36% Favor Ban On Plastic Shopping Bags In Their State
Most Americans say they use plastic shopping bags, and they aren't overly keen about efforts to ban or tax their use of those bags.
States including Hawaii, California and Massachusetts have begun banning the use of plastic bags over environmental concerns, and the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 36% of American Adults favor such a ban in their state. But 45% are opposed to a ban on disposable plastic bags where they live. Nineteen percent (19%) are undecided. –Rasmussen Reports
Most Americans say they use plastic shopping bags, and they aren't overly keen about efforts to ban or tax their use of those bags.
States including Hawaii, California and Massachusetts have begun banning the use of plastic bags over environmental concerns, and the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 36% of American Adults favor such a ban in their state. But 45% are opposed to a ban on disposable plastic bags where they live. Nineteen percent (19%) are undecided. –Rasmussen Reports
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Acid Test: LSD Used As Drug Therapy
Swiss scientists broke a four-decade-long informal ban on LSD research yesterday when they announced the results of a study in which cancer patients received the drug to curb their anxiety about death.
The study, which was published in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, looked at the safety and efficacy of LSD when used in combination with talk therapy. The researchers used the semisynthetic psychedelic drug to facilitate discussions about the cancer patients' fears of dying. The patients who took LSD, most of whom were terminally ill, experienced 10-hour-long supervised "trips." One patient described the trips to The New York Times as a "mystical experience," where "the major part was pure distress at all the memories I had successfully forgotten for decades."
These periods of distress are regarded as therapeutically valuable because they allow patients to address their memories and the emotions they evoke. The patients underwent 30 such trips over the course of two months.
A year after the sessions ceased, the patients who had received a full dose of LSD — 200 micrograms — experienced a 20 percent improvement in their anxiety levels. That was not the case for the group who received a lower dose, however, as their anxiety symptoms actually increased. They were later allowed to try the full dose after the trial had ended.
Because of the small number of study participants, the researchers are reluctant to make any conclusive statements about the LSD treatment's effectiveness. Indeed, the results were not statistically significant. But the fact that the study took place at all bodes well for psychedelic drug research, as the drug caused no serious side effects. Rick Doblin, executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, a foundation that has funded many of these studies, thinks that revisiting LSD-based treatments is worthwhile. "We want to break these substances out of the mold of the counterculture," Doblin told The New York Times, "and bring them back to the lab as part of a psychedelic renaissance." -The Verge
The study, which was published in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, looked at the safety and efficacy of LSD when used in combination with talk therapy. The researchers used the semisynthetic psychedelic drug to facilitate discussions about the cancer patients' fears of dying. The patients who took LSD, most of whom were terminally ill, experienced 10-hour-long supervised "trips." One patient described the trips to The New York Times as a "mystical experience," where "the major part was pure distress at all the memories I had successfully forgotten for decades."
These periods of distress are regarded as therapeutically valuable because they allow patients to address their memories and the emotions they evoke. The patients underwent 30 such trips over the course of two months.
A year after the sessions ceased, the patients who had received a full dose of LSD — 200 micrograms — experienced a 20 percent improvement in their anxiety levels. That was not the case for the group who received a lower dose, however, as their anxiety symptoms actually increased. They were later allowed to try the full dose after the trial had ended.
Because of the small number of study participants, the researchers are reluctant to make any conclusive statements about the LSD treatment's effectiveness. Indeed, the results were not statistically significant. But the fact that the study took place at all bodes well for psychedelic drug research, as the drug caused no serious side effects. Rick Doblin, executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, a foundation that has funded many of these studies, thinks that revisiting LSD-based treatments is worthwhile. "We want to break these substances out of the mold of the counterculture," Doblin told The New York Times, "and bring them back to the lab as part of a psychedelic renaissance." -The Verge
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Ruling: Police Can Enter Home Without Warrant Even If One Person Objects
Police gain new unprecedented power to enter homes without warrants.
Earlier this week, the Supreme Court gave the police more power to enter a person's home without a warrant: if two people are inside a home, and one person denies police entry while the other allows it, the police can enter based on one party's consent.
This overturned a previous ruling in 2006 in which justices concluded that when two people disagree over a search, the police must listen to the objecting party.
The ruling was in regards to a case involving a domestic abuse. A woman believed to have been physically assaulted by another occupant, a man, answered the door for police. The man objected to the police entering his home, but was arrested anyway shortly after they did.
The Court's verdict seems to favor victims of domestic violence (who are often women). Interestingly, however, all three justices who dissented the ruling were women: Justices Ginsberg, Kagan and Sotomayor.
"Instead of adhering to the warrant requirement, today's decision tells the police they may dodge it," Ginsburg wrote in her dissent.
Officially, the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution bars representatives of the state from entering a home without a warrant, probable cause, or pursuant to an arrest. However, multiple rulings of the last few decades--usually related to drug arrests--have steadily eroded the standards to which law enforcement must adhere before entering a home. –AlterNet
Police gain new unprecedented power to enter homes without warrants.
Earlier this week, the Supreme Court gave the police more power to enter a person's home without a warrant: if two people are inside a home, and one person denies police entry while the other allows it, the police can enter based on one party's consent.
This overturned a previous ruling in 2006 in which justices concluded that when two people disagree over a search, the police must listen to the objecting party.
The ruling was in regards to a case involving a domestic abuse. A woman believed to have been physically assaulted by another occupant, a man, answered the door for police. The man objected to the police entering his home, but was arrested anyway shortly after they did.
The Court's verdict seems to favor victims of domestic violence (who are often women). Interestingly, however, all three justices who dissented the ruling were women: Justices Ginsberg, Kagan and Sotomayor.
"Instead of adhering to the warrant requirement, today's decision tells the police they may dodge it," Ginsburg wrote in her dissent.
Officially, the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution bars representatives of the state from entering a home without a warrant, probable cause, or pursuant to an arrest. However, multiple rulings of the last few decades--usually related to drug arrests--have steadily eroded the standards to which law enforcement must adhere before entering a home. –AlterNet
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