...no shit Sherlock!
Showing posts with label prohibition. Show all posts
Showing posts with label prohibition. Show all posts
Thursday, November 16, 2023
Tuesday, August 15, 2023
Sunday, April 23, 2023
2023 Prohibition Party National Convention
Prohibition Party
@ProhibitionUS
We are getting closer to the 2023 Prohibition Party National Convention. The convention will be held on May 8-9, at the Holiday Inn Express and Suites Buffalo-Airport, in the Buffalo, New York area. At the convention, the party will select its 2024 presidential ticket.
9:32 PM · Apr 23, 2023
Sunday, July 31, 2022
"Little evidence that chemical imbalance causes depression"
"A recent study calling into question the long-held theory that depression results from a chemical imbalance in the brain is gaining traction on the far right, with some using it to argue that pharmaceutical companies are plying millions of people with useless antidepressants."
That's the opening paragraph from HuffPo's piece on the study. Political seething aside, it reads like a pharma shill mad that their income is about to be cut. As for the study itself the lead author had this to say
“Thousands of people suffer from side-effects of antidepressants, including the severe withdrawal effects that can occur when people try to stop them, yet prescription rates continue to rise. We believe this situation has been driven partly by the false belief that depression is due to a chemical imbalance. It is high time to inform the public that this belief is not grounded in science.”
"Prescription rates continue to rise". That is the primary issue. With antidepressants Pharma sees dollar signs, human cost be damned. The HuffPo article evens mentions the "frightening side effects for teens, including increased suicidal ideation and violence". But Pharma doesn't care. It just sees another opportunity to make more money. More drugs to treat the side effects of antidepressants. More drugs to treat the side effects of those drugs and so on.
The HuffPo article quotes Mehmet Oz in 2012 as saying "that antidepressants are used like painkillers when they shouldn’t be" and they treat this statement like some grave sin. From the Guardian:
“We do not understand what antidepressants are doing to the brain exactly, and giving people this sort of misinformation prevents them from making an informed decision about whether to take antidepressants or not.”
Questioning whether even short term prescription drug use, especially when you admit you have no idea how that drug supposedly works, could have unforeseen long term or permanent consequences should not be controversial. The Guardian article hits on another point:
"Other studies looked at the effects of stressful life events and found that the more stressful life events a person had experienced, the more likely they were to be depressed, showing the importance of external events."
From my own personal experience the stress of college drove me to the point of suicidal ideation. Graduating and being removed from that situation went a long way in solving my issues. The modern lifestyle is a crime against nature. So many people only consume water in the form of soda and energy drinks. The only vegetables they eat are in the form of tomato sauce on a pizza or seasoning on fried chicken. They no longer get fresh air and sunshine. I've mentioned before how my former dermatologist tried for years to get me hooked on Accutane, never once telling to lose weight, change my diet, or anything else that didn't involve a prescription, just switching between antibiotics and topical creams. It's no surprise that people this far removed from their natural environment should be depressed. The cure can't be purchased. It must be learned and it must come from within.
Saturday, May 7, 2022
The Alcohol Industry and Their Lies
"The alcohol industry falsely claims that their business helps the nation’s economy, in an attempt to justify the sale of their harmful products. When in reality they harm the economy. Our nation spends more money each year dealing with the social, medical, and economic damages caused by alcohol use than the alcohol industry makes in sales.
The alcohol industry claims that their businesses will bring in tax revenue. In reality, the federal, state, and local governments spend far more money dealing with the problems caused by alcohol than they ever receive in taxes, and most of those costs end up being paid for by higher taxes on the rest of us.
The alcohol industry claims that it brings business to communities. In reality, their business siphons consumer money away from honest businesses, damages workforce productivity, fosters increased violence and crime in neighborhoods, and in many other ways contributes to an environment that is less suitable for most other businesses to operate. Alcohol businesses grow by sucking the life and vitality out of the communities in which they reside.
The alcohol industry promotes habitual alcohol use, increased alcohol use, and addiction, so that it can profit off exploiting users, without regard for how it will negatively affect the users and other people around them. All too often, their profiteering drains away money that could have been spent by people to meet their needs or the needs of their families, that could have been spent on something that would benefit their lives rather than harming them, and that could have been spent on supporting honest businesses and their workers.
On top of that, the damaging mental and physical effects of alcohol damage use productivity and harm the ability of people to make a living. The effects of alcohol use produce a variety of illnesses and injuries, which lead to shortened lives and increased medical costs.
The alcohol industry and its products contribute to increased poverty, to childhood poverty, to the abuse and neglect of children, to increased violence and crime, and so many other things that serve to deprive people of a decent life.
The alcohol industry does not bring the prosperity it claims. It never has and it never will. It will just make our communities sicker, poorer, and more highly taxed. The alcohol industry profits off exploiting and harming others, while the rest of us are forced to pay the costs of the damages.
The alcohol industry peddles lies to try to deceive the public into accepting their practices because they know that when enough of the public understands what’s really going on, they will be put out of business. The alcohol industry thinks that if they repeat their lies enough times that they can continue to deceive the public. But we hold that if the truth is repeated enough times, then public awareness will grow. That one day enough people will be aware of the situation, that the alcohol industry will no longer be able to keep up their charade, and their glass house of deception and excuses will come crashing down."
The alcohol industry claims that their businesses will bring in tax revenue. In reality, the federal, state, and local governments spend far more money dealing with the problems caused by alcohol than they ever receive in taxes, and most of those costs end up being paid for by higher taxes on the rest of us.
The alcohol industry claims that it brings business to communities. In reality, their business siphons consumer money away from honest businesses, damages workforce productivity, fosters increased violence and crime in neighborhoods, and in many other ways contributes to an environment that is less suitable for most other businesses to operate. Alcohol businesses grow by sucking the life and vitality out of the communities in which they reside.
The alcohol industry promotes habitual alcohol use, increased alcohol use, and addiction, so that it can profit off exploiting users, without regard for how it will negatively affect the users and other people around them. All too often, their profiteering drains away money that could have been spent by people to meet their needs or the needs of their families, that could have been spent on something that would benefit their lives rather than harming them, and that could have been spent on supporting honest businesses and their workers.
On top of that, the damaging mental and physical effects of alcohol damage use productivity and harm the ability of people to make a living. The effects of alcohol use produce a variety of illnesses and injuries, which lead to shortened lives and increased medical costs.
The alcohol industry and its products contribute to increased poverty, to childhood poverty, to the abuse and neglect of children, to increased violence and crime, and so many other things that serve to deprive people of a decent life.
The alcohol industry does not bring the prosperity it claims. It never has and it never will. It will just make our communities sicker, poorer, and more highly taxed. The alcohol industry profits off exploiting and harming others, while the rest of us are forced to pay the costs of the damages.
The alcohol industry peddles lies to try to deceive the public into accepting their practices because they know that when enough of the public understands what’s really going on, they will be put out of business. The alcohol industry thinks that if they repeat their lies enough times that they can continue to deceive the public. But we hold that if the truth is repeated enough times, then public awareness will grow. That one day enough people will be aware of the situation, that the alcohol industry will no longer be able to keep up their charade, and their glass house of deception and excuses will come crashing down."
Source: Prohibition Party
Monday, February 21, 2022
An alternative to drug prohibition
It's no secret that drug prohibition isn't exactly popular. Recently, though, an alternative has popped up. I came across a news article about a referendum in Switzerland. The referendum took place on February 13th and 57 percent of voters chose to place a near-total ban on tobacco advertising within Switzerland. Predictably the tobacco companies were not happy. But I think this is a fair compromise with the civil libertarians.
As an American I think it would behoove the Prohibition Party to include a similar proposal to their 2024 platform, only expand it to all drugs: tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, and prescription drugs. Currently only the United States and New Zealand allow marketing and advertising of pharmaceutical products directly to patients rather than health professionals. It's a process called direct-to-consumer advertising and it would not surprise me if it was at least partly responsible for the opioid crisis.
Alcohol advertising is rampant and lawless. This is a fake commercial from the animated TV show South Park but it is not much different from real world alcohol ads. Several countries such as Norway, Russia, Ukraine, Kenya, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka have varying bans on alcohol advertising in media and I feel that the U.S. should join them.
Sunday, January 23, 2022
How much is a life (or three) worth?
On January 18th Spencer Bultman was sentenced to 30 years in prison for a drunk driving crash that killed three people and critically injured a fourth. On August 23, 2020 Bultman was driving eastbound in the westbound lanes of Highway 20 near Alden in Hardin County, Iowa when he struck a vehicle carrying Cristy Gutierres, her boyfriend Mario Zubia, and her 10-year-old son Jesse Gutierres. Her 6-year-old daughter was airlifted to Des Moines and survived.
The truly enraging part of the story is farther down the article:
Bultman had previously pleaded guilty in 2015 to charges that included driving while under the influence and in 2017 to public intoxication.
They always have priors. Instead of being locked up he was free to kill. Don't worry though, Bultman told the court he was "sorry" and that his actions were "selfish and stupid". I have little doubt that he'll be released early and I have no doubt that he'll drink and drive again, because that's the way these people are.
Wednesday, December 1, 2021
Photo of the week: The Failing of Society
Stepping away from the Romanovs for this week to get back at what this blog was originally about: prohibition of drug use. While on my usual late night perusing of the internet I came across the following photo from Facebook:
To me this photo and caption represent the failings of society. The very idea that a smorgasbord of drugs is the normal state of being is repugnant to me and the reason is twofold. One, every drug has side effects that are then 'treated' with other drugs causing more side effects with the overarching side effect being a windfall profit for pharma companies. Two, it's the lazy way out. Many conditions are treatable without pharma use. The two happiest days of my life are when my dad went cold turkey with alcohol and when my (former) dermatologist finally agreed to end my acne meds.
As I passed the age of 25 and approached 30 I grew tired of fighting regular outbreaks of acne so I changed my diet, cut off processed foods, and lost weight. And my acne began to clear. So much that, after years of relentless shilling for Accutane, my dermatologist let my prescriptions lapse. (Not to mention the reduced grocery and medical bills.)
And I've never been happier and never felt more free. I think it would do the world a great amount of justice to rein in the drug dealers known as pharma companies.
Tuesday, August 24, 2021
Alcohol consumption linked to nearly 750,000 cancer cases in 2020, new study says
"Alcohol is an irritant. It irritates the lining of our mouth, of our throat, of our stomach." Even moderate consumption opens the door to cancer.
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