Conrad Theodore Seitz

Web sites used for this post:

http://multinationalmonitor.org/hyper/issues/1985/12/ebert-porkbarrel.html (a particularly scathing review of the pig situation.)

Haiti’s Creole Pig and the Other Swine Flu Epidemic

http://www1.american.edu/ted/haitirice.htm

http://www.povertycure.org/media/blog/beyond-aid-the-flood-of-rice-in-haiti/

1. Loss of self-sufficiency in rice production

In 1995, Haiti’s government reduced its tariff on imported rice from 50 percent to 3 percent.  Other Caribbean countries generally have tariffs in the 25 percent range.  The near-elimination of Haiti’s import tariff was a requirement of International Monetary Fund (IMF) support in the form of loans.  There were other requirements, which we will discuss at another time, but suffice it to say now that those requirements, generally referred to as “belt-tightening”, include reductions in salaries, reduction in social security payments, and measures to encourage an export-oriented economy.  Some have said that the IMF’s requirements for emergency loans have a negative impact on the poor and the social systems (including schools and health) of the countries affected.

As a result of the tariff reduction as well as internal policies of the American government, imported rice became significantly cheaper than locally grown rice, and rice production collapsed.  In the 1970’s,  it was said that Haiti was self-sufficient in rice production.   Now, 80 percent of rice consumed in Haiti is imported.  The locally grown varieties of rice have achieved a sort of “artisanal” status, and are sought after by Haitians who can afford them.

With the loss of local rice production, the Haitian farmer (60% of the population) became more impoverished.   Increasing numbers of farmers abandoned their land and moved to Port-au-Prince to look for work.  Haitian farmers were (and are) primitive in comparison to Americans, and have less than half the yield per acre under cultivation.   In addition, many years of poor practices have led to erosion and loss of topsoil from large areas of Haitian agricultural land, making restorative practices essential.  Haitian farmers have received little or no support, and are too poor to buy better rice varieties or invest in restoration of irrigation canals.

American rice producers, especially in Arkansas, benefited from the minimal tariff required by IMF, particularly because their production was supported by grants from the American government.   Arkansas was said to have received $2 billion in direct agricultural support payments over the period 1995-2011, half of which was for rice production.

Former President Bill Clinton has gone on record as apologizing for the rice tariff fiasco, which occurred on his watch.   He stated that the intent was to free farmers to participate in the global economy by taking industrial jobs.  He said that the policy was a mistake and did no good for the Haitian farmer, whether by giving him industrial work (for example, in factories that produce goods for export) or allowing him to restore his land.  Clearly, the result of these policies was further impoverishment for the Haitian peasants.

2. Destruction of the local variety of pig

In 1978, a new form of swine flu, African Swine Fever, swept through the Dominican Republic and threatened Haiti.  The government’s initial response was to destroy all Haitian pigs in the border area with the Dominicans.  No compensation was provided to the peasants for these pigs killed.  The border kill was ineffective, however, and the swine flu continued to spread.  American, Canadian, and Mexican governments, and the United Nations, launched a program in 1981 to destroy all of Haiti’s pigs.

An estimated 400,000 pigs were killed over a period of a year.   Over 500,000 pigs were said to have died of the swine flu.  Under the total destruction program, compensation was provided to the owners, but it was grossly inadequate in view of the central role that the local pig played in Haitian agriculture.  The replacement pigs were much more expensive to keep and were more susceptible to the marginal environment.  Many farmers were unable to support production of the new pig.

The Haitian pig, known as the Creole, was black and smaller than American-style pigs.  It roamed freely and ate many different foods, including roots, tubers, and underground insects, some of which were damaging the Haitian food crops.  Its excrement, manure, was used for fertilizer.  There was significant risk of transmission of human diseases through the pig because of the primitive sanitary conditions, but there was no mention in my sources of epidemics caused by this pig.

Most importantly, the Creole pig was adapted to the primitive style of agriculture that was practiced, and formed an important link in the fertilization of crops.  The replacement pig had to be kept in a roofed pig pen, given clean water and vaccinations, and was forbidden to consume human waste.  Because of extremely primitive sanitary conditions, the loss of the Creole pig left wastes of all kinds unconsumed and rotting on the ground.

The Creole pig also served as a form of wealth for the Haitian peasant, and it was said that one pig could provide the funding for two children to go to school for a year.   This wealth was transformed into debt if the farmer tried to raise the American pig according to instructions, and only wealthy Haitians were able to raise the new type of pig.

An American food company entered the pig market in Haiti and was contracted to provide the new pig along with all the ancillary equipment required.  The company was said to ” stand to gain nearly $1 billion from ” the new pig program, while the Haitian farmers were reimbursed a total of $7 million for the loss of all of their pigs.

Jean-Bertrand Aristide (admittedly not an objective observer) estimated that the destruction of the Creole pig cost the Haitian people $600 million.

There has been an effort underway for some years to breed the Creole pig and re-introduce it to the island.

3. Chronic indebtedness of the Haitian national government

Haitian debt started with independence.  When the slaves and mulattos overthrew the French-supported government, France instituted an embargo on the island which was only lifted when Haiti agreed to pay 150 million francs (the equivalent today of $21 billion) for the loss of its slaves and property on the island.  This was later reduced to 90 million francs.  The amount was based on detailed records kept by French plantation owners of the number of slaves they had kept.  This money demand was inappropriate since, according to modern human rights standards, no-one has a right to own another person.  Haiti was forced to pay the money because it was a small, poor island country with no other countries supporting it, and the French embargo prevented trade with any other country.  The debt was acknowledged as paid in 1893.  Nowadays, it is considered an example of “odious debt.”

In the twentieth century, Haiti accumulated debt under the administration of the oppressive Duvalier family.  The total debt was estimated at $1.8 billion in 2000; perhaps 40% of it went directly into the pockets of the Duvaliers.  Most of this debt was cancelled by the IMF, but some still remains.  Currently, the US is paying $9 million a year on Haiti’s behalf as debt service.  Because of multiple agencies’ efforts to cancel debt, most activists feel that what remains is not a priority.

Additional problems: maladministration of government, catastrophic storms and earthquakes (the first recorded in 1750), epidemics, destruction of farming land, and others will be discussed in a later post.

Of the 1.6 million breast biopsies done last year, 20 percent or 320,000 are reported back as invasive carcinoma.  10 percent or 160,000 are reported as atypia and another 60,000 are reported ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS).  DCIS is not invasive carcinoma, although apparently transformed cancer cells are found within the lactiferous (milk) ducts.  There is no general agreement on whether DCIS really represents cancer because such lesions may never become invasive.  If the apparently cancerous cells never break out of the duct and spread through the breast tissue, much less metastasize to other areas of the body, then the diagnosis of cancer doesn’t really apply due to the lack of actual consequences that we fear from cancer.

A new report in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) suggests how uncertain the diagnosis can be.  The authors gathered 115 pathologists and had them independently review individual slides from 240 breast biopsies.  Sets of three pathologists were also used to make a consensus diagnosis on each slide.

For invasive carcinomas, 96% agreed with the diagnosis.  For DCIS, there was 84% agreement (3% called it invasive, while 13% called it negative.)  For atypia, only 48% agreed, while 17% called it something worse and 35% called it negative.  For benign cases without atypia, 87% agreed and 13% called it at least atypia.

There was more disagreement for cases in which the women had been described as having “dense” breasts on a previous mammogram.  There was also more disagreement among pathologists who had lower case volumes, in smaller practices, and in nonacademic settings.

The level of disagreement is more significant because there are so many biopsies done each year. (Note, however, that disagreement was greater in pathologists with lower case volume, making for better results all around than these numbers would suggest.)  If only 4% of invasive carcinomas are missed and there are 320,000 cases altogether, that makes 12800 cases a year. If, on the other hand, 3% of DCIS cases are called invasive, out of 60,000 cases, 1800 will be overdiagnosed.  Atypia is the most contentious diagnosis, with only 48% agreement in the study.

This study demonstrates that there can be significant disagreement among pathologists as to the degree of atypia or even invasive carcinoma in breast biopsies.  It suggests that there could be over ten thousand cases of missed invasive carcinoma in breast biopsies every year in the US.  This could be a heavy burden when you consider that most of those invasive cases will turn out to be Stage II or above in a year or two, with probably obvious masses or even metastases.

One would hope that most of the missed cases will be borderline or very early, and thus, not so likely to result in the appearance of advanced cases later on.  One would hope.

The alternative case is those DCIS diagnoses.  Some experts think that many of these cases will never become invasive, and thus do not need to be treated aggressively by excision of the entire breast, or worse, radiation therapy.  These patients can be thought of as suffering an unnecessary burden of treatment, including its direct effects and its side effects.

The entire system of 1.6 million biopsies appears to be grounded in the numerous mammograms performed each year.  Certified facilities report their numbers every three years, at the time of recertification, and these numbers are aggregated into an approximate yearly total of 38.7 million mammograms in the US.  This suggests that about 4 per cent of mammograms result in a biopsy.

Since only 20 per cent of biopsies are positive for invasive carcinoma, this means that four out of five suspicious mammograms (those prompting  a biopsy) are “false positive.”  The remainder of the patients biopsied suffer the anxiety and side effects without result.

How many total cases of invasive breast cancer are reported each year in the US?  According to breastcancer.org, approximately 233,000.  That’s almost a hundred thousand less than the number of positive biopsies quoted above.  You could add the 62,000 cases of “non-invasive breast cancer” quoted as well as the 2,360 cases in men, but you’d still be short.

These discrepancies are related to the conclusion that three out of four suspicious mammograms are “false positives” and result in unnecessary biopsies.  However, as a result of general use of mammography, late diagnoses have decreased by about 37% and early diagnoses have increased by about 48%.  In addition, the total rate of breast cancer has gone down by about 9% “since mammography was introduced.” (per breastcancer.org)  (Some of this decrease may have been due to a decrease in the  use of postmenopausal hormones, although this is controversial.)

So, at a significant cost, we have relieved, to a considerable degree, the burden of breast cancer for American women.  The next step should be a better screening tool, applied to more of the women at risk.   There are (very) approximately 80 million women in the US over the age of 40, so less than half of women eligible by age are getting yearly mammograms.

For better results, we need to increase the number of women screened and reduce the percentage of biopsies.

MRI scans are used on occasion, although their expense prohibits screening use.  The American Cancer Society recommends MRI scans in addition to mammograms in women who are at high risk of breast cancer (for example, those who carry the BRCA-1 or -2 gene, which increases one’s lifetime risk to 40-60%, although these genes only cause perhaps 10% of breast cancers as well as ovarian cancers.)  Perhaps the cost of MRI’s can be reduced, as we know there is a problem with cost in medical advances that is not seen in general technological advances.  More on this problem later.

The abstract of the JAMA report can be found at: http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2203798

“If you’ve ever been there, you see firsthand the Catch-22 that is everything Haiti. I certainly root for them but it’s hard to imagine the country being anything other than a wreck. You can see all you need from the air as you fly in comparing Haiti to the Dominican on the same island. Those who fly there know what I mean.”

[comment by Tod Hawkins of Charlottesville VA 3/17/2015]

“The political problems in Haiti pale in comparison to many countries (read: U.S. congressional gridlock), but unfortunately it’s all people know of this county.

People here don’t want handouts, they want jobs. The minister of tourism is one of the hardest working politicians anywhere, in any country, and this sector is being viewed as a way to create employment while revealing the beauty to counteract the ugliness portrayed in the international media, such as this article.

Haiti offers much to those who have an adventurous spirit, looking for an authentic place to visit. Get outside of the capital to experience some of the nicest beaches in the Caribbean, eat delicious Creole cuisine, buy colorful and original artwork and craft (not the mass produced garbage coming out of China), visit historic monuments, and get swept away by the warm and welcoming vibe of a people whose resilience in the face of so many obstacles is astounding.”

[comment by JBK 007 of “Le Monde “(the World) 3/17/2015]

“Haiti is controlled entirely by the US.
It’s one of nearest sweatshops, what with the IMF, UN, NGO’s, Clinton Foundation, CAFTA—I think I’ve run out letters.

You get the idea.The reason that so many sweatshop workers were in PaP when the EQ hit, was they had left their farms.Why did they leave their farms? Under CAFTA, the farmers couldn’t compete with subsidized-Carolina Rice.Haiti can no longer feed itself.

And so it goes…”

[comment by JeanX of “US” 3/17/2015]

“Haiti has always been an oligarchy since December 1806 on purpose; oligarchic form of government set in motion by the minority mulatto ideologues Petion, Bruno Blanchet, and Alexis Beaubrun Ardouin; therefore the State of Haiti is incapable 99% of the time of organizing free and fair elections. Haiti’s 1987 Constitution is a joke written to reinforce the primacy of the Executive Branch (The Presidency) at the detriment of the other Powers. And this exactly why this de-facto president is the Don and the only one pulling all the strings. Haiti’s form of government must be eradicated, aka political revolution.”

[comment by Haiti the case study in New Jersey 3/17/2015]

“… Cheer up. Its not merely political corruption holding the country down as this article suggests. Haiti is a country on a microcontinent bordered by two major tectonic faults. Two San Andreas faults within 150 miles of each other. The 2010 event rupture killed 200,000 and left 1.5 m homeless and in the process killed 25% of the civil servants in the country. Many of the ministries were destroyed including the presidential palace. Hospitals were destroyed. The country also get pummeled by hurricanes regularly and flood damage. Sandy hit Haiti harder than NYC. There have been 2.5 major catastrophes per year on the tiny island over the past 20 years on average. Cut them some slack. It is what it is. The Haitians will figure this out.”

[comment by Certified Financial Examiner in Madison WI on 3/17/2015]

“As a Haitian citizen, I have a completely different take on the situation. The writer seems to know very little about the political situation in Haiti. Martelly did not get rid of parliament. Actually he pleaded with them to pass the electoral law that would have allowed for elections to go forward and keep the legislators in their place. Instead, they dithered and did nothing (sound familiar?). The problem with Haiti is weak political institutions.

Martelly is far from perfect. He’s a political novice and many times it shows. But many of us believe his heart is in the right place and has done his best. If Ms. Robles would have mad a cursory check, she would have realized he is far from the person being portrayed here.

Haiti is progressing, albeit slowly, but surely. For the first time in a long time, infrastructure is being replaced, hotels are going up, schools are being built all over the country. We are still a long way from a stable and prosperous country but at times it’s best to not believe the hype.”

[comment by Capois La Mort, Cap Haitien, Haiti, W.I. 3/16/2015]

“I agree with these comments. I have volunteered with a non-profit organization that has been working in Haiti for over 30 years. There are changes happening now, unfortunately most of it in the Port-au-Prince area but it was the most severely affected by the earthquake. I work in the northern hinterlands and not much has happened there – these hinterlands are where the majority of the Haitian people living primarily on subsistence farming. Therefore, the $$$$ are not reaching the vast majority of the Haitian people. It is going in the right direction but at this pace it will be several decades before the average Haitian will see much of a benefit.”

[comment by DB of Charlottesville, VA 3/16/2015]

“The title & content betrays anti Martelly bias. I am an American ex pat who has lived in Haiti for 38 years; two of my four children & two of my nine grandchildren were born here. Michel Martelly is the finest, most humanitarian, conscionable president Haiti has seen in over fifty years. Since the dreaded, blood thirsty Papa Doc who was only out done by the narco president, ex Catholic priest, Jean Bertrand Aristide, Martelly is a god send.

In Haiti, current consensus is that Aristide ordered the murder of Oriel Jean who reportedly testified of Aristide’s assassination of journalist Jean Dominic. Under Martelly, Columbian traffickers have disappeared though they once traded openly & with impunity landing planes and boats during Aristide’s reign of terror. Under Aristide, kidnapping, home invasion, car jacking ran unchecked by Haitian Police until the UN declared in ’04 that “Haiti was more dangerous than Mogadishu with more kidnappings than Cali, Columbia.”

Since Martelly has taken office Aristide’s destabilization tactics – violent crime have almost disappeared and again consensus is that any bloody act can be attributed to the greedy x President Aristide.

FYI, all protests are paid for by Aristide, and include Russian money. In a recent “protest” of all young men, signs of Putin were carried as the men cried, “Down with Obama and up with Putin!” We that live here understand Aristide is getting money from America’s number one enemy Russia!”

[comment by Yvonne Trimble of Port Au Prince, Haiti 3/16/2015]

Capois La Mort replied to Yvonne:

“Thank you Yvonne for spreading the truth. You and your husband do great work there. i recommend his vidoes to anyone who wants to see Haiti.”

and Jessie Michel of Florida replied to Yvonne:

“Thank you Yvonne, you said it all. I have been following you and your husband for a long time, and I know you are good people and Haitians back home trust your judgments. Please keep divulging the truth about the country and the actual government. Aristide is a poison for our country, he needs to be stopped.”

Capois La Mort also wrote, in response to Nancy, who claimed that Martelly was not democratically elected:

“Not sure how you know that Martelly was not democratically elected, but I live here, yes Port au Prince Haiti, and I speak the language, Creole. When Preval tried to pay off Martelly to take a dive in the run off election, Martelly refused the bribe. Preval wanted his son in law Jude Celestin to be president, the only problem was that no one voted for him, so Preval attempted to pay off the front runner Martelly. When Preval declared Celestin the winner, millions of Haitians took to the streets, blocking roads in a peaceful demonstration, they converged on Preval’s house (right near mine) and demanded Martelly be instated as the democratically elected president that they voted for! The international community informed Preval that they would not help him and he must respect the will of the people; this is how it happened, I was an eye witness. Where were you?”

here’s another post from a different point of view:

“I suggest you research the following topics:

— French naval embargo of Haiti–backed by the U.S.–after the Haitian revolution abolished slavery; also, French agreement to end this embargo which was strangling the island nation, in return for a huge sum of money, the historical source of the Haitian national debt;
— U.S. invasion of Haiti (1915) which began by seizing the assets of Haiti’s national bank and physically transferring them to a New York bank;
— U.S. occupation of Haiti (1915-1937) during which the US created, trained and developed a lasting relationship with the brutal Haitian national army;
— AID plan for Haiti (1980s) and particularly the forced destruction of the entire Haitian pig population which was the foundation of the Haitian peasant economy;
— U.S. policy of flooding Haiti with cheap rice in the 90s, which bankrupted the native rice growing sector which was previously the most thriving part of agriculture;
— Close U.S. relationship and aid to the Duvalier dictatorship (1958-1985), notorious for its savagery;
— One direct invasion, and one U.S. backed “insurgency” to overthrow the popular Aristide.

After you know something, say something!”

[comment by Jon of New York 3/16/2015]

There appears to be a large difference of opinion, particularly about whether Aristide was associated with violent crime and attached to Putin in some way or was simply “popular.”

Obviously Haiti is suffering the effects of overpopulation and destruction of the native habitat, along with economic devastation some relate to the importation of cheap rice that destroyed local farmers.  Those who blame Haiti’s troubles on a series of despotic rulers may be missing the point.  The despotic rulers may be a consequence of Haiti’s repeated impoverishment and frequent natural disasters.  The degree of government corruption and brutality may be related to the competition for extremely scarce resources among local inhabitants, rather than a cause of general impoverishment.

More clearly, Haiti has been abused by the United States and other governments and this has affected the economy as well as allowing the local strongman form of government.  In recent times, Haiti has been devastated by natural disasters after being left impoverished by agricultural failures; huge amounts of international aid have been expended without affecting the rural poor at all, at least not yet.

On the primitive waters of Earth before life began almost four billion years ago, two chemicals, hydrogen sulfide and hydrogen cyanide, formed critical molecules of RNA and DNA.  With the addition of phosphates, all the necessary molecules of protein and lipids were formed.  The first step was a complex chain of reactions that branched out by exposure to ultraviolet light; then precursors of amino acids and lipids appeared.  Hydrogen sulfide was used as a reducing agent to polymerize carbon from hydrogen cyanide, and phosphates carried energy.  Copper ions were used to photoreduce multiple carbon-hydrogen bonds.  The resulting reactions form a complex, circular set of paths that produce ribonucleotides, amino acids, and lipids.  All these elements worked together as a mixed set to produce the precursors of living cells.

The research article that hypothesizes these reactions was characterized as a home run by observers.

”

”

The article is in Science News, so you have to have a subscription to read it.  The abstract for the original research is in Nature Chemistry, at:   http://www.nature.com/nchem/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nchem.2202.html

The point, though, of the article, is that the simultaneous presence of multiple reactive pathways sets the stage for complex networks that evolve into life eventually.  Previously, most origin of life researchers had looked at individual pathways in isolation, without considering the possibilities of multiple pathways together.  Now, the multiple view makes the process easier to explain.

There has been considerable speculation of late about the ability of networks to evolve if allowed to reproduce with variations.  Such primitive systems can be compared productively to the way life evolves.  The only thing missing is the biological version of these primitive networks.

There should be an expedition to one of the worlds known to contain water in order to see if there is any life.  A salt water ocean seems like an ideal place for life to appear, according to current theories.  So far seven separate worlds in the solar system are known to have water.

One of the first known examples of human molecular evolution exists in the indigenous population of the Atacama Desert in Chile.  Some inhabitants of this area make a living by fishing in the sea.  Others raise livestock in the hills.   As a rule, the area is one of the driest on Earth.  Local drinking water contains a very high level of natural arsenic due to a volcanic bed underlying most of the desert area.  Since arsenic is highly toxic to human populations, there are genes which code for enzymes that methylate arsenic and allow it to be excreted in the urine in a relatively nontoxic state.

The indigenous Atacama people have a very high percentage of homozygosity for the arsenic 3-methyl transferase enzyme which dimethylates arsenic, approximately seventy percent.  Having high levels of this enzyme confers a resistance to the toxic effects of environmental arsenic.  In contrast, Chileans from other areas of the country where arsenic levels are much lower have very few individuals possessing the gene.

Clearly, this is a concrete example of the principles of evolution.  As a result of natural variations, some individuals have more and healthier offspring than others.  The positive natural variations are perpetuated by this circumstance and increase in frequency in the population as a whole.  The occurrence of many such variations will result in obvious evolutionary changes over long periods of time, and this is precisely what Darwin predicted.

The presence of this natural variation in the ability to detoxify environmental arsenic could be predicted on the basis of Darwinian principles.  There is no better proof that Darwin knew exactly what he was talking about.

The abstract for the article can be found at: http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2015/02/26/molbev.msv046

Anandamide is an ubiquitous neurotransmitter found throughout the brain as well as the body; in fact, there are two main types of receptor, CB-1, found in the brain, and CB-2, present in the rest of the body.  It plays multiple roles, in the regulation of pleasure, motivation, and reward receptors, in the uterus and embryo (with peaks of levels at ovulation), regulation of appetite and feeding, the immune system, etc.   The effect of paracetamol (acetaminophen) is even proposed to be related to anandamide stimulation.  Multiple anandamide-like molecules were found in chocolate.

The most potent stimulator of anandamide, however, is the cannbinoid plant, Cannabis sativa, and its delta 9 tetrahydrocannabinol.  It is a stable analogue of the brain’s neurotransmitter anandamide that attaches to both types of receptors.  This substance is said to overwhelm anandamide receptors and cause multiple side effects related to attention, memory, concentration, time perception, and appetite, as well as xerostomia.

Anandamide is broken down by an endogenous enzyme, fatty acid amine hydrolase (FAAH.)  There happens to be a mutation that creates an enzyme which is deficient in breaking down anandamide, leading to continued high levels of anandamide in the blood and making the owner of a double mutation (homozygous) in the enzyme resistant to the effects of cannabinoids.  These people are said to be normally less anxious and more optimistic than people without the mutation.

About 20 percent of Americans have homozygous mutations in the FAAH gene, and about 40 percent of a people said to represent a tribe in Nigeria also have the homozygous mutation.  Whether this has any effects on society as a whole is unknown and possibly unanticipated.

The number of locations in which anandamide receptors are found in the body suggests the cannabinol could have many, many uncertain side effects, but there are no indications that others are being overlooked.  We know that cannabinol impairs memory and concentration, raises the heart rate, stimulates appetite, may cause drowsiness, and so on, but despite the ubiquity of the receptor, nothing that could kill you.  Despite all these side effects, some people seem to enjoy using it.  They must be appreciating the known effects of anandamide in the brain related to pleasure, reward, and motivation.

There are a number of states that have decided to go against the federal prohibition on marijuana, even going so far as to legalize the general sale of the drug.  Most have, however, limited marijuana to quasi-medical uses.  The federal government’s agencies have taken an inconsistent approach to state initiatives, but have recently appeared to back off of a more hostile attitude and abjure small raids.  There are even programs to legitimize the bank deposit of funds earned by the sale of marijuana in the few states that have legalized that sale.

All of this represents a societal shift that has taken at least fifty years more than was originally expected.  The comedian Lenny Bruce is said to have commented that marijuana would soon be legalized “because all the lawyers smoke it.”  That was in 1960.

As we already know, there are brain receptors that match numerous drugs which are used and abused by humans.  For example, there are GABA receptors that respond to Valium, nicotinic receptors that accept nicotine, and mu receptors that are activated by morphine.

There is also a brain chemical called anandamide, which activates circuits that relieve anxiety.  This chemical and its receptor are a close match for the active ingredient in marijuana.  People vary in how much of these receptors they produce in their brains, and it turns out that about 20 percent of Americans (and 45 percent of certain Nigerians) have a mutation that decreases the destruction of anandamide, resulting in a “naturally” less anxious condition.   Those who do not possess a double complement of this mutation are “naturally” more anxious and have difficulty extinguishing a fear reaction like the pairing of an electric shock with an audible tone.

Some of the people who are “naturally” anxious indulge in the use of marijuana to relieve their anxiety.  The concern is that these people may have problems with their memory and concentration because of the marijuana.  The whole story, more or less, is told in a New York Times Op-Ed which is found at: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/08/opinion/sunday/the-feel-good-gene.html

I hope to expound on this subject further at a later date, since the subject interests me particularly.

I just couldn’t resist quoting this partial page describing emails sent by Ferguson employees to their coworkers.  These came to light, and were cited in the Justice Department investigation of the Ferguson police and “justice” (municipal court) systems.  I can’t imagine someone being so insensitive as to send such “jokes” in the first place; and so stupid as to send them on official email accounts where they work.  I guess they assumed that no-one was going to investigate them.  But, “murder will out” and all evil deeds eventually come to light, even if the individuals involved have long since died.  So:  with the understanding that I heartily disapprove of the sentiments expressed below.

“We have discovered evidence of racial bias in emails sent by Ferguson officials, all of whom are current employees, almost without exception through their official City of Ferguson email accounts, and apparently sent during work hours. These email exchanges involved several police and court supervisors, including FPD supervisors and commanders. The following emails are illustrative: