READ THE NEWS ON ONE CLICK 1. Losing Hearts and Minds in the Drug War READ THE NEWS ON ONE CLICK
http://www.theoneclickgroup.co.uk
In the forty years since Richard Nixon declared a "War on Drugs," Americans' perceptions of that war are finally beginning to shift. Receding support for Prohibition is happening in large part because of virally circulated news accounts and videos of law enforcement's disturbingly harsh tactics in the drug war. My former colleagues are making clear that besides causing thousands of deaths worldwide and costing billions of taxpayer dollars, the drug war's most serious collateral damage has been to undermine the role of civilian law enforcement in our free society. There are more than 50,000 police paramilitary raids in the United States each year -- more than 130 every day. Virtually all are for prosecution of drug warrants, the vast majority involving marijuana. Many jurisdictions use SWAT teams for execution of every search warrant for drugs. How did local police departments in a free society ever reach this point? Nixon's use of the word &quo t;War" was no accident. From the outset, Washington's approach to the problems of drug use and addiction has been overtly militaristic in nature. The federal government has instituted policies that have encouraged local law enforcement agencies to increasingly blur the roles of soldiers and police. More and more Americans are coming to realize the staggering human toll -- in lives, dollars, and civil liberties -- of the drug war. Some of these awakening Americans are police officers--a rapidly growing minority of cops who realize the harm these tactics have done to the people they've been hired to serve, the risks to their own safety and wellbeing, and the erosion of public confidence and respect for law enforcement this policy has caused.
Norm Stamper, a 34-year veteran police officer who retired as Seattle's chief of police in 2000, Huff Post
Related Links:
* Big Government Breaks Bad in Drug War
Tom Barry, CounterPunch
* Prohibition: A parallel to modern war on drugs
Norm Stamper, The Seattle Times
* New FBI Numbers Reveal Failure Of 'War On Drugs'
Mark Perry, Daily Markets
* Ending the War on Drugs would help to fix the budget
E.D. Kain, Forbes
* War On Drugs
Report of the Global Commission on Drug Policy
2. From tragedy to travesty: Drugs tested on survivors of Bhopal
Secret reports seen by The Independent reveal that drug trials funded by western pharmaceutical firms at the Indian hospital set up for survivors of the Bhopal disaster violated international ethical standards and could have put patients at risk. Some 14 patients died during the three trials examined by the reports. In one trial, for an antibiotic, five out of seven patients died during the trial or soon after it finished. At least eight other trials were carried out on hundreds of Bhopal gas victims. The Independent has evidence of patients who were unaware that they were taking part in a trial at all. The conduct of the trials has exposed the hospital to furious criticism from activists who say that survivors have been used as guinea pigs without proper informed consent. More than 1,500 drug trials involving 150,000 patients have started across India since 2009. At least 1,730 patients died between 2007 and 2010.
Nina Lakhani, The Independent
3. Cervical cancer vaccine puts girl, 13, in waking coma
Vaccine victim Lucy Hinks
A schoolgirl is trapped in a waking coma and sleeps 23 hours a day after having the cervical cancer jab. Lucy Hinks suffered extreme exhaustion immediately after having the Cervarix injection last year. She had a top-up dose one month later — and her health has not recovered since. Lucy, 13, has not opened her eyes for seven weeks, can no longer walk or talk and spends almost every hour of the day sleeping. She collapsed earlier this year and was rushed to hospital. Tests revealed she had an enlarged liver and spleen. The GlaxoSmithKline vaccine... has been linked to more than 5,000 adverse reactions since being launched.
Emma Little, The Sun
Related Links:
* Calls For Cervarix HPV Vaccine To Be Suspended In The UK
Daily Mail Reporter, Daily Mail
* Killer HPV Vaccines Now Face Fraud Claims
Lucy Johnston & Martyn Halle
* British Girl Dies After Cervarix Vaccine - GlaxoSmithKline Probed
Edmonton Journal
* New Website Launched For Gardasil/Cervarix Vaccine Victims
Susan Brinkmann, The Philadelphia Bulletin
4. Glaxo To Pay $3B To Settle Marketing Probes
In the largest settlement of its kind involving a drugmaker, GlaxoSmithKline has agreed to pay $3 billion to resolve a trio of US investigations into its sales, marketing and pricing practices dating back more than a decade. The deal, which is expected to be finalized, some time next year, would settle both civil and criminal charges related to promoting several drugs, as well as rebates offered Medicaid. The deal had been expected, since the drugmaker had set aside nearly $3.5 billion last year to cover the probes. Nonetheless, the agreement dwarfs previous deals struck by its rivals - two years ago, Pfizer paid $2.3 billion to resolve charges of illegally marketing the Bextra painkiller and other drugs, and Eli Lilly paid $1.4 billion to settle similar charges involving its Zyprexa antipsychotic.
Ed Silverman, Pharmalot
5. Green tea boosts flu protection in kids
The flu season is upon us and our front-line defense, the flu vaccine, does not protect us 30 percent to 40 percent of the time (sometimes more). However, a recent medical study indicates that simply drinking a cup of green tea every day may prevent influenza infection, especially for school-age children. A recent medical study, published in the Journal of Nutrition, looked at the relationship between green tea consumption and how it can reduce influenza infection. This study explored the hypothesis that children who regularly drank green tea would have fewer cases of influenza those children who did not drink green tea. They chose children for two reasons: there is little research with children and influenza prevention; the children lived on or near tea plantations in Japan. With over 2,600 children in the study, the researchers discovered that children who drank, on average, five cups of green tea per week had significantly fewer cases of influenza when compared to those who drank almost no green tea. Those who drank the most green tea (about one cup per day) also had significantly fewer sick days from school. The results were so conclusive that the researchers concluded that the regular consumption of green tea is protective against influenza infections during the influenza season.
Dr Patrick Massey MD, Daily Herald
Related Links:
* Narcolepsy and Swine Flu Vaccine: Is this the vaccine we use today?/ BBC
Dr Meryl Nass MD
* Narcolepsy link to GSK Swine Flu vaccine established - victims to get compensation
Helsingin Sanomat
* Professor: Swine Flu Vaccine Ingredients Not Researched
YLE.fi
6. City Of London Corporation tries to evict Occupy LSX
After a two-week hiatus, we learn that the City of London Corporation (COLC) is restarting legal action to evict Occupy London, as its planning and transportation committee has just voted to clear tents from public highways around St Paul's. Their reasons include the fact that "vulnerable people" have been drawn to the camp and they also worry about the impact of the camp on local businesses. They are likely to serve a notice to our camp at St Paul's on Wednesday. While this action is not unexpected, it worries us that the City of London remains the only local authority in the United Kingdom without a statutory duty to remain accountable to the public under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act.
Hannah Borno, The Guardian
Related Links:
* Police use unprovoked force against peaceful Occupy London campaigners
Information Release, OccupyLondon
* Occupy London occupies Comment is free
Hannah Borno & Alistair Alexander, The Guardian
* Occupy Wall Street: you can't evict an idea whose time has come
JM Smucker et al, The Guardian
* The medieval, unaccountable Corporation of London is ripe for protest
George Monbiot, The Guardian
7. Portraits from Occupy London
With this work I aimed to show another side to the Occupiers, to illustrate the level of organisation and compassion that is happening. There are no villains in this photo-series; the only city worker I photographed is depicted donating cheese to the occupiers. Instead I want the images to provoke a wider respect and understanding for what the occupiers are attempting to accomplish, which is draw attention to the inadequacies of our current financial system. From the start I photographed the Occupation only at night, there was something quieter about the place when the tourists and bulk of the media had gone home, the camp really came to life then, despite what some journalists reported.
Ed Thompson, Occupy London
8. Assange 'ready to quit' extradition fight
Julian Assange has hired a Swedish public relations company in an indication that the WikiLeaks founder is ready to abandon his appeal against his extradition. The 40-year-old campaigner, who is wanted for questioning in Sweden over allegations of rape and sexual assault, has taken on Ullman PR. Two weeks ago the High Court upheld the decision by a magistrate judge to deport Mr Assange at the request of Swedish prosecutors. He has been given three weeks to appeal to the Supreme Court but sources close to him say he is reluctant to do so because of the cost involved. His defence lawyers are unable to ask for an appeal based on the evidence Swedish prosecutors have put forward, which Mr Assange claims is part of a wider conspiracy to silence WikiLeaks and engineer his eventual deportation to the United States. The hiring of a Stockholm-based PR company has set off speculation in the Swedish press that Mr Assange will arrive before Christmas. They also say U llman PR has been asked to find free accommodation for Mr Assange and six colleagues.
Jerome Taylor, The Independent
Related Links:
* Julian Assange Loses High Court Appeal
The One Click Group
* Full Judgement: Julian Assange v Swedish Prosecution Authority, 2.11.11
Sir John Thomas & Mr Justice Ouseley, The High Court
9. Psychology research fraud endemic
Psychologist Diederik Stapel: “I have failed as a scientist and researcher,”
after a committee found problems in dozens of his papers.
A well-known psychologist in the Netherlands whose work has been published widely in professional journals falsified data and made up entire experiments, an investigating committee has found. Experts say the case exposes deep flaws in the way science is done in a field, psychology. The scandal, involving about a decade of work, is the latest in a string of embarrassments in psychology, a field that critics and statisticians say badly needs to overhaul how it treats research results. Dr. Stapel took advantage of a system that allows researchers to operate in near secrecy and massage data to find what they want to find, without much fear of being challenged. Dr. Stapel was able to operate for so long, the committee said, in large measure because he was “lord of the data,” the only person who saw the experimental evidence that had been gathered (or fabricated). While many psychologists shade and spin, Dr. Stapel went ahead and drew any conc lusion he wanted.
Benedict Carey, The New York Times
http://www.theoneclickgroup.co.uk
Tuesday, 15 November 2011
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