REDDING -- A Northern California high school district's drug testing of students taking part in competitive, nonathletic activities - such as the chess club, math team or school band - is an unjustified invasion of privacy, a judge ruled Wednesday in the first case of its kind in the state.

The Shasta Union High School District presented no evidence that drug use was more likely or more dangerous for those students than for others, said Judge Monica Marlow of Shasta County Superior Court.

She drew a distinction between students in the band or the chess club and student athletes. The state Supreme Court upheld the NCAA's urine testing of college athletes in postseason championship events and bowl games in 1994, saying athletic competitors are accustomed to being monitored and have little expectation of privacy.

Although drug testing has become both expected and accepted in sports, particularly at the college and professional level, Marlow said, "it is not a reasonably expected part of the life of a member of the choir or math club." ...

... The ACLU said one of its student clients would have been barred from playing with her flute ensemble at a statewide competition later this month because she refused to be tested.

Another student, who was raising a hog for a competition as part of a class project, took a drug test - which was negative - after a school administrator threatened to remove him from the Future Farmers of America, the sponsoring group, the ACLU said.

"Students should not be treated like suspects because they want to play in the school band," Risher said. He said the ruling "respects student privacy, it respects family privacy, and it teaches students that rights matter."

Cont.

A Doctor Speaks Out

Turning away from drug industry money

by John Fauber

The 1990s was a heady time for the pharmaceutical industry, which had just embarked on what would become known as the Statin Wars. And James Stein, an up-and-coming heart doctor, was ripe to be hooked as a drug company speaker.

Stein, now a professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, was a 29-year-old cardiology fellow in Chicago in 1994 when his faculty mentor asked him to fill in for him at a drug company-funded lecture to a large group of doctors It would be his first taste of life as a drug company speaker and consultant.

Stein got first-class airfare to Dallas. A limousine took him to a luxury hotel for the talk.

He walked off the stage, and a doctor from the conference handed him an envelope containing a $500 check.

“I got a pat on the back and he said, ‘There’s more where that came from, son.’ I had no idea what that meant, but I went home and paid off part of my student loans,” Stein said in a presentation at UW this month.

Stein was among dozens of doctors and an untold number of physicians nationwide who have pulled in large sums doing talks or working as consultants to drug and medical device companies.

Now these financial arrangements are being threatened. Top universities and the medical profession are riding out a gathering storm over the ethics of financial relationships between drug companies and doctors. More and more, restrictions are being placed on these relationships, in part over concerns they raise the cost of drugs, threaten the integrity of medicine and may even be harmful to patients.

Cont.

It’s Cool…and…I understand…

The second half of that video shows Kim Russell being interviewed by a local reporter. I think that was aired on the local TV broadcast…Channel 13…

No FoM I’m not trying to cause trouble…I did leave out one line, and I didn’t see a copyright thing…

Remove it if you need to…I understand…

There is a good video on that page too…

Updated: Friday, 08 May 2009, 7:35 AM EDT

Published : Friday, 08 May 2009, 7:29 AM EDT

TAMPA - There's been a lot of debate over what some people call medical marijuana.

Some say the drug should legalized. Others believe it's a solution to alleviate chronic pain.

A bad decision 15 years ago changed Robert Sigl's life forever. The Plant City man dove head first into a shallow pool, resulting in a spinal cord injury and leaving him a paraplegic.

"I just thought all right if I get to the hospital maybe things will be better. And then they did some surgery to relieve the neck and I was told I was paralyzed. I would never move my arms or neck again," Sigl said.

He was taking up to five medications a day. But he says the pain was still too much. It got so bad, Sigl turned to marijuana for help.

"Marijuana relaxes me like nothing else, if I were to smoke it. And it helps with neurological pains and muscle spasms," Sigl said.

He was smoking marijuana for 10 years, and says it helped him live a better life. But five years ago he was forced to quit in fear if being arrested.

Florida law prohibits the use of marijuana. Some see it as a gateway drug.

"There's absolutely no evidence to that whatsoever," Kim Russell said.

The Orlando resident started her own political committee, People United for Medical Marijuana. She believes some Florida lawmakers are open to legalizing the drug.

"That they would absolutely love to see this type of legislation put through if they had voter support. They don't believe they would have voter support," Russell said.

So her goal is to have 700,000 people sign a petition to get the proposed constitutional amendment on next year's ballot.

and…

Russell says her biggest obstacle will be educating the public.

Click to see the whole story…http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/dpp/news/local/hillsborough/medical_marijuana_petition_050809

************

People United for Medical Marijuana – Florida

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=127343055695

We are more than just a group. We are registered voters willing to sign a petition to show our support for medical marijuana. We are a political committee registered with the state of Florida to restore patients' rights to receive safe, affordable and effective medication. We are collecting signatures to amend the constitution.