Shaw's Eco-Logic

Can caffeine become a drug of abuse?

This week's HND piece looks at the world's number one psychoactive drug, and those rare instances in which it actually can be abused.

Back in 2002, the so-called "CABs" or Caffeinated alcoholic beverages were introduced. It did not take very long before these were widely abused by youth—the principal "benefit" being that one could achieve a state of "alert intoxication." Of course, they were still impaired, and in some cases could reach near toxic levels of alcohol, since the usual protective mechanism of falling asleep would not occur. Driving was another problem.

The FDA forced most of these products off the market, but now there is new wrinkle: Caffeine powders, which can be added to any beverage. These are cheaper to obtain and are easier to use than the CABs, and have caused quite a controversy.

Read the complete article.

Dry labbing and how it might be affecting you

This HND piece looks at dry labbing, referring to a practice whereby labs simply fabricate results, usually to please the client. The clients—in current controversies—are manufacturers of dietary supplements. The term is sometimes also used in a broader sense, to indicate overall shady or misleading activities perpetrated by labs, their consultants, or the manufacturers themselves.

Dateline NBC recently ran a segment on dry labbing, setting up a sting intended to expose a suspect lab. I discovered, though, that like way too many so-called exposés, the process here was not exactly simon pure. Instead, the show was set up to deliver the maximum shock value, built on a pretty shaky foundation.

Even if the extent of the dry labbing problems might be overblown in the current hype, the natural products industry would be well advised to start policing their own, or the Feds will be only too glad to step in and take over.

Read the complete article.

Some good news regarding Siloxane D5—and why you should care

That's the title of my latest HND piece. Siloxane D5 is an important silicone, which was being investigated by the Canadian government, and recently received a clean bill of health from their ministries of the environment and health.

You should care about this because the Canadians are known as absolute sticklers on chemical regulation, and even our own EPA stopped worrying about D5 in 2005. Thus, the fear entrepreneurs got all excited when the Canadian investigation was announced, but have kept mum about the positive results.

What a shock.

Read the complete article.

To fix health care, first do no harm

Here's one for you...

In this piece, I consider health care reform—from a Karmic point of view. It should come as no surprise that there is plenty of bad Karma floating around in this space. My take is that as long as we are stuck in our awful "disease care" model that we insist on calling "health care," the Karmic debt will just keep increasing.

Surely, the financial debt show no signs of being alleviated, either.  

One part of the article that might surprise you is how poorly health care workers treat each other—especially how older docs treat the younger ones.  I also take a dim view on the current movement to restore the so-called doctor-patient relationship.

Read the complete article.

Strong drugs, adverse events, and keeping it real

My latest HND piece takes a hard look at the consequences of what happens when you have an un-moderated forum to report adverse events related to drugs and medical devices. It is by no means a simple matter to prove that a particular side effect—especially as it affects a single individual—was actually caused by the drug in question.

Indeed, the process of tracking side effects is much more rigorous during clinical trials, than when the drug is on the market, and this may not be a good thing.

A current case-in-point involves Gilenya, a relatively new drug for Multiple Sclerosis (MS), and at present the only available oral med for this condition. Recently, a death was reported for a patient on this drug, and the case is being investigated by the FDA. As you might expect, however, the lack of a smoking gun—at least at present—hasn't stopped the blogs from going wild.

Novartis, the makers of Gilenya, have responded by releasing all-cause mortality data for the drug, which is unprecedented, and goes far beyond what is required by the regulators. Don't hold your breath waiting for its competitors to follow suit.

Read the complete article.

How not to control drug abuse: What were they thinking?

You're going to love this one.

Most of you have heard of Prohibition, our nation's wonderful experiment with banning evil alcohol, and you remember how well that worked. Evidently, everyone except government officials learned from that experiment, because they're doing it again. Only this time, it's doubly stupid.

Methamphetamine is a prescription-only legal drug, which is also widely favored as a drug of abuse, manufactured illegally. Thus, its use is controlled by prescription, and any other source of it is illegal. The illegal manufacture of methamphetamine generally requires a chemical ingredient that can be derived from pseudoephedrine, a pharmaceutical found in over-the-counter cold, cough, and allergy medications such as Sudafed, Advil Cold and Sinus, Allegra D, Mucinex D, and Claritin D.

So now, two states require a prescription to purchase these cold remedies. Of course, that will do little to control the abuse of meth, since it will simply be imported, rather than made locally. It was Albert Einstein said who that "insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

At the least the government is consistent, in wiping out local industry in favor of imported goods. Read the complete article.

Networking your health care

A recent HND piece examines the interaction between health records, computer networks, and security. As with most overarching federal mandates, HIPAA, HITECH, and the like are quite flawed. Big surprise.

As to security...good luck. You'll especially like the findings from a survey done as few years ago by Palo Alto Networks. As I say in the piece: "Sadly, no matter how robust the security, the most likely source of breaches tends to be from the inside, and not all of them are necessarily malicious."

And, no matter how high your estimate of employees wasting bandwidth on non-business activities, I'll bet you're wrong, based on the Palo Alto Networks report.

Read the complete article.

HHS limits over-the-counter sales of Plan B "morning after" pill

People are scratching their heads trying to figure out why—in an unprecedented move—Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius (the abortion queen) overruled the FDA's approval for Plan B to be sold, without restrictions as an OTC drug.

I'm sure it couldn't have anything to do with Kathy's long ties to the abortion industry. Why nip a problem in the bud if it can become an expensive procedure? The fact that women will have to show ID to get the drug will surely limit sales.

The official reason being that they are not sure if the drug is safe for the youngest girls would be hilarious, if it were not so pathetic, nay tragic. Countless FDA-approved drugs are far, far more dangerous than Plan B, yet now she steps in?

She may not be in Kansas anymore, but she's still the Wicked Witch.

The best and the brightest---NOT

Next time someone tells you that big Wall Street finance outfits have to pay ridiculously high salaries and bonuses to attract the best talent, be sure to remind them about this moron.

Then again, it probably DOES take some kind of talent be able to "misplace" $1.2 billion. Will Corzine do hard time?

Things for which I'd like to be thankful

In this latest HND piece, I look at true health care reform, and better defining the mission of the FDA.

I explain why continuing down the current road of what is quite inaptly called "health care reform" is perhaps the biggest fool's errand of all time. Simply put, using the current flawed disease care model, there is not enough money in the world to pay for it. There may have been, if we had not all gotten caught up in the absurd population bomb nonsense of the 1970s, but—as I say—the chits are now being called in.

As to the FDA, the latest fiasco with Avastin demonstrates what's wrong with this agency.

Read the complete article.