Political Health

“Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” – Lord Acton, 1887

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced Monday that it would place a “black box” warning on a controversial contraceptive device, but stopped short of banning it.
Essure, made by German drugmaker Bayer AG, is a permanent contraceptive device consisting of metal coils that are inserted into the fallopian tubes through the vagina. Once in the fallopian tubes, scar tissue forms around the coils to block a woman’s egg from becoming fertilized.

President Obama’s appointee just sailed through the approval process, and has been approved as the next FDA Commissioner. What does this mean now that Robert Califf, known for having financial ties with Gambro, Regeneron, Gilead, AstraZeneca, Roche and other companies, but who is also equally in equity positions in four medical companies? It means the FDA has officially been bought by Big Pharma.

If you want true food transparency, there’s nothing better than knowing that your food was grown at a farm within 5 miles from your home, or that your favorite wine comes from a winery across the beaten path. Now, France’s National Assembly (upper chamber of Parliament) wants to make local food an imperative with a law that requires 40% of all food served in ‘collective restaurants’ to be sourced locally.

Australia’s population is roughly 23 million – while the US has approximately 318 million potential medical marijuana patients. All the same – lawmakers in the country have just legalized medical marijuana for the entire country, with a vote made by the Australian Parliament last Wednesday.

Genetic modification using new technologies like CRISPR has been called a “weapon of mass destruction and proliferation” by James Clapper, U.S. Director of National Intelligence, in his annual Worldwide Threat Assessment report.

Big Tobacco companies like Phillip Morris STILL have to make public statements about smoking’s harmful effects. U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler said so in an 11-page court decision.  She also slammed the industry’s fraudulent tactics to promote smoking and called the companies’ request to rewrite the public disclosures “ridiculous.”

On Thursday, the Vermont state Senate gave final approval to a bill legalizing recreational marijuana, beginning in 2018. If it reaches the governor’s desk, Vermont will be the first state in the nation to legalize the drug without a referendum.
The bill cleared the regulatory hurdle when Sen. Becca Balint, a Democrat, who had originally opposed the measure, changed her vote.
The Senate rejected amendments to push off decriminalization until 2019, but opted to place warnings on marijuana packaging similar to those on cigarette boxes.

Two South Kona coffee growers have reportedly filed a lawsuit against Monsanto, claiming that the company lied about the possibility for glyphosate, the main ingredient in Round Up, to cause cancer.

Big Pharma won big today when the Senate nearly unanimously approved Dr. Robert Califf as the next commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). And not everyone is happy about it.
Califf was confirmed for the job in a vote of 89 to 4 after weeks of opposition from a handful of senators, including presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, who had attempted to block the longtime cardiologist and academic researcher. [1]