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Cognitive Liberty News
2003 Cognitive Liberty News
December 24, 2003
Court Plants Red Cross in the War on Marijuana
By Richard Glen Boire, California Daily Journal, Wed. Dec. 24, 2003
Last week, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that federal criminal
laws against marijuana are unconstitutional when applied to sick people who
are using the drug with their doctor's approval in accordance with state
law. Raich v. Ashcroft, 2003 U.S.App.LEXIS 25317 (9th Cir. Dec. 16,
2003).... Arresting and terrorizing patients like Raich in the name of the
war on drugs is like arresting Vicodin-taking cancer patients because other
people, like Rush Limbaugh, use it for non-medical purposes. It turns logic
on its head.
>> Read More
December 23, 2003
Memory Erasing, Coming Soon Says
Cognitive Liberty Group
Paycheck Movie Raises Important Mental Rights Concerns, Experts Say
What if you could take a
pill that would safely erase unwanted memories? Experts at the Center for
Cognitive Liberty and Ethics (CCLE) say that memory-erasing drugs are on the
way, and they question whether the legal system is prepared to deal with the
changes such drugs will bring. >> Read More
December 17, 2003
Court: Federal
Government Cannot Prohibit
Patients’ Use of Medical Marijuana
Yesterday, a federal appeals court ruled that federal drug laws prohibiting
the use or cultivation of marijuana are unconstitutional when applied to
medical patients in California who are using marijuana with their doctor’s
approval. The momentous decision by the United States Court of Appeals for
the Ninth Circuit has far reaching implications and can potentially apply to
similarly situated patients in the six other states that allow the use of
medical marijuana within the Ninth Circuit (Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Nevada,
Oregon and Washington). >> Read More
December 9, 2003
Recent Neuroscience Articles
Intensify Need for "Freedom of Thought" Updating
Four new articles underscore why the CCLE is working so hard to update the
fundamental right to "freedom of thought" to include brain privacy,
autonomy, and choice (i.e., "cognitive liberty"). Increasingly, scientists
are identifying the functional neurochemistry that underlies our thought
processes, including religious experiences. In addition, drugs and other
devices that target and disrupt the central nervous system are increasingly
being explored for their potential to serve as weapons and policing aids. As
this process accelerates, traditional legal rights such as freedom of
speech, freedom of religion, and privacy, will have to evolve in tandem by
acknowledging and protecting an equally fundamental, but underlying, right
to cognitive liberty. Failure to make this move will result in: (1) losing
cherished rights we currently enjoy, and (2) foreclosing opportunities for
expanding how and what we think.
>> Read More
December 1, 2003
The Future of Drug Testing
Wired Magazine
reports on a new drug-detection patch under development by SpectRx.
"For the monitor to work, employees first have to have four microscopic
holes -- about the size of a human hair -- burnt into the outer layer of
their skin by a handheld laser... The oval patch houses a miniature vacuum
pump that sucks out interstitial fluid, a clear, water-like fluid that
surrounds cells in the body.") When a drug is detected, a miniature
transmitter sends out an alert signal. >> Read
More
November 20, 2003
Insufficient Memory
Can a pill boost your brain’s ability to hold information?
Just around the corner looms a brave new
world where people of all ages could reach for a pill that would strengthen
the brain, enabling it to learn faster and make the lessons last. Swallowing
pills to make learning easier or to make memories stick is no longer
pie-in-the-sky thinking. Scientists have learned so much about the way the
human brain learns and remembers that they are fashioning the first
generation of memory enhancers.
>>
Read More
November 17, 2003
Where is the
real Matrix?
Neural implant devices are now a reality. But misguided federal
policies are keeping them from the people who need them.
>> Read More
November 13, 2003
Devices that read human
thought now possible,
study says/Brain implants could help severely disabled
New Orleans -- Less than a month after a widely heralded experiment showed
how thought-reading implants can work in monkeys, scientists presented new
findings Sunday suggesting such machines could work in people, too.
>> Read More
November 11, 2003
Pill May Help People Overcome Fears
NEW ORLEANS - Scientists say a pill may help people overcome their worst
phobias. In a small study released Monday, a drug already on the market for
tuberculosis helped people who were terrified of heights get over that fear
with only two therapy sessions instead of the usual seven or eight.
>> Read More
October 28, 2003
There's a Sucker Born in Every Medial Prefrontal Cortex
Measuring brand
influence might seem like an unusual activity for a neuroscientist, but ...
a growing breed of researchers ... are applying the methods of the neurology
lab to the questions of the advertising world. Some of these
researchers...are purely academic in focus, studying the consumer mind out
of intellectual curiosity, with no corporate support. Increasingly, though,
there are others--like several of the researchers at the Mind of the Market
Laboratory at Harvard Business School--who work as full-fledged ''neuromarketers,''
conducting brain research with the help of corporate financing and sharing
their results with their sponsors.
>> Read More
October 16, 2003
Beyond Therapy: Biotechnology and
the Pursuit of Happiness
Today the President's Council on Bioethics released what will surely be an
influential report on using medicines and other technologies for enhancement
rather than therapeutic purposes. Wrye Sententia, CCLE co-director,
presented written and spoken testimony to the Council in October 2002. The
CCLE will be preparing a commentary on the report.
>> Read More
October 14, 2003
Supreme Court Declines to Hear
Government Appeal in Medical Marijuana Case: Affirms First Amendment Rights
of Doctors and Patients
In a victory for medical marijuana
proponents, the United States Supreme Court today declined to hear the
government’s appeal in Walters v. Conant, a case in which California
physicians challenged the federal government’s attempts to revoke their
power to prescribe medications if they discussed medical marijuana with
their patients. The Court’s decision means the Ninth Circuit Court of
Appeal’s unanimous ruling that such a regulatory penalty would violate the
First Amendment rights of both doctors and patients stands. The federal
government is barred from investigating doctors solely on the basis of
making medical marijuana recommendations.
>>
Read More
October 10, 2003
Ten
Technologies That Deserve to Die - Lie Detectors
By Bruce Sterling, (c)
October 2003, MIT Technology Review
The CCLE's position with respect
to brain fingerprinting devices, and other new fangled deception detection
technology based on brain imagining, is that such technology is fine when
used voluntarily. Law enforcement and other government agents, however,
should be barred from forcibly extracting a person's innermost thoughts by
compelling the person to be brain fingerprinted. When used by corporations
the CCLE views it as distasteful and as disturbing as urine testing.
>> Read what Bruce Sterling
thinks
October 7, 2003
CCLE's Written
Comments to the DEA
RE: Notice of Intent to
Place 2C-T-7, BZP, and TFMPP into Schedule I of the Controlled Substances
Act. >> Read More
September 25, 2003
Ecstasy and Amphetamines - Global Survey 2003
United Nations Drug Report “Disappointing” Say Critics
Yesterday (September 23, 2003) the
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime released its report
Ecstasy and
Amphetamines - Global Survey 2003.
The report estimates that worldwide 7.7 million
people used the drug ecstasy from 2000-2001. According to Richard Glen
Boire, legal counsel for the Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics, a
US-based law and policy group focused on protecting of freedom of thought,
the UN report is disappointing for its adoption of US government rhetoric.
>> Read More
September 22, 2003
Salvia slips into our consciousness:
A legal hallucinogenic is now widely available, to mixed
reactions
By Jennifer Moss (c) Vancouver Sun 2003
While Salvia divinorum
remains legal in Canada, with increased availability comes increased use --
and controversy. Australia has banned the plant, and the U.S. may soon
follow suit. According to lawyer Richard Glen Boire of the Centre for
Cognitive Liberty and Ethics, "there is a movement in the States to have
Salvia divinorum banned, as part of the war on drugs." The CCLE Web site
details the legal wrangles over salvia in the U.S. Bill HR5607 was
introduced in Congress by California representative Joe Baca in 2002 in an
attempt to make the substance illegal.
>> Read More
September 17, 2003
Leading Researchers Confront the Ethics of Cognitive Enhancement
Imagine taking a pill to
make you smarter, or a drug that enhances your memory. Imagine mind-altering
drugs imposed upon criminals, averting their tendencies to commit violence.
Once a dream of science fiction, advances in neuroscience are now making it
possible for cognitive enhancement to become as ordinary as a cup of coffee.
But could enhancement drugs be dangerous? How might their use impact
society? What are the ethical, moral and legal dilemmas surrounding the
development and distribution of cognitive enhancing drugs?
>> Read More
September 10, 2003
Results
Retracted On Ecstasy Study
Scientists at Johns Hopkins University who last year published a frightening
and controversial report suggesting that a single evening's use of the
illicit drug ecstasy could cause permanent brain damage and Parkinson's
disease are retracting their research in its entirety, saying the drug they
used in their experiments was not ecstasy after all.
>> Read More
September 5, 2003
10th Circuit:
Church likely to prevail in dispute over hallucinogenic tea
A New Mexico church was handed a small victory yesterday when a federal
appeals court ruled its use of hallucinogenic tea was likely to be protected
under religious-freedom laws. The 2-1 ruling
by a three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver,
upheld a preliminary injunction against the U.S. attorney general, the Drug
Enforcement Administration and other government agencies that sought to
prohibit the tea's use. >> Read More
September 2, 2003
Court Rules that Alaska Constitution
Protects
Personal Possession of Marijuana in the Home
The Alaska
Court of Appeals ruled Friday that the Alaska Constitution’s privacy
guarantee
protects an adult’s right to possess up to four ounces of marijuana in the
home for personal use. The ruling
overturns the conviction of David Noy, a North Pole medical marijuana
patient, and
resolves a legal conflict between a 1975 Supreme Court of Alaska decision
and a voter initiative passed in 1990. >> Read More
August 26, 2003
The Brain's Buy Button
Article on Forbes.com
Neuroscientists say
that by peering inside your head they can tell whether you identify more
strongly with J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter, say, than with J.R.R. Tolkien's
Frodo. A beverage company can choose one new juice or soda over another
based on which flavor trips the brain's reward circuitry. It's conceivable
that movies and TV programs will be vetted before their release by
brain-imaging companies. A "fascinating" possibility, says William Raduchel,
until recently the chief technology officer at AOL Time Warner, who explored
using MRI technology for that purpose last fall. "It's a little like mind
reading," says Henrik Walter, a neurologist and psychiatrist with the
University Clinic of Ulm, Germany, where he conducts brain-imaging work for
DaimlerChrysler.
>> Read More
August 25, 2003
CCLE on Corante’s Brainwaves Column
Last week, and continuing through the end of this week (August 18-31), CCLE
directors Wrye Sententia and Richard Glen Boire have been providing
commentary to readers of the Brainwaves column on the Corante news service.
>> Read More
August 19, 2003
Jnl. of Cognitive Liberties, Vol. 4, No. 2
Now Available
The latest issue of the Journal of
Cognitive Liberties is now available in print. The current issue contains
117 pages of original articles on cognitive liberty by authors such as
Richard Glen Boire, Dr. Lester Grinspoon, and Dr. Thomas Szasz.
>> Read More
August 18, 2003
Debating the Future
Should we strive for radical life
extension? Should we seek the benefits of nanotechnology despite the risks?
Should we use cloning to reproduce? Should we genetically engineer a better
human body or mind? Learn more about these issues in a debate
between leading Canadian bioethicist Margaret Somerville and controversial
US bioethicist James Hughes, moderated by journalist Tim Falconer.
>> Read
More
July 28, 2003
Neurofeedback to Enhance Musical Performance
Use of technologies like transcranial magnetic stimulation, or
EEG neurofeedback techniques are shifting from therapeutic applications to
those aimed at performance enhancement. The latest use of this technology
allows users to see and alter their own brain waves by using a visual
representation of their neural patterns.
>> Read More
July 24, 2003
The Face of the Future: Technosapiens?
The
CCLE's Wrye Sententia to speak on
"Steering Toward Human Flourishing"
The Center for Bioethics
and Culture (CBC) and the Council for Biotechnology Policy (CBP), will be
holding a conference September 19-20 in Oakland, CA. Titled "The
Face of the Future: Technosapiens?" the conference promises to be
controversial.
>> Read More
July 17, 2003
US Seeking to
Gag Doctors
Why the Government's Decision to Prosecute
Doctors Who Inform Patients of Marijuana's Medical Benefits Is A
Blatant First Amendment Violation.
>> Read More
June 30, 2003
The Transcendent
Dimensions of Liberty
Early Notes Concerning the Cognitive Liberty Implications of Supreme Court's Gay
Rights Decision
Heralded as a landmark victory for gay rights, last week’s Supreme Court
decision in Lawrence v. Texas struck down Texas’ “Homosexual Conduct”
law, which criminalized consensual sex between homosexual adults. The Supreme Court’s
express recognition of a fundamental “liberty of the person in both its
spatial and more transcendent dimensions,” that among other things protects
consensual, private sexual conduct between adults, leaves room for a future
recognition of cognitive liberty. “At the heart of liberty,” wrote Justice
Kennedy, “is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning,
of the universe, and of the mystery of human life."
>> Read More
June 24, 2003
If Sanity Is Forced on a Defendant,
Who Is on Trial?
While the court's
recent ruling In the case of Dr. Charles Sell settled some legal issues, it
did little to resolve the larger philosophical questions in the case: how
does one define free thought and individual identity in an age when
technology has
provided the tools to radically alter them? What is the dividing line
between the mind and body? What is the nature of personal autonomy?
>> Read More
June 24, 2003
Savant for a Day
Applying magnetic fields to pinpointed areas of the brain, scientist Allan
Snyder in Sydney, Australia enhances intelligence using brain technology.
With transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), Snyder can reproduce
genius-like talents of savants in "normal" laboratory subjects. Snyder says
"You could call this a creativity-amplifying machine. It's a way of altering
our states of mind without taking drugs like mescaline. You can make people
see the raw data of the world as it is. As it is actually represented in the
unconscious mind of all of us.'' >> Read more
June 16, 2003
Supreme Court Upholds Right to Refuse
Mind-Altering Drugs
CCLE Amicus Brief Argues
Forced Medication Infringes Fundamental Liberty
On Monday, June 16 2003, The United States Supreme Court upheld the right to
refuse unwanted psychotropic medication in its landmark decision in Sell v.
United States, delivered earlier today. Ruling in favor of a St. Louis
dentist who resisted government attempts to force medicate him with
antipsychotic drugs, the Court held that while involuntary medication solely
for trial competence purposes may be appropriate in some instances, those
instances would likely be “rare.”
>> Read More
June 9, 2003
Ethics and mapping the brain
By Lou Marano, June 3, 2003 © Washington Times
WASHINGTON, June 3 (UPI) -- Emerging technologies that map the brain, reveal
"guilty knowledge," and expose patterns associated with disfavored behavior
raise thorny questions of law and ethics.
Three University of Pennsylvania professors grapple with these questions in
a lucid article that appears in the June issue of the IEEE Spectrum, a
monthly journal of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.
"Bioethics and the Brain," although written for specialists, is refreshingly
free of the jargon and bad writing that mars so many academic publications.
>> Read More
June 6, 2003
Man hailed by some as genius
cannot be forcibly drugged for mental illness
OTTAWA (CP) - A physics savant who says he'd rather stay locked up than be
drugged for mental illness cannot be forcibly medicated, says Canada's
highest court. >> Read More
May 22, 2003
House Votes To Bar Schools
from Forcing Kids to Take Psychotropic Meds
On Wednesday (May 21, 2003) the U.S. House of Representatives approved the
Child Medication Safety Act (HR 1170), which would prohibit schools
receiving federal education money from coercing children into taking drugs
like Ritalin as a precondition to attending class. >> Read More
May 13, 2003
Coming soon? "Active Skin" Drug Monitoring
Ian Pearson, futurologist for BTexact, says that recent developments in
polymer displays and electronics mean that within 7 years it may be possible
to put electronics onto and into our skin. "Active skin technology could be
used by the medical profession to monitor our blood chemistry 24/7 and
enable hospitals to check up on patients via computers or mobiles. These
computers could also remotely control drug dispensers. It might even be
possible to print special membranes with pores that can be electronically
opened and closed and thereby dispense accurate dosages."
>> Read More
May 8, 2003
Tripping De-Light Fantastic
Are psychedelic drugs good for you?
A year ago, hoping to dispel the postpartum gloom that had gripped me after
I finished writing a book, I hiked into a forest near my home and pitched a
tent under some pine trees. I spent that day and evening listening to the
forest, scribbling in my journal, and thinking—all while under the influence
of a psychedelic drug. The next morning I returned to my wife and children
feeling better than I had in months. What I did that day should not be
illegal. Adults seeking solace or insight ought to be allowed to consume
psychedelics such as LSD, psilocybin, and mescaline. U.S. laws now classify
them as Schedule 1 drugs, banned for all purposes because of their health
risks. But recent studies have shown that psychedelics—which more than 20
million Americans have ingested—can be harmless and even beneficial when
taken under appropriate circumstances. >> Read More
May 5, 2003
Some fear loss of privacy as science pries into
brain
Using magnetic resonance imaging machines that detect the ebb and flow of
brain activity, researchers have become so good at peering into the workings
of the human mind that their work is raising a new and deeply personal
ethical concern: brain privacy. >> Read More
May 1 2003
Court: Shaman Must Give Up Ayahuasca Use and
Complete 150 Days Community Service
An Ecuadorean shaman who brewed a potion that killed an elderly native woman
on Manitoulin Island [Canada] has received a one-year conditional sentence
and must give up ayahuasca use while in Canada.
>> Read More
25 April 2003
Court: No Peyote For 4-Year-Old
(AP) -- A
family court judge ruled Tuesday that a 4-year-old boy cannot take peyote at
American Indian spiritual ceremonies. In his decision, Judge Graydon W.
Dimkoff wrote that "peyote is dangerous, and in general should be avoided."
He went on to state, however, that the boy could ingest peyote when he is
fully aware of the implications, is physically and emotionally ready, and
has the permission of both parents. >> Read
More
23 April 2003
CCLE Mental Diversity
Scholarships Awarded
Mind States IV Conference
The CCLE is pleased to
announce that four individuals have been awarded CCLE Mental Diversity
Scholarships to attend the Mind States IV Conference in May 2003.
>> Read More
10 April 2003
Journal of Cognitive
Liberties
Volume 4, No. 1 (2003) Now Available
The newest
issue of the CCLE's Journal of Cognitive Liberties is now available. The JCL
has been newly redesigned, combining insightful content with a chic,
minimalist aesthetic. >> Read More
9 April 2003
Pot Debate Enters New Dimension
A California think tank is giving "New
York State of Mind" a whole new meaning.
>>
Read More
4 April 2003
FDA Cracks Down On
“Street Drug Alternatives”
Cognitive Liberty Group
calls it
a "Chilling Extension of the War on Drugs”
Washington -- The Food and Drug Administration
has sent warning letters to eight companies that sell herbal products,
threatening to seize the products because the companies are marketing them
as legal alternatives to illegal street drugs.
>> Read More
2 April 2003
Court Says Mom's Use
of Marijuana Not Reason to Remove
Kids
Smoking marijuana daily does not make a woman an unfit
parent and her four children should not have been removed by a
county agency, an Ohio appeals court has ruled.
>> Read More
31 March 2003
Judge Fired For Recusing Himself on
Drug Cases
A Chandler [Arizona] attorney was kicked off the bench Thursday an hour into
his first shift as a judge after he announced in writing that he would
disqualify himself from all drug cases because drug laws conflict with his
libertarian principles. >> Read More
29 March 2003
Mystic Herb Catches Fire
A hallucinogenic herb
traditionally used by Mexico's Mazatec Indians is being touted as a legal
alternative to marijuana on numerous Web sites, attracting attention from
teenagers seeking a psychedelic experience and parents concerned about their
children's well-being. ... Fear that the government will move to control the
substance angers advocacy groups, who view it as another area where the
government's war on drugs encroaches on an individual's freedom, says
Richard Glen Boire, co-director and legal counsel for the Center for
Cognitive Liberty and Ethics, a civil-liberties think tank in Davis, Calif.
>> Read More
24 March 2003
Artificial Synapses Under
Development
Scientists at Stanford University in California told a biophysics conference
in Texas earlier in March that they have created four "artificial synapses"
on a silicon chip one centimeter square.
>>
Read More
19 March 200
Thai Death Squads
Target Drug Users
On February 1, Thailand's Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra significantly
upped the stakes in the war on drug users, resolving to make Thailand "drug
free" within three months. >> Read More
12 March 2003
Chippocampus?: The New Artificial
Hippocampus
US scientists say a silicon
chip could be used to replace the hippocampus, where the storage of
memories is coordinated. They are due to start testing the device on rats
brains shortly. If that goes well, the Californian researchers will test
the artificial hippocampus in live rats within six months and then monkeys
trained to carry out memory tasks before progressing to human trials once
the chip has been proved to be safe. >>
Read More
11 March 2003
Librarians Try to Alter Patriot Act
Along with the
usual reminders to hold the noise down and pay overdue fines, library
patrons in Santa Cruz are seeing a new type of sign these days: a warning
that records of the books they borrow may wind up in the hands of federal
agents. >> Read More
3 March 2003
Justices
Examine the Intersection of Freedom of Thought With New Mind-Altering Drugs
Washington, DC—Today’s
Supreme Court oral argument saw government lawyers clashing with lawyers for
Dr. Charles Thomas Sell. Backed by a number of civil liberties
organizations, Dr. Sell’s lawyers told the Court that their client’s right
to bodily and mental integrity was guaranteed under the First, Fifth and
Sixth Amendments to the Constitution.
>> Read More
25 February 2003
U.S. Supreme
Court Set to Hear Oral Argument
in Forced Drugging Case on Monday
On Monday March 3rd, the United States Supreme Court will hear
oral arguments in the groundbreaking case of Dr. Charles Sell, a St. Louis
dentist ordered to submit to involuntary medication with anti-psychotic
drugs (Sell v. United States, No. 02-5664). Charged with Medicaid
fraud in 1997, Sell was found incompetent to stand trial due to mental
illness. Since that time, he has been fighting the federal government’s
efforts to forcibly inject him with drugs they claim will render him
competent to stand trial. >> Read More
24 February 2003
This is Not a
Pipe
Justice Department Goes After "Paraphernalia"
Vendors
In the latest expansion on the "War on Drugs," Attorney General John
Ashcroft reported today that the Department of Justice has launched two new
major anti-drug operations aimed at targeting companies that sell items that
drug users might use to ingest their unapproved drugs. At a press conference
held earlier today, Ashcroft proudly announced that "Operation Head Hunter"
and "Operation Pipe Dreams," have already resulted in the arrest of 55
people. >> Read More
11 February 2003
Drugs Can Kill You
Eighth Circuit rules that death row inmate can be force-drugged in order to
make him mentally fit for execution.
>> Read More
10 February 2003
CCLE Announces
Mental Diversity
Scholarship Fund
Win a Ticket, plus $300 Travel/Lodging To
Attend Mind States IV
The CCLE’s Mental Diversity
Scholarship Fund is intended to make it possible for worthy individuals with
a unique perspective to attend cost-prohibitive conferences, seminars, and
other events that raise cognitive liberty issues. We are presently offering
4 scholarship awards to attend Mind States IV in Berkeley, CA.
>> Read More
7 February 2003
CCLE Files Freedom
of Information Request
We're seeking any information that the DEA has collected with respect to
Salvia divinorum or its active principle.
>> Read More
3 February 2003
Los Angeles
Event: Thursday Feb. 6
The Learning Party presents:
Cognitive Liberty: Can You Change Your Own Mind?
a dialogue with Wrye Sententia of the Center for Cognitive Liberty &
Ethics
Profound advances in cognitive technologies & neurochemistry are further
changing our ability to manipulate the brain. In the next few decades we
will see even more intricate breakthroughs in neurotechnologies &
neurochemistry. How will society respond to new options, new possibilities
for treating or manipulating the mind? What sorts of freedom to benefit from
these advances will we have, what sorts of limitations should/will there be?
>> Read More
January 29, 2003
DEA Moves to Schedule Two More
"Hallucinogens"
Yesterday the Drug Enforcement Administration moved to place
two more "hallucinogens" into Schedule I of the federal Controlled
Substances Act. The two substances are Alpha-methyltryptamine (AMT) and 5-methoxy-N,N-diisopropyltryptamine (5-MeO-DIPT).
>> Read More
January 20, 2003 Salim Muwakkil,
(c) Chicago Tribune
A New Opposition
Front in the Drug War:
Criminalizing peaceful people who use psychoactive drugs to deepen their
spiritual life is criminal itself, some groups are arguing.
A new front has
opened in opposition to the war on drugs--a religious front. Several newly
formed groups are contesting our prohibitionist, anti-drug strategies
because they restrict religious freedom and "cognitive liberty."
>> Read More
January 13, 2003
The Battle For Your Brain:
Science Is Developing Ways To Boost Intelligence, Expand Memory, And More.
But Will You Be Allowed To Change Your Own Mind?
"WE'RE ON THE Verge Of profound changes in our ability to manipulate the
brain" says Paul Root Wolpe a bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania.
He isn't kidding. The dawning age of neuroscience promises not just new
treatments for Alzheimer's and other brain diseases but enhancements to
improve memory, boost intellectual acumen, and fine-tune our emotional
responses. >> Read More
January 3, 2003
First Local Restrictions
on the Sale of Salvia Divinorum Proposed
Authorities in St. Peters, Missouri, are urging city
officials to pass an ordinance outlawing the sale of Salvia divinorum
to anyone under the age of 18. >> Read More