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Those who study psychology, psychiatry, and sociology may understand some aspects of the natural man, but when dealing the spiritual man they are empty and void of wisdom. The world’s wisdom is incapable of effectively dealing with the spiritual part of man known and understood only by God. When man has a physical problem, he should perhaps consult a professional familiar with the physical body. When he needs financial investment advice, he should visit a professional financial adviser. When a man is confronted with a spiritual problem, he should consult the word of God and seek counsel from a man...

SAN FRANCISCO — With a couple of old desks, a beat-up couch and an off-white white board, the office space at 149 Turk Street, in this city’s seedy Tenderloin district, is hardly remarkable. A collection of worn detective novels sits on the bookshelf, a couple of American flags hang limply from the wall and a coffee machine constantly percolates in the back kitchen. It is the tenants who set 149 Turk apart: a ragtag group of current and former drug users who make no apologies about their fondness for illegal narcotics, intravenous experiences and the undeniable rush of getting high....

Of the many roles Pat Robertson has assumed over his five-decade-long career as an evangelical leader - including presidential candidate and provocative voice of the right wing - his newest guise may perhaps surprise his followers the most: marijuana legalization advocate. "I really believe we should treat marijuana the way we treat beverage alcohol," Mr. Robertson said in an interview on Wednesday. "I've never used marijuana and I don't intend to, but it's just one of those things that I think: this war on drugs just hasn't succeeded."

A Florida law requiring welfare recipients to pass a drug test before receiving benefits is being challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU contends that the law is an unconstitutional “search and seizure.” “Welfare must be made available based upon need,” explained ACLU spokesman Bertram Petty. “It cannot be made contingent upon passage of a drug test. Drug addiction is not a crime. Therefore, the state has no ‘probable cause’ for seizing anyone’s urine and subjecting it to any test.” Petty dismissed the argument that applying for welfare benefits is a voluntary act and that no one is...

Seattle, Washington (CNN) -- Less than two hours after picking out a man in a police lineup who held up his drugstore, pharmacist Mike Donohue was being robbed. Again. The new robber's face was hidden under the hood of a bulky black sweatshirt. He rocked back and forth anxiously, with his right hand planted in his pocket. Like the other five robbers who had held up Donohue's store before, the man demanded OxyContin, a popular painkiller known for its high abuse potential. "My technician came back and showed me the note that said, 'Give me your OxyContin. I have a...

Crystal Renaud's eight-year addiction to pornography began at the age of 10, when she inadvertently found a titillating magazine in her brother's bathroom. Later, masturbation, phone sex and cyber sex insidiously escalated out of the loneliness in her life and continued a cycle of social isolation and shame. "Pornography became my closest friend. My only friend. Consistent, reliable," she said. Renaud, now 26, had heard sermons at her Kansas City megachurch condemning pornography, but none had ever mentioned women. It wasn't until she met another Christian woman with the same addiction that she realized she was not alone and began...

A US charity has paid 26 female drug addicts in Britain to have contraceptive coils or implants fitted, it was reported today. Project Prevention said it had made initial payments of £60 and a UK-based charity is hoping to launch a similar scheme. Barbara Harris, who founded the US charity, triggered an ethical storm in October after offering to pay British addicts £200 if they were sterilised.

One-handsome Eddie Van Halen was treated for meth addiction back in 2007 Methamphetamine is commonly known as “speed” or “meth.” It is a white and odourless crystalline powder that easily dissolves in water. The drug was developed early in this century from its parent drug, amphetamine, and was used originally in nasal decongestants, bronchial inhalers and other related products. Like amphetamine, it causes increased activity, decreased appetite, and a general sense of well-being. Meth is a highly addictive substance, and is widely abused among our nation's many lost youth.  Meth addiction in just a decade has become a horrendous plague...

...Portugal, which in 2001 became the first European country to officially abolish all criminal penalties for personal possession of drugs, including marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine. At the recommendation of a national commission charged with addressing Portugal's drug problem, jail time was replaced with the offer of therapy. The argument was that the fear of prison drives addicts underground and that incarceration is more expensive than treatment — so why not give drug addicts health services instead? .....At the time, critics in the poor, largely Catholic nation said decriminalizing drug possession would open the country to "drug tourists" and exacerbate...

Price increases, health concerns and restrictions on where people can light up lead to a 8.1% drop in sales in the most recent fiscal year. Taking a puff in California is getting to be a drag, with health concerns and high prices pushing cigarette sales in the most recent fiscal year to their steepest plunge in a decade.Californians bought 8.1% fewer cigarettes in fiscal 2009 — which ended June 30 — than a year earlier, according to a report Tuesday from the California State Board of Equalization. Since peaking in fiscal 1980 with 2.8 billion packs, cigarette sales has tumbled...

For the past hundred years, America has been slowly moving away from the principles of its founding. The ideals of liberty, individual achievement, limited government, and the equality of opportunity have been slowly supplanted by calls for security, class warfare, excessive regulation, and the equality of outcome. The passage of stimulus acts, bailouts, government takeovers of two U.S. automakers, and the health care overhaul prove that our movement away from 1776 has accelerated. Passage of the health care bill has sparked a revival of small-government thinking, causing many to predict significant Republican gains in Congress this fall. But despite some...

Drug addicts in the US are being paid to get sterilised so that thousands of children are "saved from growing up within a damaged environment," a media report has said. American charity organisation, Project Prevention, in North Carolina state, has stopped more than 3,500 drink and drug addicts from having children by paying them up to £200 to seek permanent forms of contraception such as an IUD implant or full sterilisation, the Independent reported on Saturday. Encouraging drug addicts to seek sterilisation saves thousands of children from growing up within a damaged environment, Barbara Harris, founder of the organisation, was...

link only users fill syringes with blood immediately after drug use, store blood for 2nd high later.

New York’s Department of Health has spent $32,000 for 70,000 leaflets depicting how to shoot up.

I believe that non-violent drug offenders in this country should be decriminalized and released from jails and prisons immediately. Along with my mentor, the late William F. Buckley, Jr., I believe that the so-called 'war on drugs' has been a failure and has actually fueled the crime associated with drug war lords in countries to our south.

The Central Texas toddler attacked and killed by a pit bull wandered into a backyard with the dog while his mother slept. 18-month-old Tyson Miller died Thursday in Luling. Police say the child woke up before any of the adults in the house and walked outside through an open door. His mother, Melissa Miller, woke up between 12:15 and 12:30 p.m. She told police she searched the house then went to the backyard and discovered her son with severe wounds to his head and neck. Police say it appeared the child had been dead for "a while" but they don't...

For decades, the government has authorized, funded and lobbied for studies in which otherwise illegal drugs were given to addicts in cities such as Washington, Bethesda, Baltimore, New York, Minneapolis and San Antonio.

Over one-out-of-five U.S. voters (22%) say the federal government should outlaw tobacco smoking, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Seventy percent (70%) disagree, and nine percent (9%) are undecided. That support should come as good news for the 15% of voters who currently smoke -- unless, of course, they’re trying to quit. Only 14% of smokers think tobacco smoking should be against the law. Eighty percent (80%) are opposed, and five percent (5%) aren’t sure. Twenty-two percent (22%) of former smokers say smoking should be outlawed, along with 23% of those who have never smoked. Generally, those...

SEATTLE - Timothy Garon's face and arms are hauntingly skeletal, but the fluid building up in his abdomen makes the 56-year-old musician look eight months pregnant. His liver, ravaged by hepatitis C, is failing. Without a new one, his doctors tell him, he will be dead in days. But Garon's been refused a spot on the transplant list, largely because he has used marijuana, even though it was legally approved for medical reasons. "I'm not angry, I'm not mad, I'm just confused," said Garon, lying in his hospital bed a few minutes after a doctor told him the hospital transplant...

Were Mesopotamians the first brand addicts? 25 April 2008 From New Scientist Print Edition. Jeff Hecht Product branding first emerged in ancient Mesopotamia, the birthplace of cities and writing. So claims David Wengrow, an archaeologist at University College London, who says that bottle stops stamped with symbols some 5000 years ago are evidence of the first branded goods. Around 8000 years ago, village-dwelling Mesopotamians began making personalised stone seals, which they pressed into the caps and stoppers used to seal food and drink. Originally these goods would have been traded directly with neighbours and travellers. But when urbanisation began -...

A third homeless shelter near River Street has some business owners in the area upset and planning to move. Last week, a diverse group of religious leaders gathered outside an older commercial building just off Interstate 184, the Connector, to make an announcement they'd held back for months: Boise's Interfaith Sanctuary had secured funding and bought a building to shelter homeless men, women and families. Interfaith Sanctuary provides an alternative to traditional men's and women's shelters, which some people will not use because of religious affiliations. Sanctuary allows families to stay together and will take intoxicated people. For two years,...

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China is launching an experimental summer camp for 40 youngsters to try to wean them off their Internet addiction, state media said on Tuesday. The 10-day program would accept youngsters aged between 14 and 22 once they had undergone a psychological test and evaluation, the China Daily said. About 2.6 million -- or 13 percent -- of China's 20 million Internet users under 18 are classed as addicts, state media have reported. The youngsters at the summer camp would be treated for depression, fear, unwillingness to interact with others, panic and agitation. It would appear to be...

Marijuana is not kosher for Passover, a pro-cannabis advocacy group says, advising Jews who observe the week-long holiday's special dietary laws to take a break from smoking the weed.

When Richard Fuld, chief executive of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., couldn't control his addiction, he took drastic measures. In October, he had the game BrickBreaker taken off his BlackBerry. "I was playing so much," says Mr. Fuld, who had used it to relax on the plane or in the car. He missed it so much he had it reinstalled, but it's no longer on the main menu. That removes the temptation, he says, "for the most part." In this era of startlingly realistic video games, BrickBreaker is straight out of the Stone Age. Yet it has developed a cult following,...

HONOLULU - Hawaii, known for its fresh ocean air and pristine beauty, has implemented one of the nation's strictest no-smoking laws. State officials say the new law will protect people from secondhand smoke, but some fear it may deter cigarette-puffing tourists from coming to the islands, especially high-spending visitors from Japan. The Smoke-Free Hawaii Law went into effect Nov. 16, banning smoking in all public places such as restaurants, bowling alleys, and malls, as well as airports. Many of the islands already had county laws limiting smoking, but lighting up now in partially enclosed areas, bars and less than 20...

Americans' government dependence goes much deeper than the public dole. When a New Hampshire woman couldn't get her son to get ready for school this month, she called the police. Her abdication of her parental responsibilities, her unreasonable expectation that someone in government should "do something" to get her son to mind her, and her abuse of the public-safety system were bad enough. But police actually sent an officer to get her son out of bed and off to school. Americans increasingly like it when the government agrees to do their dirty work. Anti-tobacco zealots are a textbook example. To...

FRANKLIN — Smokers will light up the city building parking lot Saturday to protest the new statewide smoking ban. Andy Kopp, who is organizing the rally, hopes it will be a step toward having the ban declared unconstitutional. "I don't think they'll be able to enforce it," he said. "It's like Prohibition." So the longtime cigar smoker is inviting others to join him today in the parking lot of the city building. "I plan on smoking a cigar," he said. "I guess I'm allowed to." That's the thing about the ban, Kopp said, the rules are too hazy. Lawsuits filed...

GRAND RAPIDS -- Spectrum Health and Saint Mary's Health Care will require all their employees to not use tobacco at any time during their work shift beginning January 1. The staffs of both hospitals will need to arrive without smelling of smoke, and they can't use any tobacco products until they leave hospital property after their shift. Metro Health is also joining in the Smoke-Free Work Day Every Day campaign. In 2003, the Grand Rapids hospitals became the first in the country to jointly declare their hospital campuses smoke-free. Today, more than 30 Michigan hospitals have smoke-free campuses. This...

Officials ask witnesses to the nearly 35,000-acre Canyon fire to call them Someone's smoking habit started the immense fire that burned for more than a week west of Patterson and needed 2,000 firefighters from around the state to control, state fire investigators said. Investigators with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said this week that forensic evidence from where the Canyon fire started near Del Puerto Canyon Road on July 9 could tell them who started the fire. They have determined that a number of people were present when the fire started, and investigators would like these witnesses...

Once again the criminally corrupt RAT party proves what it is and what it does - registering dead voters, felons, drug addicts (Dems have be caught repeatedly offering drugs, ciggarettes, etc for votes) and constantly try to lie and cheat their way into office any way they can. Mayor Daley is their template and that's just the beginning. Today's Democrats - Totally Corrupt, Totally Lame and Full of Excuses. http://www.washtimes.com/metro/20060724-111915-6219r.htm

Everyone knows the traditional reasons why Maine is a great place to take a vacation - it has ocean, mountains, lakes and lobsters.Now the state is promoting one more inducement for people to visit: No smoking is allowed in Maine's public buildings.The state is putting up five signs at various points this week along the Maine Turnpike and Interstate 95 that advertise the fact."Breathe easy, you're in Maine," said the blue signs with white lettering. "All indoor public places are smoke-free."Dr. Dora Anne Mills, who heads the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said Maine may be "the...

New strains of highly potent cannabis are as dangerous as heroin and cocaine and the drug can no longer be dismissed as "soft and relatively harmless", the United Nations said yesterday. In an implied criticism of Britain's decision to downgrade cannabis, Antonio Maria Costa, the head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said that countries got the "drug problem they deserved" if they maintained inadequate policies. His comments indicated deep unhappiness with the Government's decision to reclassify cannabis from a Class B drug to Class C. Heroin and cocaine are Class A substances, attracting the toughest penalties for...

The owners of Batavia Downs say they are going to move ahead with plans to put 50 video lottery terminals (VLTs) in a new smoking room. Right now, Batavia Downs does have a room where patrons can legally smoke. That room has 18 VLTs. The plan is to create a larger room with fifty terminals, because those “smoking” terminals get twice the play of others at the track. The project still needs approval from state lottery officials.

Over the last twenty years, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has emerged as a disorder of importance in childhood. Prescription of psychostimulants for ADHD escalated in many countries through the 1990s. Between 1990 and 1995, prescriptions of methylphenidate for young people increased 2.5-fold in the US [1], and 5-fold in Canada [2]. In New South Wales, Australia, rates of treatment for children in 2000 were nine times those in 1990 [3]. ADHD joins dyslexia and glue ear as disorders that are considered significant primarily because of their effects on educational performance. Medicalising educational performance can help children receive specialised medical...

ST. PAUL — Several Iron Range lawmakers have snuffed out any talk of a possible statewide smoking ban. They believe it’s a local control issue.St. Louis County commissioners earlier this week deferred action on a possible countywide smoking ban and passed a resolution urging the Legislature deal with the issueCurrently the smoking ban bill is still “alive” in the Senate, but was put to rest in the House last year, and supporters of the legislation in the House will have to resurrect the measure again.Rep. Tom Rukavinia, DFL-Virginia, who described himself as a “libertarian” on this issue, was adamantly...

BEHIND BARS A former police chief wants to end a losing war by legalizing pot, coke, meth and other drugs SOMETIMES PEOPLE in law enforcement will hear it whispered that I'm a former cop who favors decriminalization of marijuana laws, and they'll approach me the way they might a traitor or snitch. So let me set the record straight. Yes, I was a cop for 34 years, the last six of which I spent as chief of Seattle's police department. But no, I don't favor decriminalization. I favor legalization, and not just of pot but of all drugs, including heroin,...

Every day 4,700 kids try marijuana for the first time. In fact, marijuana is the most widely used illicit drug among America's youth. Unfortunately, a lot of American teens, and their parents, continue to see marijuana as harmless. QUESTION 1: Ecstasy is more popular than marijuana among kids today. True or False? False. Far more youth use marijuana than any other drug. Among kids who use drugs, approximately 60 percent use marijuana only. QUESTION 2: Marijuana is not addictive. True or False? False. Research shows that marijuana is addictive. In fact, more teens enter treatment with a primary diagnosis of...

Americans can thank the legacy of Leon Trotsky for some of the most influential research on the addictive qualities of food. It was Trotsky's great-granddaughter who helped make obesity a top priority of the federal government's National Institute on Drug Abuse. When Nora Volkow became director of the institute in 2003, it was far better known as the home of research on drug addicts, not junk food. But Volkow's restless interests expanded in recent years from cocaine abuse to include the puzzle of why people overeat. Intellectual upheaval is the birthright of Volkow, an intense, fast-talking scholar with weaknesses for...

The worldwide smoking rate among women is expected to rise 20 percent by 2025, the report says. BOSTON (May 31) - Tobacco companies did elaborate research on women to figure out how to hook them on smoking. Researchers at Harvard University's School of Public Health said they examined more than 7 million documents - some dating back to 1969, others as recent as 2000 - for new details about the industry's efforts to lure more women smokers. ''They did so much research in such a sophisticated way,'' she said. ''Women should know how far the tobacco industry went to exploit...

OMAHA, Neb. -- Doug Hall's story is the story of an addict. Recovering for years from a drug addiction and alcoholism, his latest battle is pornography. Hall said he went from Playboy, to videos, to online porn, to jail. "My view of sex was all a skewed," Hall said. Hall said his addiction began simply. Years ago he saw his father reading a Playboy magazine. "First it was Playboy and then it's Penthouse, then it's Hustler, then it's -- you just name it. Name your poison," Hall said. When Hall turned to videos, he said, he couldn't wait to get...

SPRINGFIELD -- Health groups won a key battle in the state Senate Monday as lawmakers voted to allow all Illinois towns, rather than a select few, to decide where to allow smoking. Since 1989, when the state approved the Clean Indoor Air Act that permitted smoking only in designated areas, 20 municipalities were allowed to keep their stricter no-smoking laws that were enacted previously. The rest of the state functioned under the milder state law written partly by the tobacco industry. Though opposed by retailers, restaurants and gas station operators, the measure backed on Monday in the Senate vote would...

On behalf of Oxford Vision 2020, a partnership dedicated to preventing the forecast worldwide growth of chronic diseases, the authors suggest that 12 lessons learnt from attempts to control tobacco smoking could be used to tackle the chronic disease epidemics evolving from unhealthy diets and a lack of physical activity Introduction This year three new books have been published about the progress made globally in research, policy, and actions to control tobacco smoking. In addition, Sir Richard Doll reported this year on 50 years of following British doctors to document the impact of smoking on their health.4 We have reviewed...

Calls to a consumer complaint line tipped Philip Morris USA to a problem that's costing the cigarette giant and states around the nation millions of dollars and may be providing terrorists and organized crime with easy money. The red-and-white cardboard packs customers were buying looked like Marlboros, but actually were made by counterfeiters profiting off one of the world's most recognizable trademarks. In one case last year, federal officials broke up a Texas-based ring and seized $18 million worth of counterfeit cigarettes. Now Philip Morris is going state to state asking lawmakers to pass bills that allow law enforcement to...

Can California have its marijuana and smoke it too? Since voters passed the Medical Marijuana Act in 1996, the state law has been seemingly in contradiction with federal laws that say marijuana is an illegal drug under any circumstances. The U.S. Supreme Court is now reviewing Ashcroft vs. Raich, in which a decision is expected any day regarding the federal government's authority over the matter. And according to Americans for Safe Access, a group working for medical marijuana rights, now may be as good a time as any for a ruling to be made. "Right now, the Supreme Court is...

 They had me until the Nazis marched in. Even before a Michigan company called Weyco fired four employees on Feb. 9 because they wouldn’t quit smoking -- the company hoped to save a little money on health insurance -- Smokers Club was sounding the alarm about cigarette bans. “The World Is In A Smoking War,” ran the headline on the notice e-mailed Jan. 10 from Smokers Club national honcho Samantha Phillipe. “Smoking Bans Kill People.” “This failed experiment in modifying human behavior is killing people and it has to stop now,” she wrote. “Death certificates from secondary smoke exposure are zero,...

Bhubaneswar, Jan. 31: Observing rules does not always pay and a youth from Orissa recently learnt it the hard way. Samaresh Panda, 24, an unemployed youth, was allegedly pushed out of the 2802 New Delhi-Puri Purushottam Express on January 26 evening by three men near Bokaro railway station for his protests against smoking inside the compartment. The youth was left with a broken hip and scarred back. The injuries were so severe that pieces of flesh fell off his hip when he landed next to the railway track. Panda, a resident of Chakeisiani in Bhubaneswar, had recently gone to New...

Three passengers threw a 24-year-old man out of a running train on December 26, 2004, after he protested against their smoking in the compartment.Amaresh Panda, who was traveling from Delhi in the Purushottam Express, had asked the three to stop smoking as it inconvenienced the other passengers. When the train left Bokaro railway station in Jharkhand at night, the men pushed Amaresh out of the train, his family said.Amaresh, who suffered serious injuries, was spotted near the tracks the next morning by two men. They got him admitted to the Bokaro Steel General Hospital.His family later shifted him to a...

CHICAGO — Already known as a rural scourge, methamphetamine is becoming a problem in a number of U.S. cities. Meetings of the 12-step group Crystal Meth Anonymous have increased in Chicago from one night a week a few years ago to five a week. In the Atlanta area, methamphetamine users account for the fastest-growing segment of addicts seeking treatment. Rehabilitation centers there are seeing an uptick in the number of women meth addicts, while officials in Minneapolis-St. Paul say they're treating an alarming number of meth users younger than 18. "Most people just think it happens in the farmlands and...

SMOKING in cars should be made illegal, the leader of the Australian Democrats said today. Senator Lyn Allison said the ban would reduce bushfires, littering, accidents and cancer. "Too many avoidable fires are started by butts discarded from cars," she said in a statement today. "The tobacco industry has failed to develop cigarettes that are fire safe or biodegradable. "Aside from the fire and health risks, a car in which the driver is smoking is far more likely to be involved in an accident. "Smoking while driving is as distracting, and therefore dangerous, as using a mobile phone and that...

Hide your smokes and unhealthy contraband. The tyrants of wellbeing are back. Apparently, the Denver City Council is never too busy to intercede with some good old-fashioned social engineering. And soon enough, smoking in restaurants and bars will be banned. It's enough to make a holier-than-thou politician - with pristine pink lungs - shriek with delight. Jeanne Faatz, at this point, is the lone voice of reason on the council. She still believes in trivial things like free enterprise and property rights. She's sort of an outsider. And although she won't admit it on record, I'm certain the other council...