Let's Go Back -- Updates

Let's Go Back -- Updates

   Yikes, there's been some confusion over a few of the recent postings so here are a few quick updates. 

   Regarding the post on marijuana (Pot/s and Ban/s), one of the main differences between marijuana and heroin is the different parts of the body that are affected; the cannabinoid receptors within our bodies aren't usually found in the brain stem which controls our breathing and cadiovascular functions. So despite many rumors, there hasn't been a single case of a marijuana overdose due to breathing (anxiety maybe, but not breathing).  The same cannot be said for synthetic marijuana or heroin, which can cause respiratory failure (the heroin death rate has tripled since 2010, which some sources blame on increased traffic from Mexico, one alleged result of the marijuana supply flow diminishing and even reversing back into Mexico and causing drug cartels to seek their profits elsewhere).  An interesting story about this change in the raising and exporting of marijuana now heading back into Mexico appeared in Bloomberg Businessweek, an article that better explains what is happening and changing among the larger drug gangs in Mexico regarding marijuana production.  Another interesting article on the medical side of marijuana ("...where 1 in 10 adults --and 35% of high school seniors-- admit to conducting their own, mostly recreational, research," says the article) appeared in Time and was broadly taken from author Bruce Barcott's recent book, Weed the People.  In that article, research on marijuana's botanical healing properties is springing up in countries such as Canada and Britain; and even states such as Colorado are awarding grants for marijuana research (the most recent being for $9 million).  Says Fair Vassoler, a researcher at Tufts University, "We can do studies on cocaine and morphine without a problem, because they are Schedule II; but marijuana is Schedule I."  Some of the Senators looking to change some of the laws and allow marijuana to be studied (mentioned in the post) include Kirsten Gillibrand, Cory Booker and Rand Paul.

   On the post on cigarettes (Ciggies), five million deaths were attributed to cigarette smoking in 2014, this despite the fact that over half of the states now ban smoking in public places.  In early September, the nation's 2nd largest health-pharmacy chain, CVS, announced that it would pull all tobacco products from its shelves, the argument being, according to its CEO, Larry Merlo, that being in the health & wellness business didn't mix with also selling tobacco products.  The move was expected to result in lost revenue of $2 billion a year...their stock, instead, has since gone up by nearly half from its low.

   In the piece on clutter (Clutter), it would appear that Americans are tidying up, but not really getting rid of much.  There are close to 50,000 storage facilities across the U.S., and according to a piece in Time titled The Joy of Less, those storage sites "could fill three Manhattans, and they outnumber all the McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger Kings and Starbucks in the U.S. put together."  Those self-storage units now make more in revenue than the NFL.  On the opposite end, the haul-away company, 1-800-GOT-JUNK, removed over $1 billion in "junk" in 2014 (a far cry from founder Brian Scudamore's $700 he spent on an old pickup truck to start his business).  Elinor Ochs, an anthropologist from UCLA who studies hyperacquisition, found that when she interviewed mothers and talked about their rooms being "filled with all the things meant to make life easier for them and their families better, easier and happier--the opposite seemed to occur.  Their levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, spiked."  All of which might be better explained in a book by James Wallman, Stuffocation 

   The earlier piece on salmon (Something Fishy) shows only rising prices to continue as the demand for salmon is outpacing the ability of both fishermen and aqua-farmers to produce enough salmon.  Demand has maintained a steady 6-7% annual increase around the world (both Chile and Norway, two of largest farmed-salmon producers, are at or near peak capacity).  As such farms now move to open ocean water pens, salmon anemia and sea lice are continuing to be difficult problems to overcome.  An interesting peek at how ocean farming is charging for the world of salmon production can be previewed by visiting the site at Verlasso in Patagonia.

   And finally (hey, I have to end somewhere), the continuing issue of our dwindling water supply (Thirsty) was far better explained (and it's quite complicated, especially the pumping and allocation systems that control the water distribution) in two pieces in The New Yorker.  The first article by David Owen was titled Where the River Runs Dry, dealt with the Colorado River and its slow trickling to Mexico (its early history was fascinating but then politics entered the picture).  The next piece dealt partially with California's muted response to save the Salton Sea or save the city of San Diego.  In that piece (The Dying Sea), author Dana Goodyear notes that much of what the barren area produces, with the help of allocated water, are thirsty crops such as hay and alfalfa that get exported to places such as China, Saudi Arabia and Japan.  These exports account for 50% of the crops (80% of the almonds grown are exported; almond farms use 9% of the entire state's agricultural water supply).  In a piece in Sierra, professor of water policy at UC Santa Barbara, Robert Wilkinson, said, "We're exporting alfalfa to China in container ships, and most of that is grown in the desert.  What choices are we making with the water we are using?"

   Phew,  there are more updates --from news on the elephant front to our recent 113th Congress (now being the "second-least productive on the past 40 years") but those will have to wait.  The thoughts and issues just keep coming...and sometimes you'll have to forgive my pause in writings as family matters and sometimes even the simple pleasures of taking a break enter the picture.  But as always, I do try to spur some of those thoughts in you, to get that "grrrrr" or that "yahhh" out of you.  And that can only come from your reading of these...and for that, you, the readers, always have my deepest thanks.