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Remember the girl who received a five-day suspension for bringing Tylenol to school? If that punishment seems excessive, how about a 25-year prison sentence for having Tylenol at home? In 2004 a Florida jury convicted Richard Paey of drug trafficking involving at least 28 grams of the narcotic painkiller oxycodone, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years. But there was no evidence that Paey, who has suffered from severe chronic pain for two decades, planned to do anything with the pain reliever except relieve his pain. And since he was taking Percocet, a combination of oxycodone and acetaminophen,...

A little old lady is walking down the street, dragging two plastic garbage bags with her, one in each hand. There's a hole in one of the bags, and every once in a while a $20 bill is dropping out of it onto the pavement. Noticing this, a policeman stops her...."Ma'am, there are $20 bills falling out of that bag..." "Damn!" says the little old lady....."I'd better go back and see if I can still find some. Thanks for the warning!" "Well, now, not so fast," says the cop. "How did you get all that money? Did you steal it?"...

A NEW painkiller based on the venom of a sea snail will be available in Britain from today. Prialt, or ziconotide, is the result of more than 20 years’ research by a scientist born in the Philippines, Baldomera Olivera, who is a professor at the University of Utah. It is 1,000 times more potent than morphine but, unlike that drug, is not addictive. It is aimed at people suffering from severe, chronic pain who would normally require morphine. Given by injection into the fluid around the spine, it is the first non-opioid painkiller using this method of administration to be...

NATURE TO THE RESCUE - AGAINThe deadly sea snail venom that will take away your pain By Nigel Hawkes, Health Editor Times Online A NEW painkiller based on the venom of a sea snail will be available in Britain from today. Prialt, or ziconotide, is the result of more than 20 years’ research by a scientist born in the Philippines, Baldomera Olivera, who is a professor at the University of Utah. It is 1,000 times more potent than morphine but, unlike that drug, is not addictive. It is aimed at people suffering from severe, chronic pain who would normally...

Video news story about a young woman who faces a 25 year mandatory minimum sentence for drug trafficking. The drugs were prescription drugs (the prescription was for her mother, who had recently passed away) and none were sold. Note: I couldn't get the video to play in a Firefox tab, but it played fine using the IE Tab extension.

THURSDAY, June 22 (HealthDay News) -- A magnetic device that seems to help depression and seizures may also short-circuit migraine headaches in their earliest stages, a new study finds. The transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) device, about the size of a hair dryer, was able to interrupt the development of migraines, according to data to be presented Thursday at the American Headache Society's annual meeting, in Los Angeles. The study was funded by the device's maker, NeuraLieve, of Sunnyvale, Calif. About 28 million Americans suffer migraine headaches and about 20 percent experience migraine with aura, characterized by changes in vision before...

NEW YORK -- On Friday, the Royals were on the verge of ending both their recent 13-game losing streak and their 14-game losing streak at Yankee Stadium. Then, they had to wait ... and wait ... and wait. After they had played eight and a half innings, a downpour added to the Royals' anxiety. They waited one hour, 59 minutes in a rain delay and then, at 11:59 p.m. ET, when the game resumed, they had to put up with the Yankees staging a mini-comeback. In the end, though, Royals reliever Andrew Sisco got Jason Giambi to ground into a...

AP MEDICAL WRITER WASHINGTON -- Anyone who's ever taken a preschooler to the doctor knows they often cry more before the shot than afterward. Now researchers using brain scans to unravel the biology of dread have an explanation: For some people, anticipating pain is truly as bad as experiencing it. How bad? Among people who volunteered to receive electric shocks, almost a third opted for a stronger zap if they could just get it over with, instead of having to wait. More importantly, the research found that how much attention the brain pays to expected pain determines whether someone is...

Premature babies experience real pain rather than just displaying reflex reactions, scientists said yesterday.Brain scans carried out on premature babies during blood tests showed surges of blood and oxygen in the sensory areas of their brains - demonstrating that pain was being processed. Previous research had shown that even the youngest newborns are capable of showing the behavioural signs of pain but it had been unclear whether these were simply bodily reflexes. Prof Maria Fitzgerald, from the department of anatomy and developmental biology at University College London, who led the team, said: "We have shown for the first time that...

O Lord, why does life have to be so hard? I cry out but I hear no answer. I pray to you and ask you to help me be a better person. I work towards that goal thinking that I'm in partnership but persist in making mistakes. I do 10 things and 9 of them will turn out perfectly but it's the 10th thing -- the one that I mess up -- that gets all the attention. Why am I not appreciated for the things that I do right? Why does the one thing that I mess up have to be the most...

<p>LONDON — Six men who became ill during a drug trial remained in serious condition in a London hospital Thursday.</p> <p>Two of the men were listed in critical condition, Northwick Park Hospital said in a statement.</p> <p>Raste Khan — one of two men given a placebo in the trial — said the six had been stricken within a few minutes of receiving the drug.</p>

Stacy at Christian Persecution Blog has an excellent article today called If your outlook is bad, then look up. It especially speaks to me because my life has been full of turmoil and upheaval lately. My wife and I sat down last week, counted things up, and found that between the two of us, we had had 5 surgeries, 4 emergency room visits, and a number of most unpleasant and painful office procedures within the past 2 years. She has also lost 2 immediate family members in the past 2-1/2 years and I have had 2 job changes. Life seems...

Associated Press WASHINGTON — The dog hopped on three legs, pain from bone cancer so bad that he wouldn't let his afflicted fourth paw touch the floor. His owner was bracing for euthanasia when scientists offered a novel experiment: They injected a fiery sap from a Moroccan plant into Scooter's spinal column — and the dog frolicked on all fours again for several months. The chemical destroyed nerve cells that sensed pain from Scooter's cancer, not helping the tumor but apparently making him no longer really feel it. The dramatic effect in dogs has researchers from the National Institutes of...

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves; we are pressed on every side, yet not straitened; perplexed, yet not unto despair;   pursued, yet not forsaken; smitten down, yet not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body.   II Corinthians 4: 7-10 that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed unto his death;. Phillipians 3:10 Whosoever doth...

WASHINGTON -- People who suffer from a spinal problem that can cause back and leg pain have an alternative to difficult surgery with a newly approved device that requires a much less invasive procedure to implant. The Food and Drug Administration authorized use of the "X-stop" - a thumb of titanium on a mount that fits to a vertebra in the lower back - to reduces pain from lumbar spinal stenosis. The FDA's approval was announced Tuesday by the St. Mary's Spine Center in San Francisco, which developed the device. The condition is the most common cause of back surgery...

On Tuesday, the House Subcommittee on the Constitution began hearings on the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act (UCPAA). The legislation would require abortion providers to tell women who come to them for late-term abortions that the fetus might feel pain and that the woman has a right to ask that the fetus be anaesthetized for the procedure. Although evidence suggests that the unborn child feels pain by the age of 20 weeks (if not sooner), abortionists are not required to provide women with the information that the fetus might suffer pain during an abortion procedure, pain which could be eliminated...

A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day Free Republic made its debut in September, 1996, and the forum was added in early 1997.   Over 100,000 people have registered for posting privileges on Free Republic, and the forum is read daily by tens of thousands of concerned citizens and patriots from all around the country and the world. A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day was introduced on June 24, 2002. It's only a small room in JimRob's house where we can get to know one another a little better; salute and support our military and our leaders; pray for those in...

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus answered, "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him." (John 9:1-3 Listen) The problem of pain and suffering has vexed humanity since the beginning. If there is a God, and if he is a good and loving God, then why does he allow his creation to suffer? If God is all-powerful, then why didn't he stop...

Context: Proposed federal legislation would require physicians to inform women seeking abortions at 20 or more weeks after fertilization that the fetus feels pain and to offer anesthesia administered directly to the fetus. This article examines whether a fetus feels pain and if so, whether safe and effective techniques exist for providing direct fetal anesthesia or analgesia in the context of therapeutic procedures or abortion. Evidence Acquisition: Systematic search of PubMed for English-language articles focusing on human studies related to fetal pain, anesthesia, and analgesia. Included articles studied fetuses of less than 30 weeks’ gestational age or specifically addressed fetal...

he left spent much of the week feeling Hugo Chavez's pain. But it was in no mood to feel the pain of unborn children. A bogus study's claim that unborn children don't feel any pain at all generated a flurry of tendentiously hopeful media reports. "Researchers: Fetal Pain Not An Abortion Issue; Review of 2,000 Studies Concludes Fetus Feels Nothing Up to 29 Weeks," read one headline. Who are these "researchers"? Abortion activists, it has come out. A San Francisco abortion clinic doctor and a former NARAL employee spearheaded the article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA),...

Taking on one of the most highly charged questions in the abortion debate, a team of doctors has concluded that fetuses probably cannot feel pain in the first six months of gestation and therefore do not need anesthesia during abortions. Their report, being published today in The Journal of the American Medical Association, is based on a review of several hundred scientific papers, and it says that nerve connections in the brain are unlikely to have developed enough for the fetus to feel pain before 29 weeks. The finding poses a direct challenge to proposed federal and state laws that...

A review of medical evidence has found that fetuses likely don't feel pain until the final months of pregnancy, a powerful challenge to abortion opponents who hope that discussions about fetal pain will make women think twice about ending pregnancies. Critics angrily disputed the findings and claimed the report is biased. "They have literally stuck their hands into a hornet's nest," said Dr. Kanwaljeet Anand, a fetal pain (search) researcher at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, who believes fetuses as young as 20 weeks old feel pain. "This is going to inflame a lot of scientists who are...

Exploring fibromyalgia's mysteries, researchers look to the central nervous system, gaining deeper insight into why we suffer. ...A groundswell of research has begun to expose the underpinnings of the baffling disorder that affects an estimated 6 million to 10 million Americans, most of them women. Not only do the findings have the potential to ease the condition's stigma, they also may provide clues to other illnesses for which there is no clear clause. Fibromyalgia, experts now believe, is a pain-processing disorder — arising in the brain and spinal cord — that disrupts the ways the body perceives and communicates...

Blondes may have more fun, but redheaded women have a special quality that is as unique as their hair color. They have an innate ability to tolerate more pain than other people. In studies on "redhead" mice, which actually have blonde fur but carry a similar gene to the one that causes red hair in humans, scientists from the Human Genetics Unit in Edinburgh, Scotland were able to target the pain-reducing mechanism. These red-haired mice have a similar ability as human female redheads to withstand higher pain thresholds compared with other mice and require less anesthetic to block out certain...

"We've become mad in our pursuit of drug-law violations," he said. "Generations to come will look back and scarcely believe what we've done to sick people."

I won’t go into the details, but I’ve just been subjected to an unimaginable tragedy. All at once every ounce of pain, disappointment, and sadness I’ve ever experienced was made trivial by the news of this one event. Even now, I find it hard to believe that this nightmare is taking place in reality. Part of me is still thinking I’ll soon sit up in bed with my heart hammering and brood over how realistic the whole thing had seemed. I find myself asking the usual questions that arise under these circumstances: “Why God?” “Why have you allowed this?” “What...

At a summit in Brussels, leaders have agreed to put the European Union’s proposed constitution on hold, but a deal on the EU's budget looks unlikely. Nor is much progress expected on the long-term challenges of economic reform and enlargement THE European Union has faced crisis before. The 1970s are widely considered a lost decade for European integration. In the 1990s, Danish voters rejected the Maastricht treaty. And Irish voters did the same with the Nice treaty in 2001. So while French and Dutch voters have recently delivered a stinging slap in the face for “ever closer union” between the...

(AP) - WASHINGTON-U.S. government authorities may prosecute sick people whose doctors prescribe marijuana to ease pain, the Supreme Court ruled Monday, concluding that state laws don't protect users from a federal ban on the drug.

"Nurse Nasty," "Wicked Doctor," "The Prison Matron" … not the usual way to introduce yourself, but in the leather-clad world of sadomasochism, naughty is nice. And pain is pleasure. "I need stimulation and get a terrific high from playing rough," said Allena Gabosch, 52, a Seattle-based "bottom," meaning she's the one on the receiving end of spanking. The buxom, tattooed, alternative sex activist finds pain play very seductive but, "I still ask for Novocain at the dentist's office." While most couples don't need whips, paddles or ropes to get in the mood, a minority find sadomasochism, or S&M, erotic. They...

PERSONAL HEALTH f ever there was a classic case of "no free lunch," popular pain control medications are it. There's not one without a potentially serious risk. Yet, far too many people use them carelessly, without adequate attention to dosage and warnings about possible risks.For over a century, aspirin was the pain drug of choice, until data emerged on the rather large number of bleeding-related deaths this time-honored medicine caused each year. In fact, many pharmaceutical experts say that if aspirin had to go through the Food and Drug Administration's approval process today, it would never make it to market.Along...

It's been described as "the worst flu you ever had" and pain that never goes away. Fibromyalgia affects some 3 million to 6 million Americans -- primarily women. Many struggle just to convince their doctor of their pain because symptoms are varied and no test can diagnose it. One woman finally found an answer herself. (snip) Darlene discovered the key to her relief was in the foods she ate and those she eliminated. The trigger seemed to be a substance called excitotoxins. It's found in monosodium glutamate, high fructose corn syrup, even vegetables high in glutamate. Without it, Darlene is...

KALAMA, Wash. -- A javelin impaled a 12th-grader during track practice at a South Sound school on Monday, one of two incidents that left students hurt, KIRO 7 Eyewitness News reported.One of Dodson's friends snapped a photo of the javelin impaling him, but Dodson says that he was in shock and he did not feel any pain. "[It]felt weird and exciting at the same time," said Dodson.His friends were shocked and worried."It's not fun to see one of your friends on the ground with a javelin through his chest," said Brent Hopkins, student.Minutes later, a seventh-grader was hit in the...

KETTERING, Ohio - A woman rushing to a hospital to give birth hit a few stops along the way — first at a gas station where she delivered the baby herself, then when confused police ordered her out of the car at gunpoint. Debbie Coleman, whose 3- and 4-year-old daughters were asleep in the back seat, pulled over at a gas station just after midnight Tuesday. “I asked if she needed help, and she just leaned back in the seat, hollered a little, and I looked down and there was the baby’s head,” said station co-owner Lloyd Goff, who was...

IMPERIAL JAPANESE CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY: Witness Account "C" Test How Long a Human Being Could Survive With Just Water and Biscuits Imperial Japanese Medical Orderly Ishibashi witnessed: (Translation) "I saw the malnutrition experiments. They were conducted by the project team under the technician Yoshimura. He was a civilian project team under the technician Yoshimura. He was a civilian member of Unit 731. The purpose of the experiments, I believe, was to find out how long a human being could survive just with water and biscuits. Two individuals were used for this experiment. They continuously circled a prescribed course within...

"George Felos, Michael Schiavo's lawyer, said after visiting Schiavo yesterday afternoon that he believed her death was near. He and hospice officials said she has received two 5 milligram doses of morphine since her feeding and hydration tube was removed on March 18, but that those very small doses were administered by hospice nurses who noticed 'slight moaning, facial grimacing and tensing of [her] arms.'" From article by Maeve Reston, Post-Gazette National Bureau So look me in the eyes and tell me that Terri can't feel anything. Or that Terri hasn't felt herself slowly starve and dehydrate over the last...

The hospice and other say that Terri could not feel pain, because she was 'brain dead.' But look at this evidence: 1) the parents and nurses have said that Terri said 'pain' when she had menstrual pain. 2) Have you seen the ghoulish 'exit report' that the hospice did? It says that she is on naproxen for 'menstrual cramps.' IF SHE IS 'BRAIN DEAD' and cannot feel PAIN, then why does she says she does, AND the HOSPICE prescribes it for HER?!!!!!!!! SHE FEELS PAIN, THE HOSPICE ACKNOWLEDGES IT BY PRESCRIBING PAIN MEDICATION FOR HER FOR YEARS STOP THE KILLING

EDITORIAL OBSERVER Federal prosecutors in Virginia want Dr. William Hurwitz, recently convicted on 50 counts of distributing narcotics, to go to prison for life without parole when he is sentenced in mid-April. For the 50 million or so Americans who suffer from chronic pain, the fate of Dr. Hurwitz should be of some interest. He is a prominent doctor committed to aggressive treatment of pain. His behavior in some cases was inexcusable. Patients for whom he freely provided large prescriptions should, at the very minimum, have been given more close supervision. But malpractice should be cause for loss of license....

Maximum pain is aim of new US weapon * 19:00 02 March 2005 * Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition * David Hambling The US military is funding development of a weapon that delivers a bout of excruciating pain from up to 2 kilometres away. Intended for use against rioters, it is meant to leave victims unharmed. But pain researchers are furious that work aimed at controlling pain has been used to develop a weapon. And they fear that the technology will be used for torture. "I am deeply concerned about the ethical aspects of this research," says Andrew Rice,...

The US military is funding development of a weapon that delivers a bout of excruciating pain from up to 2 kilometres away. Intended for use against rioters, it is meant to leave victims unharmed. But pain researchers are furious that work aimed at controlling pain has been used to develop a weapon. And they fear that the technology will be used for torture. "I am deeply concerned about the ethical aspects of this research," says Andrew Rice, a consultant in pain medicine at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London, UK. "Even if the use of temporary severe pain can be...

Pain Sufferers Find Yoga and Diet Can Comfort ImmuneSupport.com 02-14-2005 By Carrie White, Tribune Scottsdale, Arizona rheumatologist Paul Howard doesn’t believe pharmaceuticals, by themselves, are the best way for people with arthritis to get better. Rather, Howard sees treatment for the disease — joint inflammation affecting nearly 70 million Americans — as involving a combination of exercise, supplementation, diet and, if needed, weight loss. His patients bear out his approach. Peggy McKee, 76, of Scottsdale first visited Howard’s office three years ago with an arthritis flare-up shortly after the death of her husband and a daughter. McKee, who suffers from...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 - In an action likely to reopen a national debate over whether doctors should be able to help terminally ill patients end their lives, the Supreme Court agreed on Tuesday to hear the Bush administration's challenge to the only state law in the country that authorizes physician-assisted suicide. Oregon's Death With Dignity Act, the administration's target, was approved twice by the state's voters and took effect in November 1997. According to the state, in a brief filed last month, 171 patients have used the law to administer lethal doses of federally regulated drugs that their doctors prescribed...

The American Pain Foundation (APF) recently received a grant from the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) Charitable Service Trust to reach out to veterans who are in pain and provide them with educational information, and support to improve their pain care, decrease their sense of isolation, and encourage them in their pursuit of a better quality of life for themselves and their families. With the number of injured people coming back from the war, and the demographic shift of the increasing number of veterans moving into their senior years, pain is a growing concern among veterans. We plan to create a...

After a panel of medical experts gave a very cautious nod to the continued use of the painkillers Celebrex, Vioxx and Bextra on Friday, pain management experts said they expected to see the same caution transform the way the painkillers are prescribed from now on. The drugs, which had been hugely popular for people with both short-term and chronic pain, will be prescribed much less readily, for a smaller group of patients, at lower doses and for shorter periods, the experts said. "I am still very concerned about the cardiac risks of these medications," said Dr. David Campen, director of...

Spinal cord stimulation for low back pain Treatment Overview Spinal cord stimulation is an experimental procedure that uses an electrical current to treat chronic low back pain. A small pulse generator, implanted in the back, transmits electrical pulses to the spinal cord. These pulses interfere with the nerve impulses responsible for chronic low back pain or leg pain and numbness (sciatica). The stimulator implantation is considered to be a simple procedure, typically done using a local anesthetic and a sedative. A stimulator may first be implanted under the skin (percutaneously) to give the treatment a trial run. (A percutaneous stimulator...

Activists say Norwegian report slanted to favor fishing industry PORTLAND, Maine - A new study out of Norway concludes it’s unlikely lobsters feel pain, stirring up a long-simmering debate over whether Maine’s most valuable seafood suffers when it’s being cooked. Animal activists for years have claimed that lobsters are in agony when being cooked, and that dropping one in a pot of boiling water is tantamount to torture. The study, funded by the Norwegian government and written by a scientist at the University of Oslo, suggests lobsters and other invertebrates such as crabs, snails and worms probably don’t suffer even...

Despite all the advances of modern medicine, the main drugs used to fight pain today are essentially the same as those used in ancient times. Hippocrates wrote about the pain-soothing effects of willow bark and leaves as early as 400 B.C. Opium was cultivated long before that. Aspirin and morphine, based on the active ingredients in these traditional remedies, were isolated in the 1800's and helped form the foundation of the modern pharmaceutical industry. But scientists are now trying to find new ways of fighting pain. The effort has been given new impetus by the recent withdrawal of Vioxx and...

VATICAN CITY, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Pope John Paul, still convalescing after 10 days in hospital, told the world's sick on Friday that their suffering was "precious", but did not deliver his message in person at a special service for sick people. The 84-year-old Pontiff returned to the Vatican on Thursday evening after doctors decided he had recovered from an acute breathing crisis brought on by a bout of influenza. But Vatican officials are taking no risks with his frail health and the Pope missed Friday's commemorative Mass, held to mark the day the Roman Catholic Church dedicates each year...

LONDON (Reuters) - A British woman was sentenced to two and a half years in jail Thursday for ripping off her ex-lover's testicle with her bare hands during a drunken brawl after he refused her sex. Amanda Monti, 24, flew into a rage in May last year after Geoffrey Jones, 37, who had ended their long-term relationship, rejected her advances. She grabbed him by the genitals, tearing off his left testicle, then hid it in her mouth before a friend of Jones handed it back to him saying "that's yours." Monti, of Birkenhead, near Liverpool, pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding...

Somebody pass the butter. A recent Norwegian study reports that lobsters and crabs don't have the capacity to feel pain. And the animal rights nuts at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) -- who run a "lobster liberation" website -- must be steaming. Animal rights wackos have a long history of pursuing "lobster liberation." PETA's own website offers helpful "tips" on liberating lobsters from restaurants and supermarkets. It appears their pleas were taken to heart last year when PETA disciple and child actor Edward Furlong attempted to "liberate" a couple of lobsters from a Kentucky grocery store...

It is the ethical dilemma that for decades has troubled the rich and aspiring the world over: when you place a live lobster in a pot of boiling water, does it feel pain? Norwegian scientists were asked to investigate pain, discomfort and stress in invertebrates and claim now to have discovered that the answer is no. Their conclusion applies also to crabs and to live worms on a fish hook. None of these feel a thing. Which is good news for Norwegian fishermen at least. Their government was considering a ban on live worms as fish bait under revisions to...