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The Property Rights Newsletter May 25, 2012 - Issue #665 "We are not animals. We are not a product of what has happened to us in our past. We have the power of choice."- Stephen Covey | |
NY: Proposal from Mayor Bloomberg. City plans to ban junk food from commissary snack bars at all jails. The top item is sodium-packed ramen instant noodles, which are 190 calories per serving. Inmates tend to discard the dried noodles and use the flavor packets to add kick to the often tasteless jail food. Packets of mayonnaise, beef sticks and honey buns are also popular purchases at the commissary, jail records show. The roughly 13,000 inmates in city jails spend a total of almost $13 million a year on commissary items. Apart from snacks they can also buy soap, shampoo and toothpaste. It was not clear if the proposal would add healthy foods to the commissary.
NY: Apartment Hunt. Wanting to Smoke at Home, and Facing Hurdles. A few thousand apartments are available for rent in New York City on any given day, and a search on Craigslist last week revealed a sweeping range of options, from city views and roof decks, to simple studios and walk-ups, all outlined in the Web site's signature Smurf-hued-blue. One category, however, turned up very lean results: apartments that advertised they allowed smoking with an enthusiastic "welcome" or even a tepid "O.K." In all five boroughs, there were only four.
NY: Read more about Mayor Bloomberg Bans. 
Dr. Michael Siegel: Orthopedic Surgeon Recommends Refusing Knee Replacement Surgery for Smokers. "At the forum, experts offered suggestions about how to get patients to quit smoking. One way is to refuse to perform surgery on patients who smoke, said Dr. Glenn Rechtine, an orthopedic surgeon and associate chief of staff and adjunct professor at the University of South Florida in Tampa. He said this rule has convinced 40 percent of his patients to stop smoking." In essence, these patients are being deprived a needed surgery as a punishment for being addicted to cigarettes. This is a harsh and brutal punishment that is not only inappropriate, but is in violation of the basic principles of medical practice. Why should these people be punished so severely -- by the refusal of needed medical treatment and the imposition of pain and a decreased quality of life - for being unable to break an addiction that only 3% of smokers in the general population are able to break each year?
Canada: Controversy around province's choice of stop-smoking drug. Pill provided through B.C. program is subject of a class-action lawsuit. Traditionally, the cost of antismoking drugs has not been covered in B.C. However, through the B.C. government's smokingcessation program launched in September 2011, PharmaCare now covers a single continuous course of one of two prescribed smoking-cessation drugs - varenicline (sold under the brand-name Champix in Canada and Chantix in the U.S.) and bupropion (Zyban) - or a free 12-week supply of nicotinereplacement gum or patches. Health Canada received 1,724 adverse-reaction reports on the drug. "I was the one who noticed the irony that in the same week that [Premier] Christy Clark announced this new drug policy to cover these treatments, the French government took Champix off the formulary," Cassels said. "When a government takes a major drug off the formulary - which says we don't believe it's safe or effective - that's something you have to listen to."
Chantix: Suicides and suicide attempts - FAA Ban of Chantix Use by Pilots and Air Traffic Controllers - Was linked to an increased risk of a heart attack, stroke or other serious ... - Chantix has been documented to have death as a serious side effect. (More) | |
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