Literally Guarding Kids From Sugar Parents are now guarding Philadelphia corner candy stores – keeping their kids out. Right now 20% of American children are obese. Are ad hoc “militias” of parents blocking candy stores a smart way to prevent future obesity? This is no way to run a country – or a health […]
Florida does it again – voting to ban children from playing outside (4/06/11)
Keep Them In Tim Dorsey and Carl Hiaasen, move over – Florida reality again trumps both fantasy and novelistic legerdemain. Perhaps it’s the effect of earthquakes and oil spills (our one year anniversary of the BP disaster) but strangeness pervades the state. Some weeks ago five teenagers in Silver Springs Shore snorted the remains of […]
Lazy Cakes – waiting for a new non-prescription drug disaster (2/18/11)
Relaxation Brownies? Lazy Cakes is two ounces of sleeping medication masquerading as a chocolate brownie – an attempt at a “natural pot” brownie, as it’s advertising implies. It contains a warning on the back, four separate lines within a bracket of one quarter of an inch, lines small enough that children will not see them […]
Snorting the cremated remains of Great Danes (+ doggie xanax and other tales – 2/10/11)
Stealing Doggie Xanax Sometimes the dog did not do it. One of my patients has a son who struggles with mood swings and addictions. After a recent hospitalization he returned home. He appeared to do quite well in his classes and social relations. His use of illicit drugs seemed over. Or so his parents thought. […]
When chocolate brownies are sleeping pills, people can die (2/2/11)
Kids Who Can’t Wake Up Want to bite into a savory chocolate brownie laced with hormones? “Grab a box today and let your problems melt away,” promises “Lazy Cakes,” a new “relaxation brownie” containing 4 mg of melatonin plus valerian root. One writer for Phoenix News ate the chewy cake and fell asleep for twelve […]