Free Republic

I remember a LOT of discussion during the '80s and '90s about what was going to happen in the future to the kids whose parents were feeding them mood-altering drugs like Ritalin to calm the little hellions down. Are we seeing the results right now?

“I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from ... cigarettes.” This sentiment, expressed by Barack Obama in January and shared by millions, has once again been challenged — this time by an academic review of 20-years worth of research. The handiwork of Dr. Wayne Hall, a professor of addiction policy at King's College London and drug advisor for the World Health Organization, the review implicates cannabis in a whole host of health problems, but, in particular, in mental-health issues and addiction among habitual users — especially teenagers.

Minnesota Obamacare is calling it quits. PreferredOne, the insurer that sold nearly 60 percent of all private health plans on Minnesota's Obamacare exchange, on Tuesday said it would leave that marketplace. PreferredOne's plans were the lowest-cost options on that exchange, known as MNSure. PreferredOne cited the costs of doing business on MNSure as the reason for its surprising decision, saying that selling plans is "not administratively and financially sustainable going forward," according to KSTP.com, the website of that Minnesota TV News network.

It takes a turn for the worse around the 3:00 min. mark ...

You probably never stopped to think if where you live has anything to do with the number of prescription medications you're taking. But if you live in the American South, chances are you take more medications than you would if you lived on the other side of the Mason-Dixon Line. In fact, when it comes to residents popping the largest numbers of pills, Southern states beat the average by a long shot. States filled an average 11.1 retail prescriptions per capita in 2006, according to the latest figures compiled by the non-profit Kaiser Family Foundation's statehealthfacts.org and Vector One: National,...

Anne Hendershott, a professor of sociology at the University of San Diego, boldly uses in the title of her latest book, The Politics of Deviance (Encounter, 2004), a word that many dare no longer speak. WORLD: Is anything deviant anymore? Hendershott: We have become reluctant to label behaviors "deviant." Drug abuse, promiscuity, abortion, and even homosexual acts are all behaviors that in the past were viewed as quite deviant. Today, in many cases, these behaviors have been normalized—or, as the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, we have "defined deviancy down." I was curious how that happened and decided to...

MIDI - GOT TO GET YOU INTO MY LIFE I had been up, now I am down I didn't know what she was doing Another stop, another speech My chances she is really screwing Ooh, she pretends she's above it Ooh, she tells some guy to shove it I have got to shut up my wife I said I'd run if she'd behave Those are the words that I had told her I thought that things would be okay But every day she's getting bolder Ooh, she pretends she's above it Ooh, she tells some guy to shove it...

MIDI - GOING OUT OF MY HEAD Well, I think they drove me out of my mind…I could really kick those FReepers' behinds We are through…we're through They stood on the sidewalk and chanted that we had to get the hell out of Cheney's house Yes, I think they drove me out of my mind…and enough of those chads we couldn't find We are through…we're through I've gained eighty pounds and I really look frumpy…please, dear, will you pass me some more ludes I am out of my mind because of those FReepers Out of my mind…my shrink digs...