In the wake of John Wick: Chapter 4, is anybody ready for a kinder, gentler sort of movie? Oh. OK. Well, there are two such unanticipated films upon us anyway. One is an unabashedly teary family drama about grief and drug addiction; the other concerns the near-50-year struggle to legalize pinball machines in New York […]
In November, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it would soon determine whether Narcan, the nasal spray form of naloxone, is safe for use without a prescription. It planned to fast-track approval within months. On March 29, the FDA approved Narcan for sale over the counter. The decision is a welcome, but long […]
When I swallow, knives cut my throat. I cough and sometimes can’t stop. That’s frightening. I caught COVID. Dodged it three years. But this week, I suddenly felt lousy, and a home test said: “positive.” The thermometer said: 101.8. No big deal, I thought. Almost everyone gets COVID. Lots of people say it’s no worse […]
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, prescriptions for Adderall, the stimulant medication used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), skyrocketed. There were two main reasons. Due to social distancing, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) allowed physicians to prescribe Schedule II controlled substances via telehealth appointments. And second, parents noticed that their children, suddenly relegated to […]
Jeronimo Yanez remembered smelling “the odor of burning marijuana” as he approached the white Oldsmobile sedan he had stopped near the intersection of Larpenteur Avenue and Fry Street in Falcon Heights, Minnesota. It was a little after 9 p.m. on a Wednesday in July 2016, and Yanez, who worked for the St. Anthony Police Department, […]
Government imposes a million rules. Americans seem to want more! Leftists want new gun laws and bans on single-use plastics, gas stoves, fossil fuels, gas-powered cars, nuclear power. Conservatives want to ban porn and books that discuss gender identity and critical race theory. People just accept bans on recreational drugs, flavored vapes, and menthol cigarettes. […]
Legalization linked to fewer suicides, traffic fatalities, and opioid deaths. A new paper on the public health effects of legalizing marijuana finds “little credible evidence to suggest that [medical marijuana] legalization promotes marijuana use among teenagers” and “convincing evidence that young adults consume less alcohol when medical marijuana is legalized.” And that’s just the start […]
These are weird times (aren’t they all?), but I’ve lived long enough to see a resurgence of atrocious ideas that I thought had been debunked years ago. Apparently, humanity can only learn lessons for a short time before a new generation needs to re-learn them. “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction,” […]