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Sometimes it’s hard to know which is the more strange: the way some people behave or the laws that can make some behavior criminal. Take the question of having a drug in your possession. Oakland Raiders wide receiver Louis Murphy is now a qualified expert in the law. A few years back, he was caught with some marijuana in his possession. Everyone knows the dispute over the status of this drug. But many people use this drug for pain relief and, around the world, it’s either not criminal at all or, as in some US states, medicinal use is accepted. So, however you look at it, most people are aware of its status as a “street drug” and therefore are not surprised when they read about convictions. Switch over to prescription medication and more people can be caught by surprise. In many US states, it’s an offense to be in possession of any “legitimate” drug unless you carry a prescription with you to justify the possession. The reason is easy to give. Many prescription-only drugs are derived from highly addictive substances and the US states want to control their use. Whether it’s right to use the criminal law is not the issue. Having decided to control all versions of some drugs, you must carry a prescription to distinguish criminal from lawful possession. It’s the same as having your driver’s license with you when in control of a vehicle. The police are entitled to ask you for proof a doctor has approved your use of these drugs.

This week, Louis Murphy was pulled over in his SUV and, after a brief but violent fight resulting in an arrest, the police officers found eleven little blue pills in an unmarked bottle. Murphy had no prescription. Presumably, like millions of other men, he bought the drugs from an online pharmacy without the need for a prescription. So this should be a warning to everyone who buys their drugs through the internet. No matter what the drug, you can find yourself on the wrong end of the criminal law if you carry the drug with you in a public place. Just to clarify, it’s perfectly alright to have the drug in your bloodstream and, if the drug was sitting in your home, the police would need a warrant to search. Without a warrant allowing a search for drugs, it would be very difficult to get a conviction should the drugs be “found”. (more…)

Myths are the lies we tell ourselves to get through our lives with the least fear and pain. Sometimes, the truth is just too hard to bear. Take the idea of acne. Almost as soon as we are old enough to look in a mirror and understand the image as ourselves, we learn about the risk that smooth skin could be covered in spots that will swell and ooze and generally make us look as if we are escapees from a movie set filming a zombie movie. These stories are told to us out of kindness. We need to be prepared for the reality which is that, even if we are lucky and only have a mild outbreak, we will still get all the unkind comments. It’s all part of the ritual of growing up – that we will be unkind to each other as the acne spreads around the classes at school. Those whose outbreaks are more serious can be damaged psychologically as the abuse continues. The only thing that keeps most people going through all this distress is the belief it will soon all be over. We tell ourselves the lie that adults do not suffer from acne.

It’s now become more apparent that adults can and do suffer acne attacks. The current estimate that it’s a relatively small number of men but up to 15% of all women. Why is this? Well, there are flocks of experts who travel from one daytime TV show to the next to explain that we are all suffering from stress, we eat a poor diet and, perhaps surprisingly we are obsessed by the notion we should exercise to lose weight. Except these are yet more myths. There’s absolutely no scientific evidence to show a link between the type of food we eat and the condition of our skin. Assuming we don’t rub greasy food on to our faces, what we eat goes into the stomach and then out again. The stories about too much alcohol are also untrue. The question of stress is more difficult. Obviously, the appearance of acne produces stress… but stress as a cause? Well, higher levels of anxiety can trigger the release of adrenaline and can undermine the operation of your autoimmune system allowing more infections to affect the body. The story of excessive exercise is the suggestion that if you fail to shower after activity, this can lead to a blockage of the pores and so start an acne attack. There’s no real evidence this is true. (more…)