Vice-presidential candidates Tim Kaine and Mike Pence went head-to-head on Tuesday evening at the first and only vice-presidential debate. The two candidates sparred on the right to an abortion. ‘The very last thing that the government should do is have laws that would punish women who make reproductive choices,’ Kaine said
You’re effectively using the essential ingredients of cannabis right now. You and everyone else. That’s because our brains, and other parts of the body, have a natural endocannabinoid system that is now known to assist with how we deal with pain, the control of movement, the protection of the brain after damage and a host of other functions. Our increasing knowledge of this natural endocannabinoid system now gives a solid scientific rationale for why cannabis has so many positive medicinal effects. And as well as this recently understood scientific rationale, there is a substantial body of clinical evidence that medical cannabis works. My review of that evidence is published today by the UK all-party parliamentary group on drug reform as part of their inquiry into medical cannabis.
My challenge to the government is to have the political courage to accept the scientific rationale, accept the evidence and move to legalise access to medical cannabis under prescription here in the UK as a matter of urgency.
Cannabis has been a useful medicine for centuries, with known use dating back to 4000BC in ancient China
Currently, the government has cannabis classified as a Schedule 1 drug, a classification for substances judged to have no medicinal value. This is irrational and incoherent. The evidence is plain to see and has been compelling enough for a large number of countries to legalise access to medical cannabis including the Netherlands, Germany, Spain and 25 US states.
My report shows that there is strong evidence that medical cannabis helps with chronic pain; spasticity (common, disabling and painful after stroke or brain injury and common in those suffering from multiple sclerosis, as examples); for nausea and vomiting, especially during chemotherapy; and for the management of anxiety. There is also evidence of usefulness in sleep disorders, for appetite stimulation (in HIV, for example), fibromyalgia, post-traumatic stress disorder, severe childhood epilepsies, bladder problems and even for control of some cancers. The list goes on.
And this issue matters to a lot of people. Estimates by the campaign group End Our Pain put the number of people in the UK taking cannabis primarily for medical reasons at one million. Many have found that “regular” prescription medicines just don’t work for them, or have debilitating side-effects. As access to cannabis in the UK is illegal, all these people are at risk of prosecution. These people would be regarded as patients in those countries with a more enlightened approach, but here they risk being treated as criminals.
The usefulness of medical cannabis is unquestionable; but is it safe? Certainly there are some potential short-term effects such as dizziness, drowsiness, dry mouth, balance problems and sometimes confusion. These effects, however, are largely induced by the psychoactive component – tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). This is the chemical that causes the “high” sought by recreational users. The other main chemical is cannabidiol (CBD), which is neither illegal nor psychoactive and indeed counters the effects of THC. That’s why medical cannabis will be produced in controlled conditions to ensure the right balance between CBD and THC.
Much more powerful and potentially dangerous prescription medicines are prescribed routinely by doctors. Every drug prescribed has positive and negative effects and the doctor’s job is to weigh those risks and benefits, explain that balance to the patient and allow an informed choice. It would be no different in the case of medical cannabis.
What about the threat of long-term problems, such as triggering schizophrenia? The evidence is conflicting but nevertheless some cannabis products (mainly those high in THC) can induce transient symptoms similar to the symptoms of schizophrenia and exacerbate symptoms in individuals already suffering from psychosis. I would expect a doctor not to prescribe medical cannabis in such cases.
Cannabis has been a useful medicine for centuries, with known use dating back to 4000BC in ancient China. It was also widely used in ancient Indian, Greek and Roman cultures. Medicinal use was first properly documented by Dioscorides in the first century AD. It has certainly gone through periods of being in and out of fashion. A particular period of enthusiasm was during the 19th century when, for example, Sir John Russell Reynolds recommended it for period pain suffered by Queen Victoria.
The government now has the scientific rationale and the evidence. And through the campaigning efforts of End Our Pain and others, we have the powerful personal testimonies of those that are suffering. Let’s act. Let’s legalise access to medical cannabis now.
By Josh Archambault, Jonathan Ingram and Christie Herrera—Mr. Archambault and Ms. Herrera are Senior Fellows, and Mr. Ingram Director of Research, at the Basis for Government Accountability.
Final Monday, Indiana Governor Mike Pence unveiled his so-referred to as “conservative” situation for ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Pence’s program, dubbed the “Healthy Indiana Strategy two.0” or “HIP 2.,” expands Medicaid to ObamaCare amounts with so-referred to as “POWER Accounts” that are funded by taxpayers and employed by growth enrollees to spend for care.
The media exalted the Pence announcement and characterized it as the most current red state to cave to ObamaCare. Indeed, some progressives say Kathleen Sebelius’ best achievement as Wellness and Human Companies Secretary was obtaining Republican governors to increase Medicaid.
But at AEI, Pence was singing a distinct tune—he argued that he wasn’t caving into ObamaCare at all.
I’ve mentioned it ahead of and I’ll say it yet again — Obamacare must be repealed
Pence explained, (falsely) claiming his program does not implement ObamaCare but as an alternative
aids make the situation for why repeal is essential.
Even though a lot of on the proper have roundly denounced the Pence strategy as an ObamaCare Medicaid expansion, you will hear equivalent free-market rhetoric from the handful of conservatives who have tepidly come to Pence’s defense.
In spite of people supporters’ rhetoric, the Pence plan—just like similarly disguised strategies out of Arkansas and Iowa—remains an ObamaCare Medicaid expansion in disguise.
Rhetoric: The Pence plan functions as a block grant.
Reality: Pence’s Medicaid expansion is structured and funded like any other open-ended government plan.
Pence informed the AEI crowd that his plan “is not intended to be an entitlement” and “will serve as a model for what block-granted Medicaid packages could be in states across the country.”
Like the Arkansas Personal Selection, nevertheless, the Pence plan is a far cry from real block grants that conservatives have lengthy-championed.
By definition, Medicaid block grants give states a fixed, lump sum of federal dollars in exchange for broad autonomy in providing Medicaid benefits. Pence’s prepare functions neither of these elements. Below Pence’s ObamaCare expasion, Indiana will draw down rising quantities of ObamaCare in exchange for including much more individuals to the Medicaid rolls.
And as we pointed out previously, the Pence program delivers ObamaCare Medicaid positive aspects, with ObamaCare Medicaid expense-sharing, to the ObamaCare Medicaid growth population. It is the worst of all worlds for taxpayers—Indiana’s Medicaid growth beneath Pence’s plan will be a blank examine with no real incentive or versatility to manage charges.
Rhetoric: Power Accounts build on Indiana’s success with Wellness Savings Accounts (HSAs).
Reality: Electrical power Accounts below Pence’s Medicaid expansion are nothing at all like HSAs.
Dan Perrin at the HSA Coalition praises Pence’s plan as “expanding HSA-like ideas … into locations they must go to turn into broadly utilized and accepted.”
But as we mentioned previously, Energy Accounts underneath Pence’s ObamaCare expansion are a pale imitation of the accounts produced by Gov. Mitch Daniels’ authentic iteration of Healthier Indiana, and they search absolutely nothing like the HSAs that 96% of Indiana state staff have these days.
Co-authored by Jonathan Ingram and Christie Herrera
Governor Mike Pence (R-IN) announced his prepare to apply ObamaCare’s Medicaid growth. (Waiver request) Fearing push-back from merely expanding a broken system, begun by Mitch Daniels, labeling his expansion strategy “Healthy Indiana Strategy two..” Time will inform if he has a particular connection with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Providers (CMS) to get his HIP two. approved in full, but current historical past would recommend otherwise. Even though the rhetoric of state-certain “flexibility” for Medicaid expansions has been heavy in Arkansas and Iowa , the fine print has unveiled a extremely diverse story. What people states have been left with after negotiating with CMS was an ObamaCare Medicaid growth with some free-market window dressing. Gov. Pence and Indiana legislators must not make this very same blunder.
HIP two. Is Medicaid Growth
Now in its seventh yr of operation, the Healthy Indiana Prepare presently extends wellness coverage to all Hoosiers earning up to a hundred% of the federal poverty degree (FPL). In contrast to traditional entitlement packages, enrollment in the Healthy Indiana Strategy is capped, primarily based on offered funding. HIP two. will take away people provisions and raise eligibility up to 138 percent FPL.
The plan also includes Individual Wellness and Accountability (Power) accounts, which operates similarly to a Well being Savings Account (HSA).
Promotional supplies try to evaluate HIP 2. with Indiana’s substantial achievement with state-employee Health Cost savings Accounts (HSAs). But there is a stark difference between a genuine HSA, which requires premiums to be paid and underneath which Indiana state staff fund 55-73 % of their HSAs, and HIP 2.0’s Energy Accounts, in which taxpayers foot the bill for 88-a hundred% of account contributions.
When it comes to correct customer-driven health ideas, Milton Friedman’s adage comes to thoughts: “Nobody spends someone else’s funds as meticulously as he spends his personal.”
Health policy observers on the right have prolonged debated the merits of the authentic Healthy Indiana Plan. For conservative supporters of Healthy Indiana, one particular glaring point remains. Any CMS-accepted Medicaid growth proposal will likely gut the essential components of the original Healthier Indiana Plan—relegating Gov. Pence’s HIP two. to Medicaid expansion by yet another identify.
Consider the following:
Governor Pence’s Proposal Generates A New Entitlement For Ready-Bodied Adults Without having Youngsters.
Though a little variety of childless adults previously experienced for the Healthful Indiana Prepare, their enrollment was often subject to offered money from other Medicaid financial savings initiatives. The plan capped the amount of childless grownups who could enroll at 36,500. Gov. Pence’s new prepare turns that tiny, limited system into a substantial new entitlement for childless adults.
Under HIP 2., more than 284,000 in a position-bodied childless adults (and 91,000 mother and father) will grow to be eligible for Medicaid expansion, an boost of practically 700 %. And unlike the Healthy Indiana Program, there is no cap on enrollment, obligating the state to offer rewards to these men and women regardless of the availability of money.
Governor Pence’s Proposal Increases Medicaid Eligibility Under ObamaCare.
Presently, the Healthier Indiana Program only serves individuals earning under the federal poverty level, even though it when served men and women with greater incomes. HIP 2. not only lifts the enrollment cap, it also increases the Indiana Medicaid eligibility from a hundred % to 138 percent FPL. Additionally, folks earning far more than one hundred % FPL are at the moment eligible for subsidies through the ObamaCare exchange. They would be forced out of the exchange and into Medicaid underneath Gov. Pence’s proposal.
Governor Pence’s Proposal Lowers Skin-In-The-Game And Incentivizes Costly ER-Use.
The Wholesome Indiana Strategy needs contributions ranging from 2% to five% of income, with a minimum contribution of $ 160 per year. The prepare also attempts to incentivize childless adult sufferers to avoid employing ERs for non-urgent demands by imposing a $ 25 copayment. These contribution and incentive provisions have extended been celebrated by Wholesome Indiana Strategy advocates.
HIP two., however, tremendously minimizes the necessary contributions, giving enrollees much less skin-in-the-game. In truth, these regular monthly contributions are totally eradicated for 3-quarters of the expansion population if they select the “Basic” program alternative and are as low as $ 3 per month for “Plus” plans that consist of all Medicaid positive aspects, plus added benefits like dental and vision coverage.
HIP 2. also reduces some copayments for needless ER use to just $ eight, however it attempts to preserve the $ 25 copay in some situations. But CMS recently rejected Iowa’s proposal to enhance its ER copay to $ 10, so the last deal will probably scuttle the $ 25 copayment altogether, imposing only the nominal $ 8 copayment currently allowed by Medicaid principles. Minimizing this copayment to nominal quantities will absolutely incentivize enrollees to make pointless ER visits more than they would below the Healthful Indiana Plan’s initial layout.
Governor Pence’s Proposal Crowds Out Personal Insurance.
Underneath the authentic style of the Wholesome Indiana Strategy, individuals could only turn out to be eligible if they had been uninsured for at least six months and with no access to employer-sponsored insurance. These needs are nowhere to be identified in HIP two., ensuring that taxpayers will be forced to select up the cost of individuals who drop personal insurance to enroll in taxpayer-paid Medicaid, as has took place in other states that have expanded Medicaid eligibility. Gov. Pence’s proposal also shifts individuals who qualify for subsidies in the ObamaCare exchange into Indiana’s Medicaid program, rising crowd-out even further.
Co-authored by Jonathan Ingram and Christie Herrera
Governor Mike Pence (R-IN) announced his prepare to apply ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion. (Waiver request) Fearing push-back from simply expanding a broken plan, Gov. Pence has tried to cover his ObamaCare expansion prepare with the veneer of the Healthful Indiana Program stewarded by Mitch Daniels, labeling his expansion prepare “Healthy Indiana Strategy 2..” Governor Pence has been a sturdy advocate towards ObamaCare and its a single-dimension-fits-none approach for expanding coverage. Time will tell if he has a specific connection with CMS to get his HIP 2. accepted in complete, but latest background would suggest otherwise. Although the rhetoric of state-specific “flexibility” for Medicaid expansions has been heavy in Arkansas and Iowa , the fine print has uncovered a really diverse story. What these states have been left with after negotiating with CMS was an ObamaCare Medicaid growth with some free of charge-industry window dressing. Gov. Pence and Indiana legislators need to not make this same error. The greatest program of action is to walk away from any Medicaid growth proposal as the Obama administration has shown itself unwilling to grant accurate state versatility.
HIP two. Is Medicaid Expansion
Well being policy observers on the right have long debated the merits of the authentic Healthier Indiana Plan. Now in its seventh yr of operation, the Healthier Indiana Prepare currently extends health coverage to all Hoosiers earning up to 100% of the federal poverty degree (FPL). Unlike standard entitlement packages, enrollment in the Healthy Indiana Strategy is capped, based on available funding. HIP two. will get rid of these provisions and raise eligibility up to 138 % FPL.
It should be mentioned, Indiana has had significant success with consumer driven wellness reform for state-employee with state money, which calls for premiums to be paid and beneath which personnel contribute 55-73 percent of their HSAs.
Nevertheless, These programs ought to not be conflated with HIP 2. as they consist of crucial differences. One glaring stage stays. Any CMS-accredited Medicaid growth strategy will most likely gut the vital components of the original Healthy Indiana Plan—relegating Gov. Pence’s proposal to Medicaid expansion by yet another name.
Contemplate the following:
Proposal Generates A New Entitlement For Ready-Bodied Adults With out Children.
Despite the fact that a small number of childless grownups previously competent for the Wholesome Indiana Plan, their enrollment was always subject to accessible money from other Medicaid cost savings initiatives. The plan capped the quantity of childless adults who could enroll at 36,500. Gov. Pence’s new strategy turns that small, restricted system into a enormous new entitlement for childless adults. A lot more than 284,000 capable-bodied childless grownups (and 91,000 dad and mom) will become eligible for Medicaid expansion, an improve of virtually 700%. And not like the Healthful Indiana Strategy, there is no cap on enrollment, obligating the state to offer positive aspects to individuals individuals regardless of the availability of funds.
Proposal Increases Medicaid Eligibility Below ObamaCare.
Currently, the Healthful Indiana Strategy only serves folks earning under the federal poverty degree, however it once served folks with greater incomes. Gov. Pence’s ObamaCare expansion proposal not only lifted the enrollment cap, it also increased the eligibility threshold from a hundred% to 138% FPL. Folks earning much more than one hundred% FPL are presently eligible for subsidies via the ObamaCare exchange. They would be forced out of the exchange and into Medicaid beneath Gov. Pence’s proposal.
Proposal Reduces Skin-In-The-Game And Incentivizes Costly ER-Use.
The Healthy Indiana Prepare requires contributions ranging from 2% to 5% of earnings, with a minimal contribution of $ 160 per year. The prepare also attempts to incentivize childless grownup patients to steer clear of making use of ERs for non-urgent requirements by imposing a $ 25 copayment. These contribution and incentive provisions have lengthy been celebrated by Wholesome Indiana Program advocates. Gov. Pence’s prepare, nevertheless, tremendously lowers the required contributions, giving enrollees less skin-in-the-game. In truth, these regular monthly contributions are completely eliminated for 3-quarters of the expansion population if they pick the “Basic” strategy option and are as reduced as $ three per month for strategies that consist of further positive aspects like dental and vision coverage. Pence’s plan also reduces some copayments for pointless ER use to just $ 8, although it attempts to preserve the $ 25 copay in some conditions. Based mostly on what CMS has denied in the previous, the last deal will very likely substitute the $ 25 copayment altogether, imposing only the nominal $ 8 copayment currently allowed by Medicaid principles. Right after all, if CMS rejected Iowa’s proposal to enhance this copayment to $ 10, it is unlikely Pence’s program would be able to hold the $ 25 copayment whatsoever. Decreasing this copayment to nominal quantities will certainly incentivize enrollees to make pointless ER visits more than they would underneath the Healthy Indiana Plan’s original style.
Proposal Crowds Out Personal Insurance coverage.
Under the original design of the Healthy Indiana Strategy, folks could only become eligible if they had been uninsured for at least six months and with out access to employer-sponsored insurance. These needs are nowhere to be located in Gov. Pence’s proposal, ensuring that taxpayers will be forced to choose up the price of individuals who drop private insurance coverage to enroll in taxpayer-paid Medicaid, as has took place in other states that have expanded Medicaid eligibility. Gov. Pence’s proposal also shifts men and women who qualify for subsidies in the ObamaCare exchange into Indiana’s Medicaid system, growing crowd-out even additional.
Neisseria gonorrhoeae, the bacteria that brings about the sexually transmitted disease gonorrhoea. Photograph: Dr. David M. Phillips/Getty Pictures/Visuals Unlimited
Diseases we considered were lengthy gone, absolutely nothing to worry about, or simple to treat could come back with a vengeance, in accordance to the current World Wellness Organisation report on worldwide antibiotic resistance. Concern at this serious threat to public well being has been expanding complacency could outcome in a crisis with the possible to have an effect on every person, not just individuals in bad nations or with out entry to advanced healthcare. Presently conditions that had been treatable in the previous, such as tuberculosis, are typically fatal now, and other people are moving in the exact same course. And the genuinely terrifying issue is that the difficulty is previously with us: this is not science fiction, but contemporary actuality. So what are some of the infections that could come back to haunt us?
TB ought to be treatable within six months after men and women are prescribed a program of medication like the after potent antibiotics isoniazid and rifampicin. But today, resistance has emerged not only to these medicines, but to the wider range of pharmaceuticals used to treat the condition. This has led to the emergence of multi-drug-resistant TB, the still less treatable extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB), and even to complete drug-resistant TB, which has only officially been confirmed in India. Countries such as South Africa have run out of treatment method alternatives for many of their individuals and are obtaining to discharge them from hospital. Resistance to TB has reached a worldwide scale with XDR-TB now reported in 92 nations.
The sexually transmitted nature of this infection makes it some thing a lot of are reluctant to talk about or admit to getting. However, it’s long been thought of as easily treatable and nothing at all a lot to dread. After fixable with penicillin and tetracycline, the bacteria behind the illness have produced such high levels of resistance that there is only one particular drug left that can treat it. Even this antibiotic, ceftriaxone, is turning into less effective. With last-resort medication shedding their effect, this sexually transmitted infection (STI) could spread all through the population.
It is probably that you’ve by no means heard of this common bacterium, which can result in a wide assortment of problems which includes pneumonia, urinary tract infections, septicaemia, meningitis and diarrhoea. It fits into a wider group of bacteria with the apt acronym of Eskape owing to their capacity to avoid the effects of the antibiotics utilized against them. The acronym stands for the names of the bacterial group members: Enterococcus faecium Staphylococcus aureus Klebsiella pneumoniae Acinetobacter baumannii Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Enterobacter. Klebsiella and the rest of this group are increasingly becoming acquired in hospitals. Although we worry MRSA, it is in truth a declining risk in hospitals at the very same time Eskape pathogens are causing much more and a lot more difficulties. As the WHO report highlighted, routine hospital visits or therapies could result in these previously treatable bacteria having fatal consequences.
Routine vaccination towards typhoid signifies it’s not a disease that is frequently on our radar, and when it is it truly is rarely some thing we dread. Even so, the condition still influences 21.five million folks every 12 months in the building planet, and globalisation signifies travel to potential sources of infection is more typical. As a consequence, a lot more than 5,000 individuals in the US are contaminated annually following consuming contaminated food and drink. Typhoid fever, which is caused by the bacterium salmonella typhi, is handled with antibiotics, but resistance to numerous antibiotics is growing. Decreased susceptibility to the fluoroquinolone class of drugs and the emergence of multi-drug-resistance has complicated the treatment of infections, specially individuals acquired in south Asia. Since a vaccination exists, the key is to obtain this just before you get on to a plane. Otherwise, consuming that innocent-hunting vegetable on a trip to Thailand could depart you with a potentially fatal fever topping 100F.
Although resistance to these ailments is nevertheless to emerge, public awareness of them has diminished as a consequence of powerful remedies. But in an era of resistance there is constantly the likely for them to return as a significant public overall health threat. Despite the fact that charges of syphilis are reduced, they have been rising in the Uk considering that 1997. This STI is currently treated by a single injection with penicillin, but resistance to this antibiotic has developed in other diseases. Imagine the effect if it took place once more. The fever and chills of diphtheria are mainly prevalent in the developing world, but with travellers contracting typhoid even though a vaccine is accessible, the exact same could occur with diphtheria.
Antibiotic resistance is a difficulty we can all aid to reduce. Very good hand hygiene when visiting men and women in hospital assists. Only taking antibiotics when prescribed by a medical doctor is critical as is usually completing a complete program if you do have to get them. In addition, medical professionals themselves need to only be prescribing these medicines when sufferers really need them. These may be modest factors, but if we all do them it will have an affect and possibly avoid a long term the place treatable diseases grow to be fatal as soon as a lot more.
He just may be the most influential—and scientists say the most irresponsible—voice in the crusade to demonize GMOs and undermine the advances of modern medicine. You may not know him by name but he is a titan in the booming alternative lifestyle business, running dozens of websites promoting ‘natural’ products, many of them bogus or dangerous, which he relentlessly hawks online.
His name is Mike Adams, the self-proclaimed Health Ranger, and his central hub—what amounts to his personal blog and general store—is NaturalNews.com, which offers a potpourri of offbeat theories about politics, science and health.
Adams site is the cyberspace version of the water cooler gathering spot for crackpot conspiracy theorists of the far left and right. His byline: “never trust official stories”.
Adam’s latest crusade: the world’s governments are covering up the fact that the doomed Malaysian Airlines jetliner was pirated safely to a desert hideaway by Iranian hijackers, and is now being refitted into a stealth nuclear bomb.
In recent months, Adams has claimed that high-dose Vitamin C injections, which he conveniently sells, have been shown to “annihilate cancer” (doctors warn high doses of vitamin C can be dangerous); that measles and mumps are making a comeback because vaccines are “designed to fail” (he’s an anti-vaccine campaigner); and that fluoridated water causes mental disorders. He is also an AIDS denialist, a 9/11 truther, a Barack Obama citizenship ‘birther’ and a believer in ‘dangerous’ chemtrails.
[Visit Mike Adams: Facts and Profile for more background]
But his most heated attacks—and the ones that generate the most traffic and business on his websites and what has made him a oft-cited hero of anti-GMOers—are directed at conventional agriculture, crop biotechnology in particular.
In a recent screaming but typical headline, Adams claimed that research at his Natural News Forensic Food Labs—another of his bizarre websites—has turned up unequivocal evidence that corporations are intentionally engineering “life-destroying toxins” into our food supply, with genetically modified corn as one of the chief ‘weapons against humanity.’ His recommendation: buy the natural products that he sells and rid the world of GMOs.
Considering Adams’s conspiratorial bent, he takes every opportunity to bash genetic engineering, promote junk science studies, spread innuendo and play the corporate greed card. No one would characterize his views as nuanced. “Monsanto’s products cause death,” he writes in a typical post, calling the seed and chemical company a “pusher” for selling “poison” and blaming it for the impending “destruction of humanity.”
His evidence: like many dedicated anti-GMO ideologues, Adams hypes discredited fringe research, such as the maize cancer rat study by French scientist Gilles-Erich Séralini. Adams’s sensationalist account claimed that the GMO corn caused “horrifying cancer tumors.” The study, roundly criticized by mainstream scientists when it was first released, was since retracted by the publishing journal because of its inconclusive results and shoddy data. But Adams’s “reporting” had long since done its damage. His article on the Séralini research was shared more than 81,000 times on Facebook.
Adams frequently goes personal in his attacks. “From the top company executives to the bottom of the corporate ladder,” he writes, “people who work for Monsanto are engaged in promoting a sickening, unprecedented evil that’s spreading across our planet like a black slimy cancer tumor.”
He is also a major promoter of GMO labeling, which he believes would stigmatize GMOs, undoubtedly pumping sales of his alternative universe of food and health goods. After the defeat of the Washington state labeling Initiative 522, Adams, issued what bordered on a lawless ‘call to arms.’
“The failure of 522 … shows that democracy itself doesn’t work,” he wrote on another one of his blogs, Dark Politricks. His solution? Go rogue. Adams called on anti-GMO activists to adopt “asymmetrical warfare tactics such as guerilla warfare. … To beat them at that game, you have to take off the kid gloves and go for their throats.” Based on Adams history, the call may not have been metaphorical.
Adams is quite open about his business model: play on fear to make as much money as possible. To dispel any doubts about his real motivations, in 2008, he bragged publicly in his self-published book, The 7 Principles of Mindful Wealth, that his operating philosophy was “Getting past self-imposed limits on wealth… Karma doesn’t pay the rent. Good karma isn’t the recognized currency in modern society: Dollars are!”
To peddle the alternative nostrums that have helped build his fortune, Adams operates a string of fringe health scare sites, including prenatalnutrition.org, expectant-mothers.com, NewsTarget.com, HoodiaFactor.com, EmergingFuture.com, SpamAnatomy.com, VitaminFactor.org, CounterThink.com, HealthFactor.info, JunkScience.info, BrainHealthNews.com, LowCholesterolDiets.DietsLink.com, PublicHealthNews.org, PharmaWatch.info, HomeToxins.com, PoisonPantry.org, DepressionFactor.org, webseed.com and ConsumerWellness.org.
Promoting terrorist scares is Adams stock and trade. In 1998 he launched the Y2K Newswire promoting apocalyptic claims of impending software disaster whileoffering sales of emergency preparedness products and foods. Following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, he wrote, falsely, that the Japanese radiation, “spans oceans and continents” to panic his readers into buying useless “FDA approved” potassium iodide treatments and storable uncontaminated super foods that he shamelessly sold on his site. That got him a mention on the sin qua non of conspiracy programs, the wacky Alex Jones Show, which Adams had previously guest hosted—further stoking his notoriety among the fringe set.
He just may be the most influential—and scientists say the most irresponsible—voice in the crusade to demonize GMOs and undermine the advances of modern medicine. You may not know him by name but he is a titan in the booming alternative lifestyle business, running dozens of websites promoting ‘natural’ products, many of them bogus or dangerous, which he relentlessly hawks online.
His name is Mike Adams, the self-proclaimed Health Ranger, and his central hub—what amounts to his personal blog and general store—is NaturalNews.com, which offers a potpourri of offbeat theories about politics, science and health.
Adams site is the cyberspace version of the water cooler gathering spot for crackpot conspiracy theorists of the far left and right. His byline: “never trust official stories”.
Adam’s latest crusade: the world’s governments are covering up the fact that the doomed Malaysian Airlines jetliner was pirated safely to a desert hideaway by Iranian hijackers, and is now being refitted into a stealth nuclear bomb.
In recent months, Adams has claimed that high-dose Vitamin C injections, which he conveniently sells, have been shown to “annihilate cancer” (doctors warn high doses of vitamin C can be dangerous); that measles and mumps are making a comeback because vaccines are “designed to fail” (he’s an anti-vaccine campaigner); and that fluoridated water causes mental disorders. He is also an AIDS denialist, a 9/11 truther, a Barack Obama citizenship ‘birther’ and a believer in ‘dangerous’ chemtrails.
[Visit Mike Adams: Facts and Profile for more background]
But his most heated attacks—and the ones that generate the most traffic and business on his websites and what has made him a oft-cited hero of anti-GMOers—are directed at conventional agriculture, crop biotechnology in particular.
In a recent screaming but typical headline, Adams claimed that research at his Natural News Forensic Food Labs—another of his bizarre websites—has turned up unequivocal evidence that corporations are intentionally engineering “life-destroying toxins” into our food supply, with genetically modified corn as one of the chief ‘weapons against humanity.’ His recommendation: buy the natural products that he sells and rid the world of GMOs.
Considering Adams’s conspiratorial bent, he takes every opportunity to bash genetic engineering, promote junk science studies, spread innuendo and play the corporate greed card. No one would characterize his views as nuanced. “Monsanto’s products cause death,” he writes in a typical post, calling the seed and chemical company a “pusher” for selling “poison” and blaming it for the impending “destruction of humanity.”
His evidence: like many dedicated anti-GMO ideologues, Adams hypes discredited fringe research, such as the maize cancer rat study by French scientist Gilles-Erich Séralini. Adams’s sensationalist account claimed that the GMO corn caused “horrifying cancer tumors.” The study, roundly criticized by mainstream scientists when it was first released, was since retracted by the publishing journal because of its inconclusive results and shoddy data. But Adams’s “reporting” had long since done its damage. His article on the Séralini research was shared more than 81,000 times on Facebook.
Adams frequently goes personal in his attacks. “From the top company executives to the bottom of the corporate ladder,” he writes, “people who work for Monsanto are engaged in promoting a sickening, unprecedented evil that’s spreading across our planet like a black slimy cancer tumor.”
He is also a major promoter of GMO labeling, which he believes would stigmatize GMOs, undoubtedly pumping sales of his alternative universe of food and health goods. After the defeat of the Washington state labeling Initiative 522, Adams, issued what bordered on a lawless ‘call to arms.’
“The failure of 522 … shows that democracy itself doesn’t work,” he wrote on another one of his blogs, Dark Politricks. His solution? Go rogue. Adams called on anti-GMO activists to adopt “asymmetrical warfare tactics such as guerilla warfare. … To beat them at that game, you have to take off the kid gloves and go for their throats.” Based on Adams history, the call may not have been metaphorical.
Adams is quite open about his business model: play on fear to make as much money as possible. To dispel any doubts about his real motivations, in 2008, he bragged publicly in his self-published book, The 7 Principles of Mindful Wealth, that his operating philosophy was “Getting past self-imposed limits on wealth… Karma doesn’t pay the rent. Good karma isn’t the recognized currency in modern society: Dollars are!”
To peddle the alternative nostrums that have helped build his fortune, Adams operates a string of fringe health scare sites, including prenatalnutrition.org, expectant-mothers.com, NewsTarget.com, HoodiaFactor.com, EmergingFuture.com, SpamAnatomy.com, VitaminFactor.org, CounterThink.com, HealthFactor.info, JunkScience.info, BrainHealthNews.com, LowCholesterolDiets.DietsLink.com, PublicHealthNews.org, PharmaWatch.info, HomeToxins.com, PoisonPantry.org, DepressionFactor.org, webseed.com and ConsumerWellness.org.
Promoting terrorist scares is Adams stock and trade. In 1998 he launched the Y2K Newswire promoting apocalyptic claims of impending software disaster whileoffering sales of emergency preparedness products and foods. Following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, he wrote, falsely, that the Japanese radiation, “spans oceans and continents” to panic his readers into buying useless “FDA approved” potassium iodide treatments and storable uncontaminated super foods that he shamelessly sold on his site. That got him a mention on the sin qua non of conspiracy programs, the wacky Alex Jones Show, which Adams had previously guest hosted—further stoking his notoriety among the fringe set.
