Issues

In a long chapter on Family, we learn why the name on his birth certificate is Michael Luther, and why he was called 'Little Mike' in his early years. In fact, Martin Luther King wasn't named for Martin Luther, but you'll have to read the book to find out why. Nonviolence came to him easily. Even as a boy he didn't want to fight, or hit those who hit him. In 1950, while studying at Crozer Theological Seminary, he went to a lecture on Gandhi by a well-known black preacher. He was so intrigued that he read everything that he could find on the Mahatma and his philosophy. The future leader didn't leave home until he graduated from Morehouse College. However, he was ordained at 18 and made associate pastor of his father's church when he was 21. His theological training was not necessary for a career as a Baptist minister; he was going into the family business. more »

Brain scientists and pharmacologists don’t know how to measure if and to what extent marijuana causes impairment. Existing blood and urine tests can detect marijuana use, but, because traces of the drug stay in the human body for a long time, those tests can’t specify whether the use occurred earlier that day or that month. They also don’t indicate the level at which a driver would be considered “under the influence.” “It’s a really hard problem,” said Keith Humphreys, a psychiatry professor and drug policy expert at Stanford University. “We don’t really have good evidence — even if we know someone has been using — [to gauge] what their level of impairment is.” more »

Jo Freeman writes: While many have greatly lauded this great leap upward over the 112 women who were M.C.s during 115th Congress, few have noted that this gain was almost entirely among Democrats. Of the 36 women elected to the House for the first time, only one is a Republican. Of the 3 new Senators, only one is a Republican. Women are now 25 percent of both houses of Congress, but not of both parties. Women are over one-third of the Democratic Caucus in both houses (36% and 39%), 15 percent of Republicans in the Senate, and only 8 percent of Republicans in the House. more »

In a series of interviews with heroin users in Rhode Island in 2017, Brown University researchers reported that users “described fentanyl as unpleasant, potentially deadly, and to be avoided.” They concluded that demand for the deadly contaminant was low and that its presence in the drug supply was “generating user interest in effective risk mitigation strategies, including treatment.” But in San Francisco’s gritty Tenderloin district, where fentanyl was only rarely seen until last year, drug users tell a starkly different story. For many of them, fentanyl is a high-value drug that, if used carefully, can prevent dope sickness and deliver a strong high for a fraction of the price of heroin. Amber Sheldon, right, greets a frequent client at the harm reduction program at Glide in San Francisco. The program offers clean syringes, drug tes… more »