COMPASSIONATE CAPITALISM

On Thursday, Jan. 22 the San Francisco Advertiser (no relation) ran a
front-page ad announcing the grand opening of "Mendocino Healing
Alternatives," a dispensary offering "farm direct" cannabis at the lowest
price in town -$40 for an eighth-ounce of high-grade flowers. This
undercuts by $10-$20 an eighth the price that SF consumers have been paying
at other clubs. It's a significant mark-down -the difference between
$320/ounce and $400 or $440/ounce. The new club's proprietor, David Moore
(a Fort Bragg resident), says the $1,500 ad was well worth it. His phone
(415-864-4600) started ringing immediately and patients began arriving.
Almost all expressed disbelief and gratitude, according to Moore.

Then on Monday morning, Jan. 26, the owner of a nearby club, frankly
fearing a loss of market share, telephoned twice and cursed Moore's
employees. Moore contacted the outraged competitor, who attributed his
outburst to his own high level of "compassion." If Moore undercuts his
prices, the cannabusiness man explained, he won't be able to give out free
food and free herb on occasion.

Everybody has the fanciest reasons for what they do.

Statins Kill

Cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins have been prescribed to many
millions of people since their introduction in 1987. The drug companies
told the doctors who told their patients that statins -Zocor, Lipitor,
Pravachol et al- are so beneficial and safe that they ought to be added to
the drinking water. Three years ago Merck sought FDA approval to sell a
statin drug, Mevacor, over the counter. The application was turned down.
Now Merck has joined with Johnson & Johnson in pitching a more potent
Mevacor to the FDA, claiming that over-the-counter statins will reduce
health-care costs for the American people. (Everybody always has the
fanciest reasons for what they do.)

The FDA ignored early warnings about the adverse effects of statins. By
1988 it had been established that statins block the body's production of
Coenzyme Q10, a nutrient necessary to build muscle tissue. In January, 1989
Merck applied for a patent on a combination drug that would supplement a
statin with CoQ10. The stated purpose of Merck's combo drug was "the
counteraction of myopathy" associated with statins. ["Myopathy" means "an
abnormal condition or disease of the muscular tissues."] In other words,
the FDA knew in 1989 that statins can lead to the dissolution of muscles
- -including the heart.

Since then the drug companies have made billions of dollars selling statins
to misinformed patients.

This spring the National Institutes of Health will complete a five-year
study in which more than 1,000 subjects were examined regularly while
taking statins or a placebo. The director of the study, Beatrice Golomb, a
UC San Diego assistant professor, has hinted at troubling results: about
15% of the statin users have developed cognitive problems! Others -the
number is unpublished-report muscle aches.

Peter H. Langsjoen, a cardiologist who says he sees "two to three new
statin cardiomyopathies per week" in his Tyler, Texas practice, is
launching a petition drive to force the drug companies to put a "black box"
on their statin products warning that CoQ10 depletion can cause serious
problems unto heart failure.

Langsjoen considers "high cholesterol" a pseudo-disease created by the drug
companies and the medical establishment. Statins do three things,
according to Langsjoen:

"They block the body's ability to make cholesterol, thus lowering the blood
level of cholesterol, thereby curing cholesterol neurosis. Doctors and
patients, equally neurotic, have immediate gratification. The 'evil' high
cholesterol has been dramatically lowered and the future is bright and
promising...

"Unrelated to their cholesterol lowering, statins have been found to have
anti-inflammatory, plaque-stabilizing properties which have a slight
benefit in coronary heart disease.

"Statins kill people -lots of people- and they wound many, many more. All
patients taking statins become depleted in Coenzyme Q10 eventually. Those
who start with relatively low CoQ10 levels (the elderly and patients with
heart failure) begin to manifest signs/symptoms of CoQ10 deficiency
relatively rapidly -in six to 12 months. Younger, healthier people whose
only 'illness' is [high cholesterol] can tolerate statins for several
years before getting into trouble with fatigue, muscle weakness and
soreness and most ominously -heart failure.

"Over the past five years, statins have become more potent, are being
prescribed in higher doses, and are being used with reckless abandon in the
elderly and in patients with 'normal' cholesterol levels... Never before in
history has the medical establishment knowingly created a life-threatening
nutrient deficiency in millions of otherwise healthy people, only to then
sit back with arrogance and horrific ireresponsibility and watch to see
what happens."

Langsjoen says of his petition drive: "We, of course, do not expect any
response from the FDA, but 10 years from now when the full extent of statin
toxicity becomes painfully evident, at least we can, in good conscience,
know that we tried. And who knows, sometimes small sparks may spread in dry
grass."

Before we put away the DANGER sign... Longterm use of hair dye has been
associated with a form of cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, according to a
report in the January American Journal of Epidemiology. Investigators led
by Tongzhang Zheng of Yale University School of Medicine looked at 601
women who had developed the disease and 717 who had not. Application of
darker hair-coloring products (black, brown, red) for more than 25 years
increased a woman's chance of developing non-Hodgkin's lymphoma by a factor
of 2.1. Other types of lymphoma "generally showed an increased risk." The
(possibly) good news is that women who started dyeing their hair after 1980
did not show increased risk for lymphoma. The authors don't know whether
the drop-off "reflects the change in hair-dye formula contents during the
past two decades or indicates that recent users are still in their
induction and latent periods."

Year of the Monkey (Pity the Snake)

Monkey jumping uP Down on his tail

Just having fun, a friendly flail

Can you blame ol' Slinky if he try

to bite her on the leg or on the thigh?

Pity the snake, the pretty little garter snake

Fear of him is only a mistake

Monkey clever, chattering and gay

Snake never even get a say

Can you blame ol' Slinky if he try to bite her on the leg or on the thigh?

Pity the snake, pity the snake

sliding through the slanders by the lake