Free Republic

DES MOINES, Iowa — There's less than three weeks until the Iowa caucuses, and GOP presidential candidates are blitzing through Iowa. Recently, Ron DeSantis made multiple stops across the state and brought along some Iowa leaders who have endorsed him. So far, DeSantis has completed a 99-county tour, also known as a full Grassley, and has made more than 154 stops across Iowa. His campaign tells Iowa's News Now he's garnered support from more than 30,000 Iowans who plan to caucus for him. They have more than 1,000 caucus captains who will be speaking in favor of him at precincts...

Study could potentially help clinicians treat marijuana addiction Research by a group of scientists studying the effects of heavy marijuana use suggests that withdrawal from the use of marijuana is similar to what is experienced by people when they quit smoking cigarettes. Abstinence from each of these drugs appears to cause several common symptoms, such as irritability, anger and trouble sleeping - based on self reporting in a recent study of 12 heavy users of both marijuana and cigarettes. “These results indicate that some marijuana users experience withdrawal effects when they try to quit, and that these effects should be...

More than 30% of Americans engage in risky drinking at some point in their lives... ...Researchers have made up dozens of screening tests over the years. According to one developed for Johns Hopkins University Hospital years ago that still pops up on the Web, I'm "definitely an alcoholic" because I answered yes to at least three of 20 questions... But Alcoholscreening.org3 says I'm "below the range usually associated with harmful drinking or alcoholism" since I have only a glass or two of wine when I drink. The authoritative American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM-IV,...

SACRAMENTO - Should it be illegal for parents to smoke in the car while their children are in the back seat? One day after the U.S. Surgeon General released the most damning study yet on secondhand smoke, a state Senate committee approved a bill Wednesday that would allow police to stop drivers guilty of puffing in the confines of their car when a child passenger is secured in a safety seat. If the measure becomes law, violators who smoke a "lighted pipe, cigar or cigarette containing tobacco or any other plant" would receive a warning on the first offense, and...

Psst! Hey kid! Come over here and jump off this bridge! All the cool kids've done it 'n you're the only one left! It won't hurt, it'll be fun. Anyhow, if ya don't do it, I'm gonna come back 'n bugya, 'n bugya, 'n bugya forever till ya do. With that sort of reasoned discourse in the background, accompanied by taunts of "You smell like an ASHTRAY!", Philadelphia finally jumped on the bandwagon and banned smoking. Well, sorta. They banned it unless you're a bar that agrees not to feed its customers anything healthy, one that's well-off enough to have...