Friday, August 30, 2013
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
Did you see Sanjay Gupta's Weed documentary on CNN? If you did, what did you think about it?
(CNN) -- Over the last year, I have been working on a new documentary called "Weed." The title "Weed" may sound cavalier, but the content is not.
I traveled around the world to interview medical leaders, experts, growers and patients. I spoke candidly to them, asking tough questions. What I found was stunning.
Long before I began this project, I had steadily reviewed the scientific literature on medical marijuana from the United States and thought it was fairly unimpressive. Reading these papers five years ago, it was hard to make a case for medicinal marijuana. I even wrote about this in a TIME magazine article, back in 2009, titled "Why I would Vote No on Pot."
Well, I am here to apologize.
I apologize because I didn't look hard enough, until now. I didn't look far enough. I didn't review papers from smaller labs in other countries doing some remarkable research, and I was too dismissive of the loud chorus of legitimate patients whose symptoms improved on cannabis.
Instead, I lumped them with the high-visibility malingerers, just looking to get high. I mistakenly believed the Drug Enforcement Agency listed marijuana as a schedule 1 substance because of sound scientific proof. Surely, they must have quality reasoning as to why marijuana is in the category of the most dangerous drugs that have "no accepted medicinal use and a high potential for abuse."
Dr. Sanjay Gupta is a neurosurgeon and CNN's chief medical correspondent.
They didn't have the science to support that claim, and I now know that when it comes to marijuana neither of those things are true. It doesn't have a high potential for abuse, and there are very legitimate medical applications. In fact, sometimes marijuana is the only thing that works. Take the case ofCharlotte Figi, who I met in Colorado. She started having seizures soon after birth. By age 3, she was having 300 a week, despite being on seven different medications. Medical marijuana has calmed her brain, limiting her seizures to 2 or 3 per month.
I have seen more patients like Charlotte first hand, spent time with them and come to the realization that it is irresponsible not to provide the best care we can as a medical community, care that could involve marijuana.
We have been terribly and systematically misled for nearly 70 years in the United States, and I apologize for my own role in that.
I hope this article and upcoming documentary will help set the record straight.
On August 14, 1970, the Assistant Secretary of Health, Dr. Roger O. Egeberg wrote a letter recommending the plant, marijuana, be classified as a schedule 1 substance, and it has remained that way for nearly 45 years. My research started with a careful reading of that decades old letter. What I found was unsettling. Egeberg had carefully chosen his words:
"Since there is still a considerable void in our knowledge of the plant and effects of the active drug contained in it, our recommendation is that marijuana be retained within schedule 1 at least until the completion of certain studies now underway to resolve the issue."
Not because of sound science, but because of its absence, marijuana was classified as a schedule 1 substance. Again, the year was 1970. Egeberg mentions studies that are underway, but many were never completed. As my investigation continued, however, I realized Egeberg did in fact have important research already available to him, some of it from more than 25 years earlier.
High risk of abuse
In 1944, New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia commissioned research to be performed by the New York Academy of Science. Among their conclusions: they found marijuana did not lead to significant addiction in the medical sense of the word. They also did not find any evidence marijuana led to morphine, heroin or cocaine addiction.
We now know that while estimates vary, marijuana leads to dependence in around 9 to 10% of its adult users. By comparison, cocaine, a schedule 2 substance "with less abuse potential than schedule 1 drugs" hooks 20% of those who use it. Around 25% of heroin users become addicted.
The worst is tobacco, where the number is closer to 30% of smokers, many of whom go on to die because of their addiction.
There is clear evidence that in some people marijuana use can lead to withdrawal symptoms, including insomnia, anxiety and nausea. Even considering this, it is hard to make a case that it has a high potential for abuse. The physical symptoms of marijuana addiction are nothing like those of the other drugs I've mentioned. I have seen the withdrawal from alcohol, and it can be life threatening.
I do want to mention a concern that I think about as a father. Young, developing brains are likely more susceptible to harm from marijuana than adult brains. Some recent studies suggest that regular use in teenage years leads to a permanent decrease in IQ. Other research hints at a possible heightened risk of developing psychosis.
Much in the same way I wouldn't let my own children drink alcohol, I wouldn't permit marijuana until they are adults. If they are adamant about trying marijuana, I will urge them to wait until they're in their mid-20s when their brains are fully developed.
Medical benefit
While investigating, I realized something else quite important. Medical marijuana is not new, and the medical community has been writing about it for a long time. There were in fact hundreds of journal articles, mostly documenting the benefits. Most of those papers, however, were written between the years 1840 and 1930. The papers described the use of medical marijuana to treat "neuralgia, convulsive disorders, emaciation," among other things.
A search through the U.S. National Library of Medicine this past year pulled up nearly 20,000 more recent papers. But the majority were research into the harm of marijuana, such as "Bad trip due to anticholinergic effect of cannabis," or "Cannabis induced pancreatitits" and "Marijuana use and risk of lung cancer."
In my quick running of the numbers, I calculated about 6% of the current U.S. marijuana studies investigate the benefits of medical marijuana. The rest are designed to investigate harm. That imbalance paints a highly distorted picture.
The challenges of marijuana research
To do studies on marijuana in the United States today, you need two important things.
First of all, you need marijuana. And marijuana is illegal. You see the problem. Scientists can get research marijuana from a special farm in Mississippi, which is astonishingly located in the middle of the Ole Miss campus, but it is challenging. When I visited this year, there was no marijuana being grown.
The second thing you need is approval, and the scientists I interviewed kept reminding me how tedious that can be. While a cancer study may first be evaluated by the National Cancer Institute, or a pain study may go through the National Institute for Neurological Disorders, there is one more approval required for marijuana: NIDA, the National Institute on Drug Abuse. It is an organization that has a core mission of studying drug abuse, as opposed to benefit.
Stuck in the middle are the legitimate patients who depend on marijuana as a medicine, oftentimes as their only good option.
Keep in mind that up until 1943, marijuana was part of the United States drug pharmacopeia. One of the conditions for which it was prescribed was neuropathic pain. It is a miserable pain that's tough to treat. My own patients have described it as "lancinating, burning and a barrage of pins and needles." While marijuana has long been documented to be effective for this awful pain, the most common medications prescribed today come from the poppy plant, including morphine, oxycodone and dilaudid.
Here is the problem. Most of these medications don't work very well for this kind of pain, and tolerance is a real problem.
Most frightening to me is that someone dies in the United States every 19 minutes from a prescription drug overdose, mostly accidental. Every 19 minutes. It is a horrifying statistic. As much as I searched, I could not find a documented case of death from marijuana overdose.
It is perhaps no surprise then that 76% of physicians recently surveyed said they would approve the use of marijuana to help ease a woman's pain from breast cancer.
When marijuana became a schedule 1 substance, there was a request to fill a "void in our knowledge." In the United States, that has been challenging because of the infrastructure surrounding the study of an illegal substance, with a drug abuse organization at the heart of the approval process. And yet, despite the hurdles, we have made considerable progress that continues today.
Looking forward, I am especially intrigued by studies like those in Spain and Israel looking at the anti-cancer effects of marijuana and its components. I'm intrigued by the neuro-protective study by Lev Meschoulam in Israel, and research in Israel and the United States on whether the drug might help alleviate symptoms of PTSD. I promise to do my part to help, genuinely and honestly, fill the remaining void in our knowledge.
Citizens in 20 states and the District of Columbia have now voted to approve marijuana for medical applications, and more states will be making that choice soon. As for Dr. Roger Egeberg, who wrote that letter in 1970, he passed away 16 years ago.
I wonder what he would think if he were alive today.
Monday, August 19, 2013
Does anyone have any JJ Virgin diet tips recipes success stories horror tales etc?
I’ve been drowning my sorrows in food for a little while since before my divorce became final. So now that I weigh a ton, I’m going on the JJVirgin diet. I need all the tips I can get to make this a success. Please help meeeeeeeeee!!!
Thanks Sweet Babies
Thursday, August 15, 2013
Sunday, August 11, 2013
“Girls “going wild” aren’t damaging a generation of women, the myth of sexual purity is."
Source― Jessica Valenti, The Purity Myth: How America's Obsession with Virginity is Hurting Young Women
More from the book:
The lie of virginity—the idea that such a thing even exists—is ensuring that young women’s perception of themselves is inextricable from their bodies, and that their ability to be moral actors is absolutely dependent on their sexuality. It’s time to teach our daughters that their ability to be good people depends on their being good people , not on whether or not they’re sexually active…so while young women are subject to overt sexual messages everyday, they’re simultaneously being taught—by the people who are supposed to care for their personal and moral development, no less—that their only real worth is their virginity and ability to remain “pure”.” 
Why do we base a woman's worth on an antiquated idea of sexual virtue?
Friday, August 9, 2013
Hooter's Fried Pickles
I haven't been able to find the right recipe for their naked garlic wings yet but this recipe for these little nibbles knocks it out of the park.
Hooters fried pickles are perfect to make for your favorite game on TV, or anytime you want something with a bit of crunch and tang.
Ingredients
- 2 quarts vegetable oil
- 1 (16-ounce) jar hamburger dill pickle chips
- 2 cups buttermilk
- 2 cups whole-wheat flour
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Instructions
Heat the oil to 350 degrees F in a large pot. Cover a platter with a few layers of paper towels. Drain the pickles in a colander.
Place the pickles in a medium bowl and cover with the buttermilk. Stir the flours, salt, paprika, and cayenne together in another bowl; mix well. Take about a handful of the pickles out of the buttermilk and dredge in the seasoned flour. Shake off the excess flour and place the coated pickles in the hot grease. Be careful not to place too many pickles into the hot grease, or the pickles won’t fry up crisp. Fry the pickles until golden brown. Scoop them out with a slotted spoon and put them on the paper towels to drain. Continue frying pickles until all are done
Thursday, August 8, 2013
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Arnello's (http://arnellos.com/) & Mama J's (@MamaJsRVA-twitter) Get your wig smoked and your grub on in Jackson Ward (Richmond,VA)
I'm from Richmond,Virginia and when I go home to visit and get my hair done I go to Arnello's Beauty Shop and yes they have locticians on staff there. Before I go, or on a break or after I'm finished with my excellent salon experience, I always go to Mama J's Kitchen to get some of their wonderful food. Both businesses are located in historic Jackson Ward.
"At Arnello's , we are dedicated to the health and beauty of your hair. Using knowledge that has been passed down from generation to generation, along with cutting edge technology in shaping, color, and styling, our goal is to make your experience one that keeps you coming back." ...Muriel Lee(Owner/Stylist)
Since 1933, many Richmonders have found a friend in the neighborhood. Arnello's is a special place to chat, share, and relax, and, of course, a place to get that new hairstyle. Arnello's is more than just a place to get your "hair done". It's the place you can always go for honest advice on hair issues and help and treatment for non-medical hair and scalp problems. For years, clients have trusted the experts at Arnello's to help them back to healthy hair.
Testimonials-What Our Customers Are Saying
"At Arnello's , we are dedicated to the health and beauty of your hair. Using knowledge that has been passed down from generation to generation, along with cutting edge technology in shaping, color, and styling, our goal is to make your experience one that keeps you coming back." ...Muriel Lee(Owner/Stylist)
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Welcome to Arnello's
Since 1933, many Richmonders have found a friend in the neighborhood. Arnello's is a special place to chat, share, and relax, and, of course, a place to get that new hairstyle. Arnello's is more than just a place to get your "hair done". It's the place you can always go for honest advice on hair issues and help and treatment for non-medical hair and scalp problems. For years, clients have trusted the experts at Arnello's to help them back to healthy hair.The Solution To Problem Hair
Problem hair? We have the solution! Here at Arnello's Beauty Shoppe, we specialize turning your problem hair into gorgeous hair. We treat hair that has been damaged by chemicals or heat. We also treat scalp problems and falling hair/thinning. We offer a wide variety or treatments to correct those problems. Don't have problem hair? We have salon services as well that include: hair cuts, colors, highlights, styles, relaxers, perms, and more.
Hair Problems??
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To God be the glory. from whence cometh my help, for leading and directing me to Arnello’s Beauty Shoppe. Before then, I’d been wondering in the wilderness (of beauty salons) for five years, tryin ...
Lorraine W. Lacy - 4 Apr 2011
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The Diner on Abercorn 7202 Abercorn St Savannah GA 31406 (912)-356-5877 all the traditional American comfort food you expect and more.
This place is so amazingly good. They serve all the classic food you expect at a diner. However, you are pleasantly surprised by the abundance of pastries and the Greek and Mediterranean dishes offered on the menu. Their sister restaurant Marietta Diner near Atlanta Georgia that this same family owns, was featured on Drive Ins Diners and Dives on Food Network which is a good indicator of the quality of the cooking and service here. I especially enjoy their breakfast dishes.
http://www.urbanspoon.com/cities/282/restaurants/1229645/menu_photos/141939
https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Diner-on-Abercorn/222652601085536
http://www.urbanspoon.com/cities/282/restaurants/1229645/menu_photos/141939
About
The Diner on Abercorn
Open 24 hours
Open 24 hours
Description
A classic 24 hour diner with a full menu. We are happy to serve you breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a large selection of deserts any time of the day! We offer 10% discounts to all Military, Police Officers, Senior Citizens. We are happy to serve your family, with a children's meals ranging from $1.95-$3.25. Our family thanks your family for your support for the last year. We hope to serve you soon at The Diner on Abercorn!Basic Info
| Joined Facebook | 04/29/2011 |
|---|---|
| Food Styles |
American (Traditional)
Barbeque
Breakfast
Brunch
Burgers
Diners
Greek and Mediterranean
Hot Dogs
Sandwiches
Southern
Steakhouses
Vegetarian
|
| Price Range | $ (0-10) |
| Specialties |
Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
Coffee
Drinks
|
| Attire | Casual |
| Services |
Walk-Ins Welcome
Good For Groups
Good For Kids
Take Out
Waiter Service
|
| Parking | Parking Lot |
| Public Transit | We are on the 14 Abercorn bus line. |
https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Diner-on-Abercorn/222652601085536
Family Secrets Restaurant 5310 Chamberlayne Rd Richmond VA Awesome Soul Food Live Weekend Music 804-515-8890
Help yourself to live bands on the weekend, North Carolina barbecue,chicken wings,crab cakes, cabbage,greens,candied yams,cakes,pies,salmon cakes in the north side of Richmond Virginia.
The Menu
Our Famous Chicken Wings
No drummettes! We use whole Jumbo Wings. Naked or buffalo style.Seafood Platters
Blackened FishCrab Cakes
Fried lake trout
Fried Whiting
Shrimp Cocktail
Jumbo Fried shrimp
Salmon Cakes
Seafood Platter
Shrimp Alfredo w/ Salad
Surf and Turf Shrimp
Surf and Turf Fish
Tilapia
Wings and Fish
Signature Platters
Baked ChickenBBQ Spare Ribs
Chicken Alfredo w/salad
Chicken Tenders
Chopped Steak
Grilled Chicken Platter
Jumbo Chicken Wings
Meatloaf
North Carolina BBQ
Ribeye Steak
Veggie Plate (3 side & Rolls)
Pigs Feet
Sandwiches
N.C. BBQCrab Cake
1/4 lb Burger
1/4 lb Cheeseburger
Grilled Chicken Breast
BLT
All Beef JUMBO Hotdog
Turkey Burger
Pork Chop
Veggie Boca Burger
Fried Whiting
Fried Lake trout
Triple Decker Club
Subs
Ham & turkeyHam & Cheese
Ham
Turkey
Chicken Philly Cheese
Sides
CornbreadCabbage
Coleslaw
French Fries
Greens
Green Beans
Mac & Cheese
Mashed Potatoes
Potato Salad
Rice
Yams
Salads
Grilled Chicken Breast SaladFried Chicken Salad
Grilled Shrimp Salad
Chef Salad
Greek Salad
House Salad
Beverages
Hot TeaCoffee
Orange Juice
Cranberry Juice
Apple Juice
Milk
Iced Tea
Coke Products
Spirits
Come Join us for Happy HourWeekdays 5-7pm.
Don't forget about Live music Friday Nights
Menu items are cooked to order. Consuming Raw or under cooked meats may increase your risk of food borne illness.
Hours
Tues - Sun
11am- 10pm
Friday
We're open 'till Midnight
Live Jazz and R&B - Call for details
Live Jazz and R&B - Call for details
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Ur life story will be SOMEBODY'S cautionary tale in which U r the main character if u don't live purposefully.-Edelmira Brown
It is with great regret that I announce the end of my marriage-August 30, 2003-August 6, 2013
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