on these groups will be announced on Friday.   [Read more…]

Thinking the Unthinkable: ‘I Am Adam Lanza’s Mother’

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By Liza Long
Three days before 20 year-old Adam Lanza killed his mother, then opened fire on a classroom full of Connecticut kindergartners, my 13-year old son Michael (name changed) missed his bus because he was wearing the wrong color pants.

“I can wear these pants,” he said, his tone increasingly belligerent, the black-hole pupils of his eyes swallowing the blue irises.

“They are navy blue,” I told him. “Your school’s dress code says black or khaki pants only.”

“They told me I could wear these,” he insisted. “You’re a stupid bitch. I can wear whatever pants I want to. This is America. I have rights!”

“You can’t wear whatever pants you want to,” I said, my tone affable, reasonable. “And you definitely cannot call me a stupid bitch. You’re grounded from electronics for the rest of the day. Now get in the car, and I will take you to school.”

I live with a son who is mentally ill. I love my son. But he terrifies me.   [Read more…]

In the Wake of Another Mass Shooting, Let’s Talk About America’s Dangerously Gutted Mental Healthcare System

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By Lynn Stuart Parramore / Alternet

The scene has replayed itself over and over — in Tucson, at Virginia Tech, at Columbine. On Friday in Connecticut, another unstable man has taken innocent lives in a burst of terrifying violence.

Inadequate gun control is only one half of the story. The other is the shameful job America does of treating the mentally ill. Today, 45 million American adults suffer from mental illness. Eleven million of those cases are considered serious. Most of these people are not dangerous, but if they can’t get treatment, the odds of potential violence increase.   [Read more…]

Revealed: What the Beef Industry Pumps Into Your Dinner

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If acclaimed authors Upton Sinclair (The Jungle), Jeremy Rifkin (Beyond Beef) and John Robbins (Diet for a New America) haven’t given you enough reasons over the last century to be wary of the meat industry, then a year-long investigation by the Kansas City Star may do the trick.

Mike McGraw kicks off the KC Star’s investigative series by introducing Margaret Lamkin, who has been forced to wear a colostomy bag for the rest of her life, after a medium-rare steak she ordered three years ago at Applebee’s was contaminated with a pathogen. The resulting illness destroyed her colon.

Of course we already know about E. coli and other food-borne pathogens; people have gotten sick from everything from spinach to peanut butter. But the news here is that what sickened Lamkin wasn’t just the meat, but a process the industry uses to tenderize it.   [Read more…]

Walking the Picket Line at Grossmont Hospital

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By Nadin Abbott

Imagine, if you will, making $9.01/hour, being head of household, and having to pay $118.88 per pay period for your health insurance. Assuming you work forty hours, before payroll deduction, that is $$720.80 every fifteen days. This is the situation right now at Grossmont Hospital in La Mesa, where employees working for Sodexo Corporation, the subcontractor for dietary, housekeeping, clerical and Engineering services are negotiating a new three year contract.

What is the company offering? According to Housekeeping Shop Steward Alex Burstein “Sodexo is being difficult” and are holding at keeping salary increases at 2.25% over a three year period. This is not even a cost of living increase. When pay averages at $9.09/ Hour these workers have a difficult time making rent, let alone paying bills, or buying food.   [Read more…]

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