As I’ve said many times, I’m a pragmatist. If there is hard evidence that something works, then I’m for it, ideology be damned. I like single-payer health insurance because it works in so many countries around the world, giving better health results for far less money spent. Conversely, if something doesn’t work, like trickle down […]
Private, for-profit prisons have failed. They cost taxpayers more than public prisons, are less safe for prisoners (the one private prison in Idaho has 4 times the number of prisoner-on-prisoner assaults than the seven public prisons in the state combined), have had repeated scandals (including one where judges were bribed by the prisons in exchange […]
With all this bad news lately, it is nice to have some good news. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) reports that drug use among US teens has hit an all-time low. And that includes alcohol and tobacco. The drops in drug use are significant. For example, among 12th graders: Abuse of prescription pain […]
Donald Trump’s choice for Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, is not only a racist, but he is absolutely against the legalization of marijuana. And as Attorney General, he would have the unilateral power to make it illegal again, even in the states that have decriminalized it. How can this be? Because there are still harsh federal […]
An interesting article in Scientific American says that since legalization of Marijuana in Colorado, the number of high school students who use the drug has gone down. The opponents of legalization claimed that legalization of weed would cause teen usage to increase. What’s even more interesting is that the percentage of high-school students in Colorado […]
© Benjamin Schwartz Andy Borowitz also has some satire that is worth reading, about Shkreli’s lawyer raising his rates 5000% after his client was arrested. If you have seen something funny about Shkreli, please post a link to it in the comments.
Price of life-saving drug Daraprim before Martin Shkreli’s company bought the rights to it: $18. Price to which he raised it: $750 per pill. Image of Shkreli being led off in handcuffs after being arrested for securities and wire fraud: Priceless.
So far, no. Yesterday, the voters of Ohio rejected a ballot measure that would amend the Ohio constitution to legalize marijuana. What’s ironic about this is that many of the organizations who are working to legalize marijuana urged voters to reject the measure. And (even more ironically) I’m glad the measure failed. Drugs are big […]
Last month, Turing Pharmaceuticals caused widespread outrage when it raised the price of the drug Daraprim from $13.50 a pill to $750. Daraprim is a critical life-saving drug that is decades old, but was only available from Turing. The good news is that all the publicity attracted the attention of another drug company, Imprimis Pharmaceuticals. […]
It has been weeks since Martin Shkreli promised to lower the price of Daraprim, but apparently that might have been a lie just to stop the outrage. How long does it take to lower the price of a drug (especially when there are people whose lives depend on it)? Well, the NY Times article that […]
© Chan Lowe I’m sure everyone has heard way too much about Martin Shkreli, the jerk who somehow managed to give hedge fund managers a bad name (make that a worse one than they already had). What was the most terrible thing he did? Was it buying a 62-year-old inexpensive drug and increasing its price […]
© Chan Lowe Have all those Republicans who are condemning Obama’s nuke agreement with Iran forgotten it was Saint Ronnie who illegally and secretly sold weapons to Iran (even though Congress had passed an arms embargo against them) in order to fund a terrorist group in Central America? I guess when the GOP votes to […]
At first I thought this was an April fools joke, but the original article was published in the Washington Post on March 30, so I assume it is legit. In the wake of Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration act, which prevents the state from “substantially burdening” a person’s exercise of religion (even if it violates the […]
Finally! Attorney General Eric Holder today barred police from using Federal civil asset forfeiture laws without warrants or criminal charges. The laws were originally passed as part of the (failed) war on drugs (to confiscate money made in the drug trade, but quickly turned into a money-making operation for local police departments. Over 55,000 seizures […]
When longstanding political issues start to shift, once the ice is broken the change can happen relatively quickly. A recent example is the legalization of gay marriage, which I had hoped would happen, but until a few years ago never thought would take place in my lifetime. But now, a majority of US citizens live […]
Abortion Bush Campaign Finance Cheney Climate Clinton Congress Conservatives Corporations Corruption Deficits Democrats Drugs Economy Education Election Elections Energy Environment Fox News Gays Guns Health Immigration Lies McCain Media Middle East Obama Palin Protests Racism Religion Republicans Romney Spying Supreme Court Taxes Tea Party Terrorism Terrorists Torture Trump Unemployment War
