Category: reason

Kratom death reports are rubbish, say advocates. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) claims 44 deaths over a 9-year period have been associated with kratom, a Southeast Asian tree whose leaves have mild psychotropic effects when chewed or consumed as tea. A new white paper from molecular biologist Jane Babin suggests the FDA is full of crap.

Babin was hired by the American Kratom Association to look into the FDA’s claims, which the agency has been using to support a crackdown on kratom and its classifying as a Schedule I drug. Babin’s paper argues that the FDA “is pushing a false narrative in order to have kratom banned in the U.S.,” as the Washington Examiner puts it.

The research suggests that while people may have taken kratom, other factors killed them. Certain death certificates, for instance, showed that people had been abusing other drugs at the same time or took powdered kratom that contained toxic chemicals. One of the deaths was attributed to falling through a window, another was a homicide in which someone was shot in the chest, and another involved a person suffering a heart problem while swimming. The group also found two instances where deaths were reported twice.

The FDA has cited these alleged “kratom deaths” in placing the drug on an import alert in 2012, in rescheduling recommendations to the Drug Enforcement Administration in 2016 and 2017, and in a 2017 public-health advisory. The warning said kratom was a “narcotics like opioid posing a deadly risk.”

The agency “has relied on a strategy of manipulating, obscuring, and ignoring science in its inexplicable zeal to impede public access to the natural botanical kratom,” states Babin’s white paper.

The FDA has also misled the DEA, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) with incomplete, inaccurate, extrapolated, and distorted information on adverse events and deaths allegedly associated with the use of kratom to encourage unwarranted legislative and regulatory restrictions on kratom at the federal, state, and local government levels. Any public policy decision-maker (or staff) or media reporter, seeking to validate the FDA claims in policy deliberations will encounter a massively manipulated and sloppily documented public record.

Dave Herman, chairman of the American Kratom Association, suggested that “the FDA’s effort to frame kratom as a culprit in these otherwise unrelated deaths” was not just “sloppy and lacking in scientific integrity” but also “done deliberately.”

Reason has covered the FDA’s efforts against kratom for a few years now. “Is kratom the new marijuana?” asked Jacob Sullum in the January 2017 issue. See more here.

FREE MINDS

An Ohio judge keeps denying name changes for transgender teens. Formal name changes are required by law if kids at public schools want the teachers and administrators to stop using their old names. From The Washington Post:

One afternoon, slouched over a desk in a study hall classroom, Elliott, 15, was outed by an unwitting ninth-grade teacher who called him Heidi—his birth name or as the transgender community terms it, his “dead name”—while taking attendance. Ohio is one of several states that requires a court order granting a legal name change before a school can adjust its records.

So on June 18, Elliott and his parents, Kylen and Stephanie Leigh, went to court to make his name change official, appearing in front of Judge Joseph Kirby at the Warren County Probate courthouse in Lebanon, Ohio. They expected the hearing to be a formality, but Kirby’s questions and commentary quickly turned to gendered toilets and Caitlyn Jenner, according to court transcripts.

Four days later, Kirby denied Elliott’s name change. In the three-page decision, he referred to Elliott as “she” and “her” because using his preferred pronouns made it “difficult to read,” Kirby wrote in a footnote. The judge issued denials for two transgender 14-year-olds the same afternoon.

Now Elliott, along with two other teens and their families, has filed a class action lawsuit against the judge.

FREE MARKETS

The FBI has warned banks about impending ATM chaos. In a leaked, private memo sent last Friday, the FBI said that it “has obtained unspecified reporting indicating cyber criminals are planning to conduct a global Automated Teller Machine (ATM) cash-out scheme in the coming days, likely associated with an unknown card issuer breach and commonly referred to as an ‘unlimited operation.'”

“Historic compromises have included small-to-medium size financial institutions, likely due to less robust implementation of cyber security controls, budgets, or third-party vendor vulnerabilities,” the agency told banks. “The FBI expects the ubiquity of this activity to continue or possibly increase in the near future.”

QUICK HITS

• GarJo is back! Gary Johnson’s “surprise re-entry into politics—as recently as five months ago he told Nick Gillespie ‘I’m done with elected political office’—came about when the original Libertarian Party nominee for [New Mexico’s] Senate…decided to step aside after seeing strong polling support for the two-time former governor,” explains Matt Welch.
• Christine Hallquist, a Vermont trans woman, was elected last night as the Democratic nominee for governor. “She is the first transgender candidate for governor among either major party,” notes The New York Times. GOP gubernatorial candidate and ex-congressman Tim Pawlenty lost his bid. See more takeaways here from the Tuesday primaries in Connecticut, Vermont, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.
• Alex Jones has been suspended from Twitter.
• The Food and Drug Administration moves to shutdown “opioid alternative” Poppy Seed Wash.
• On incels, social science, evolution, and how we trick ourselves into believing we’re better people than we are.
• A federal judge will allow British actress Kadian Noble’s sex-trafficking suit against Harvey Weinstein to go forward.
• “The way we save the world is not by forming a Gen X Rapid Reaction Strikeforce with a mission to somehow make it 1985 again” author Matthew Hennessey tells National Review. But “I have some contrary opinions about culture’s drift toward a Utopian, semi-socialist techno-paradise premised on the idea that privacy, free speech, edgy comedy, and newspapers have outlived their usefulness.” Hennessey admits that in his new book, Zero Hour for Gen X: How the Last Adult Generation Can Save America from Millennials, he uses the word millennials as a stand-in for certain set of values, not a demographic marker. “The word is useful to me mostly as a proxy for the app-soaked, Millennial-friendly world that is still busy being born all around us.”
• Somerville, Massachusetts, Mayor Joseph Curtatone, has been calling for a boycott of Sam Adams beer after its owner had dinner with President Trump.

We need to hold these complicit profiteers of Trump’s white nationalist agenda accountable ! https://t.co/UCywb9I7xE

— Joseph A. Curtatone (@JoeCurtatone) August 12, 2018

During a visit to the Adirondacks last week, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo recalled retrieving a feather shed by an eagle that “swooped down right next to us with this beautiful, graceful glide” as he was canoeing with his family on Lake Saranac. Cuomo did not realize he was confessing to a crime.

As the Associated Press pointed out, picking up that feather was a federal offense, punishable by a maximum fine of $5,000 and up to a year in prison. Cuomo, who said he would remedy the situation by returning the feather to the lake or surrendering it to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, clearly does not expect to be punished for a crime he committed inadvertently. Therein lies a lesson he should take to heart, Jacob Sullum writes.

View this article

They’re good dogs, Brent.

So good, in fact, that they’ve been rejected by various government agencies for being too nice, too snuggly, and too interested in what’s-that-you-got-there-is-it-food. Or maybe they’ve simply decided that they’re not going to be a part of the humans’ airport security theatrics and failed war on drugs, no matter how many Scooby snacks they might be passing up by dropping out.

Either way, we can all agree that there’s something adorable and principled about a mutt that didn’t make the cut. If a dog that took one look at the endless bureaucracy and terrifying police state of modern government, then turned tail and ran sounds like a companion you’d want, well, good news! Business Insider has a useful rundown of the ways to adopt dogs that failed police K-9 training, Transportation Security Administration terrorist-sniffing class, and other puppers-on-pawtrol programs.

How did those dogs end up getting the boot? Insider reports that some are too nervous, some are just too doggone nice, and others “are more interested in snugs than drugs.” Like Gavel, the German Sheppard pup who briefly became an internet sensation last year when he got cut from K-9 training in Australia for not having “the necessary aptitude for a life on the front line.”

Which is a nice way of saying that Gavel was a bit of a mess.

Gavel the police dog fired for being ‘too nice’ https://t.co/YSsg3l5b7s pic.twitter.com/NDdnvthquN

— CTV News VI (@CTVNewsVI) October 17, 2017

Closer to home, the TSA’s dog adoption program offers the chance to adopt a dog that would rather chew on your shoes than watch you remove them and put them in the bin. Sure, the TSA might have an annual budget that’s bigger than Monaco’s GDP, might have never stopped an actual terrorist, and might routinely allow all sorts of dangerous items to get onto planes, but now you can’t say they’ve never done anything worthwhile.

Of course, the dogs that do end up serving the state are good dogs too. Being dogs, they are probably not be familiar with Jacob Sullum’s 2013 Reason cover story about just how often drug-sniffing dogs get it wrong—nine times out of 10, in one experiment—and many ways in which humans’ civil liberties have been curtailed by those “search warrants on leashes.” It is humans who have written laws giving police dogs (and, really, their human handlers) too much authority. Bad humans!

Luckily, for both humans and freedom-loving doggos, the Supreme Court has recently placed a few small limitations on how drug-sniffing dogs can be used.

Even the most hard-hearted, cynical libertarian can’t help but have a soft spot for these canine conscientious objectors—dogs that would rather lick faces than boots. The TSA says it has “an extensive waiting list” for adoptions, but groups like Freedom Service Dogs of America and Service Dogs Inc. can connect drop-out service dogs with new homes.

Last night, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker waltzed to victory in the Badger State’s Republican primary, quite unlike his counterpart to the south, Kansas Gov. Jeff Collyer, who conceded in his nail-biter of a race last week with voter-fraud crusader Kris Kobach.

One big difference in the two races was President Donald Trump, who had bucked the incumbent in Kansas, but backed his former rival Walker with this tweet Monday:

Scott Walker of Wisconsin is a tremendous Governor who has done incredible things for that Great State. He has my complete & total Endorsement! He brought the amazing Foxconn to Wisconsin with its 15,000 Jobs-and so much more. Vote for Scott on Tuesday in the Republican Primary!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2018

Hmmm, Foxconn, where have I heard that name before? Oh yeah, here:

The maker of that great Reason video, Zach Weissmueller, will deconstruct that deal with me today as I sit in the guest-host chair for Stand UP! with Pete Dominick on SiriusXM Insight (channel 121) from 9-12 a.m. ET. Other guests are scheduled to include

• The great New York journalist Jacob Siegel, who will talk about his pre-Unite the Right II contention that the alt right is fizzling even as white nationalism is on the rise.
• New Hampshire State Rep. Brandon Phinney, a Republican-turned-Libertarian who will talk about his successful efforts to legalize bands drinking beer on stage in the Granite State.
• Alex Salkever, co-author of Your Happiness Was Hacked: Why Tech Is Winning the Battle to Control Your Brain–and How to Fight Back, who will talk about his book and also Friday’s Deactivate Twitter Day.
• Michael Brendan Dougherty, on the unfathomably awful sex abuse ring in Pennsylvania’s Catholic Church.

Please call into the show at any time, at 1-877-974-7487.

Social Security is running out of money, observes John Stossel. That FICA money taken from your paycheck was not saved for you in a “trust fund.” Politicians misled you. They spent every penny the moment it came in.

Presidents routinely promise to fix the problem. George W. Bush said he’d “strengthen and save” Social Security. Barack Obama said he’d “safeguard” it, and Donald Trump said that he’ll “save” it.

But none has done anything to save it.

View this article.

A history teacher at California’s Lodi High School berated two students wearing NRA T-shirts and ordered one to the principal’s office when he refused to remove the shirt. In a statement, the school district says the shirts did not violate the dress code and promised to provide a refresher to staff on the dress code so this does not happen again.

“Is the best way to end global poverty free markets or government action?”

That’s the proposition under discussion at the next Reason-Soho Forum event, which features Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz and former World Bank economist William Easterly. The conversation will be moderated by the Soho Forum’s co-founder, Gene Epstein.

The event takes place on Monday, August 27 at New York’s Subculture theater on Bleecker Street. Tickets cost between $12 and $24 and include entry to a reception featuring light fare and a cash bar. All tickets must be purchased online in advance (and they are going fast!).

Here’s more information about the participants and their basic positions:

William Easterly is Professor of Economics at New York University and Co-director of the NYU Development Research Institute. He is the author of three books: The Tyranny of Experts: Economists, Dictators, and the Forgotten Rights of the Poor (2014), The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good (2006), which won the FA Hayek Award from the Manhattan Institute, and The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists’ Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics (2001). He has published 69 peer-reviewed academic articles, and has written columns and reviews for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Review of Books, and Washington Post. He has written: “Remember, aid cannot achieve the end of poverty. Only homegrown development based on the dynamism of individuals and firms in free markets can do that.”

Joseph E. Stiglitz is an American economist and a professor at Columbia University. He is also the co-chair of the High-Level Expert Group on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress at the OECD, and the Chief Economist of the Roosevelt Institute. A recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2001) and the John Bates Clark Medal (1979), he is a former senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank and a former member and chairman of the (US president’s) Council of Economic Advisers. In 2011 Stiglitz was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. He has written “[Whenever information is imperfect and markets incomplete, which is to say always, and especially in developing countries,then the invisible hand works most imperfectly. Significantly, there are desirable government interventions which, in principle, can improve upon the efficiency of the market.” [italics in original]

And here are event details:

Cash bar opens at 5:45pm
Event starts at 6:30pm
Subculture Theater
45 Bleecker St
NY, 10012

Seating must be reserved in advance.

Moderated by Soho Forum Director Gene Epstein

Each Soho Forum is released as a Reason TV video and a Reason Podcast (subscribe for free!). Recent events have included Peter Schiff and Erik Vorhees debating whether bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is the future of money, economists Bryan Caplan and Edward Glaesar arguing over government funding for higher education, and Cathy Young and Michael Kimmel discussing “rape culture” on college campuses.

For a full archive, go here.

Here’s the video of the Reason-Soho Forum about bitcoin and the future of money.

The Love Ranch, one of the seven legal brothels owned by Nevada Assembly candidate Dennis Hof, lost its brothel license last week.

According to the Nye County Licensing and Liquor Board, Hof failed to apply for renewal and pay fees on time. This is the first time in the board’s 10-year history that a brothel license has been permanently revoked.

Hof has been running afoul of county rules a lot, authorities say. In February 2018, the Love Ranch’s license was suspended after Hof failed to obtain permission before modifying several mobile homes on site. The brothel was eventually reopened in April.

Hof claimed back in February that this was political retribution for his challenging state Assemblyman James Oscarson in the Republican primary. “They’re out of hand. It’s the same stuff they’re doing to Donald Trump,” he told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. They’re using government power to put me out of business and discredit me.”

In 2017, Hof had failed to pay county fees and complete necessary paperwork but was not penalized then.

This past April, citizens of Lyon and Nye counties, both of which contains brothels owned by Hof, drafted ballot referendums to ban brothels in their counties. Voters in Lyon County will see this on their ballots in November, while Nye county voters won’t likely see a brothel vote on their ballots until 2020.

Hof argues that such measures won’t eliminate prostitution, as crusaders claim, but simply lead to more dangerous working conditions for those involved. “The brothels are a bit like Walmart and church: Nobody forces you to go, but when you need something, you know where they’re at,” said Hof to the Las Vegas Review. “Live and let live. Don’t try to impose your views on other people.”

Regardless, Hof has said he plans to sell the brothels in both Lyon and Nye Counties so he can focus on his political aspirations without being trapped by a system that he believes is out to get him. In June, he beat three-time incumbent Oscarson in the GOP primary and will now face Democratic candidate Lesia Romanov in November.

But some women who work at the Love Ranch are optimistic that they will be back in business soon. “Dennis has told us to keep a good attitude,” said Sonja Bandolik, an employee at Love Ranch. “He’s got deep pockets. If it’s humanly possible, he’s going to make this happen.”

Others have fled to northern Nevada to work at another brothel owned by Hof. And workers at other brothels Hof owns have been coming to his defense on social media.

Nye County commissioners have no issue with putting people out of work- absolutely disgusting. They should be ashamed, taking jobs away as part of a political agenda. Love Ranch closed for now. #sexwork https://t.co/fnrvSx6ckO

— Christina Parreira ☂️ (@SinCityGrrrl) August 8, 2018

We at alien cathouse stand behind our sisters at love ranch. Leave the brothels alone!

— Brandi_ACH (@AchBrandi) August 13, 2018

In order for Love Ranch to reopen, Hof must file a new brothel application and be approved by the Nye County Licensing and Liquor Board.

Gary Johnson this morning added his name to the New Mexico Secretary of State’s list of candidates running in the 2018 general election. “It’s moving forward,” Johnson 2016 campaign manager and current head of a Johnson-supporting SuperPAC Ron Nielson told me this afternoon. “He’s begun the process of filing.”

Though all the bureaucratic hoops will likely take another day or so to jump through, incumbent Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich, who until now has been the prohibitive favorite, wasted no time fundraising off the news:

Breaking: Our race just changed, and we need your help more than ever. Show you stand with Martin by contributing here → https://t.co/LKEPzxz2a7https://t.co/72Nanmx6rJ

— Martin Heinrich (@TeamHeinrich) August 14, 2018

Republican nominee Mick Rich, who, like Johnson, is a self-made construction entrepreneur who made a mid-life switch to statewide Republican politics, has shown zero sign of wanting to give the Libertarian a clear path at turning a blue state gold.

“He sounds like a really good guy, and everything I’ve heard about him has been very positive,” Nielson said. “Obviously if he was not in this race, this race would be significantly different.”

Johnson’s surprise re-entry into politics—as recently as five months ago he told Nick Gillespie “I’m done with elected political office”—came about when the original Libertarian Party nominee for Senate, New Mexico State Land Commissioner Aubrey Dunn (who is the first-ever Libertarian to hold statewide partisan elected office), decided to step aside after seeing strong polling support for the two-time former governor. The party then gave Johnson until Aug. 18 to pull the trigger.

Nielson says that early fundraising prospects have looked good. “There’s a lot of interest in Gary,” he said. “He had a broad sector of support from Libertarians and from interested parties nationwide, but in New Mexico he’s getting a lot of support from people. So we’re hoping that we can raise substantial sums, millions of dollars, here in the not-too-distant future.”

Missouri’s Democratic Party has no room for voters who lean left but oppose abortion.

In June, the party added an amendment acknowledging that abortion is a contentious issue and emphasizing that pro-life Democrats are “welcome.” The amendment did not change the party’s longtime platform, which recognizes a woman’s right to abortion.

“We respect the conscience of each Missourian and recognize that members of our party have deeply held and sometimes differing positions on issues of personal conscience, such as abortion,” the amendment read. “We recognize the diversity of views as a source of strength, and welcome into our ranks all Missourians who may hold differing positions on this issue.”

The amendment survived less than two months. The state party’s central committee voted overwhelmingly on Saturday to remove and replace it. The new amendment affirms “a woman’s right to choose and the right of every person to their own bodily autonomy and to be free from government intrusion in medical decisions, including a decision to carry a pregnancy to term, and oppose any efforts to limit access to reproductive health care.”

What’s wrong with courting voters whose views on abortion don’t match the majority of party members? According to Missouri Democratic Party Chairman Stephen Webber, it’s all about party unity. “We got it right, and the final product is something that can unify the whole party,” Webber tells The Kansas City Star.

But Kristen Day, executive director of Democrats for Life of America, says Missouri Democrats are simply alienating potential voters. “At what point will the abortion-rights progressives be held accountable for prioritizing their single issue above the health and success of the Democratic Party?” she said in a statement.

Nobody asked the Missouri Democratic Party to oppose abortion itself. The amendment in question simply allowed for a bit of ideological diversity. That might hurt them in the Show Me state. Both houses of Missouri’s legislature are currently controlled by the GOP, and Gov. Mike Parson (R) is a pro-life conservative. At the state level, Democrats obviously aren’t doing a great job of appealing to Missourians.

At the federal level, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D–Mo.), who’s very much pro-choice, is widely seen as one of the Democratic senators most likely to lose her seat come November. Pro-life groups have pounced on her pro-choice bonafides, as has her Republican opponent, Attotney General Josh Hawley.

Instead of welcoming pro-life liberals, Missouri’s Democratic Party is leaving them out in the cold, says Darryl Jeffries, a pro-life Democrat who attended Saturday’s committee meeting. “It just sounded like I was disenfranchised and wasn’t welcome,” Jeffries tells The Star. “I call myself moderately pro-life; I don’t have all the answers. But the language I heard was ‘We really don’t want to hear from you people.'”