Progress?

According to google trends, searches for the terms narcan and naloxone have increased slightly over the past decade. Those searches occur much less frequently than related terms. This likely represents a real knowledge gap that we need to narrow.

Remembering Adam Berger

Cycles of Demonization & History Repeating

February 08, 1914

Negro Cocaine "Fiends" Are a New Southern Menace

Murder and Insanity Increasing Among Lower Class Blacks Because They Have Taken to "Sniffing" Since Deprived of Whisky by Prohibition.

Say the Words

Make it real. Lou Reed died from complications of Hepatitis C, not some vague or rare ailment. He died of Hepatitis C, a disease that in the US, has a significantly higher mortality rate than HIV. Say the words. This is a prevalent, dangerous disease about which way too many people know nothing.

Lou Reed, Rock ’n’ Roll Pioneer, Dies at 71

Guess who uses Lavabit?

posted on lavabit.com

My Fellow Users,
I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people or walk away from nearly ten years of hard work by shutting down Lavabit. After significant soul searching, I have decided to suspend operations. I wish that I could legally share with you the events that led to my decision. I cannot. I feel you deserve to know what’s going on--the first amendment is supposed to guarantee me the freedom to speak out in situations like this. Unfortunately, Congress has passed laws that say otherwise. As things currently stand, I cannot share my experiences over the last six weeks, even though I have twice made the appropriate requests.
What’s going to happen now? We’ve already started preparing the paperwork needed to continue to fight for the Constitution in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. A favorable decision would allow me resurrect Lavabit as an American company.
This experience has taught me one very important lesson: without congressional action or a strong judicial precedent, I would _strongly_ recommend against anyone trusting their private data to a company with physical ties to the United States.
Sincerely,

Ladar Levison

Owner and Operator, Lavabit LLC

American Justice

Jailed for 2 Decades in Rabbi’s Death, Unjustly, Prosecutors Say
By Michael Powell and Sharon Otterman
March 20, 2013
...Mr. Ranta could walk free as early as Thursday. In the decades since a jury convicted him of murder, nearly every piece of evidence in this case has fallen away. A key witness told The New York Times that a detective instructed him to select Mr. Ranta in the lineup. A convicted rapist told the district attorney that he falsely implicated Mr. Ranta in hopes of cutting a deal for himself. A woman has signed an affidavit saying she too lied about Mr. Ranta’s involvement....

Maybe it is time to stop seeing victory and justice in imprisonment. Just a thought.

San Francisco Board of Supervisors, 1875

November 15th, 1875
Ordinance Prohibiting Opium-Smoking Dens
Section 1.
No person shall in the city or county of San Francisco keep or maintain or become an inmate* of or visit or shall in any way contribute to the support of any place, house or room where persons assemble for the purpose of smoking opium or inhaling the fumes of opium. Any person who shall violate the provisions of this section shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of not less than fifty dollars and not exceeding five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment in the County Jail for a period of not less than ten days nor more than six months, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

A great new resource on speed overdose & overdo

This helps fill a big hole in our resources & is worth reading. Check it out here.

Bullying Starts at the Top

Yeah, our culture of bullying is such a mystery...nyti.ms/TIP61N
Weighing Political Risk Against Mercy for Prisoners
by Jim Dwyer January 24, 2013
"...There are cases that deserve serious consideration, but I don’t see it happening because of political risk,” Robert Dennison, the former chairman of the state’s Parole Board, said. He cited Elizabeth Gonzalez, who as a teenager had become the girlfriend of a 37-year-old man with whom she used drugs. “He sent her across the street to grab a purse; the woman fell and hit her head,” Mr. Dennison said. “She has done 17 years of an 18-to-life sentence.”

beautiful burned recycling bin

This week's sign of the (un)apocalypse.

Not one to hide my prejudices, as a general rule, I expect from District Attorneys something between the very least and the very worst. While perhaps no less convinced most DAs would sell their soul to the cause of the day...
With an attentive audience, Oneida County DA Scott McNamara absolutely got it right.
"People will say she got away with murder because of who she is, but this law was passed so people don't watch somebody die because they're afraid of jail."