Rocky's panel on Prescription Drug Abuse

From JM Bell:

The Salt Lake City Mayor’s Coalition on Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs, is hosting a Town Hall Meeting on Wednesday, August 29th from 7 – 8:30 pm at the Main City Library auditorium. Mayor Rocky Anderson and a panel of experts will address the issue of over-the-counter and prescription drug abuse. Sadly, Utah is first in the nation in prescription drug abuse, at a level our state medical examiner calls “epidemic.”

Unfortunately, Utah’s youth and surprisingly, many parents, believe prescription drug abuse is safer than street drugs; the reality is that prescription drug overdoses kill twice as many people as street drugs. In Utah, prescription drug overdoses accounted for more deaths than automobile accidents.

Take the time to attend this town hall meeting, especially if you have kids. It’s an important topic.

First off, it's nice to see Rocky doing something that directly affects the lives of his residents.

Secondly, this is an important topic. I have known numerous people, all of the good Latter-Day Saints, who have fallen into the trap of prescription drugs. They feel that these drugs are OK because they are not street drugs. Most of the time, they are abusing drugs that they legally have a prescription for.

I plan on trying to make it to this event. I suggest you do the same....

Iraq Growing Opium; We Lose War on Terror and War on Drugs

One of the largest ways that the Taliban gets money is by growing poppies for the opium.

One of the things we did well in the early stages of the WaronTerror:Afghanistan was to get rid of the poppy crops. Fast forward to 2007, where this year's poppy crop is expected to be larger than last year's record-setting amount.

And now, we read that they are starting to grow poppies in Iraq:

Farmers in southern Iraq have started to grow opium poppies in their fields for the first time, sparking fears that Iraq might become a serious drugs producer along the lines of Afghanistan.

Rice farmers along the Euphrates, to the west of the city of Diwaniya, south of Baghdad, have stopped cultivating rice, for which the area is famous, and are instead planting poppies, Iraqi sources familiar with the area have told The Independent.

The shift to opium cultivation is still in its early stages but there is little the Iraqi government can do about it because rival Shia militias and their surrogates in the security forces control Diwaniya and its neighbourhood. There have been bloody clashes between militiamen, police, Iraqi army and US forces in the city over the past two months.

Oops.

-Bob

Buy Orrin a map

Somebody please buy Orrin Hatch a map of the United States, and highlight the state he is supposed to represent.

Orrin Hatch spoke to a high school the other day. In Wellesley. No, not Wellesley, Utah, but Wellesley, MA.

High school gives Hatch mixed response

In typical Republican fashion, "The speech was closed to the public and the media."

Hatch spoke on free-market economics, the Patriot Act and AIDS relief work by Bono
[snip]
Hatch said he also sought to deliver an anti-drug message.

If you use illegal drugs -- even if you smoke cigarettes -- you're a loser, Hatch said he told the students.