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There’s two stories about drugs that I picked up this early morning while writing under the mild influence of alcohol which, while acceptable in broad society and legallity, is still a drug, and I thought I might share them with you.

First off, Obama’s past drug use… still an issues, as noted by a question raised by a man at a Town Hall meeting in Nevada.

At a town hall meeting on a day that took Obama from Nevada to Los Angeles, a man who said he did not use illegal drugs wanted to know if Obama would end the “drug wars.”

“You’ve had experience yourself, where if you were arrested when you were a teenager, you would never be elected to the presidency,” the man said.

Obama did not acknowledge the personal reference. “I am not interested in legalizing drugs,” he said.

“What I am interested in is putting more of an emphasis on the public health approach to drugs and less on … incarceration.” He said too many “first-time nonviolent drug offenders” were locked up “instead of diverting them into programs where they can get treatment, and all we do is give them a master’s degree in criminality.”

Sounds like a good policy to me, and many would agree.  And, of course, Obama’s past admitted use of pot and coke as a teen, had he been busted, would have kept him from getting as far in the world as he has, so with that in mind- rehabbing and treatment does seem like a considerably better option than jail.  Of course, we’re still talking non-violent 1st time offenders, after that, then we’ll talk about jail. 

One type of drugs that won’t get you put into lock-up, and is easy to come by if you know the right dealer (or as some call them- therapists) are anti-depresants.  Which are now coming under fire due to the fact that many trial findings from their development were not being submitted when trying to get FDA approval.

The makers of antidepressants like Prozac and Paxil never published the results of about a third of the drug trials that they conducted to win government approval, misleading doctors and consumers about the drugs’ true effectiveness, a new analysis has found.

In published trials, about 60 percent of people taking the drugs report significant relief from depression, compared with roughly 40 percent of those on placebo pills. But when the less positive, unpublished trials are included, the advantage shrinks: the drugs outperform placebos, but by a modest margin, concludes the new report, which appears Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Wow, so you’re telling me that not only are the drugs not always as effective on patients as they’re advertised to be… but also, much of the time just taking a sugar pill make people feel better when they really think they’re taking something that will make them feel better?  Like a lot of this depression might just be something in their mind that they’re dealing with, and not a chemical irregularity?  Well holy shit.

Oh, and while winter is still upon us, a note from the FDA to all you parents out there.  Don’t give your kids cold medicine when they’re all sniffly and such.  It might kill them.  No, seriously, that’s what they’re saying.

Parents should not give sniffling babies and toddlers over-the-counter cough and cold medicines — they’re too risky for children so young, the government will declare Thursday.

The Food and Drug Administration still hasn’t decided whether the remedies are appropriate for older children, officials said. Expect a decision on that by spring, the deadline necessary to notify manufacturers before they begin production for autumn’s cold season.

For now, the FDA is issuing a public health advisory to warn parents to avoid these drugs for children under age 2 “because serious and potentially life-threatening side effects can occur.”

See, told you.

So there you have it kids.  Remember, just say no to drugs.  Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to finish my rum and go to bed. 

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