Use opioids, not cannabis, Ontario government tells injured workers

Injured workers in Ontario advised to seek opioids instead of cannabis | Georgia Straight Vancouver's News & Entertainment Weekly - A.J. Herrington, High Times:

July 14, 2018 - "Injured workers in Ontario, Canada who wish to treat their conditions with cannabis are being forced to use opiates instead. According to the CBC, the Ontario Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) is refusing to cover cannabis for patients licensed to use medical marijuana.

"Some private insurers in Canada began offering coverage for medicinal marijuana in health plans last year. And earlier this year, Sun Life Financial became the first major Canadian insurance company to pay for medical cannabis.

"David Newberry, an attorney with the Injured Workers Community Legal Clinic in Toronto, said that the WSIB often denies workers’ claims for cannabis coverage. Instead, the insurer pays for far more dangerous drugs. '“You often end up with these absurd scenarios where the WSIB is happy to pay for opiates and antidepressants that are not effective, that the worker does not want to take,' Newberry said.

"Maurice Sagle, 60, is a former carpenter who was injured in a workplace accident that left him with a compressed spine, several crushed discs, and a ruptured leg muscle. The opiates that doctors prescribed caused side effects including depression that left him homebound ... he felt that he was becoming addicted....

"Sagle decided that a strain of cannabis high in CBD and low in THC might help his condition. He consulted with his doctor and obtained his license for medical marijuana. Cannabis relieved his chronic pain without making him high.... But when Sagle filed a claim to cover his medicine, the WSIB refused.

"'They said they don’t recognize this and they sent me a paper saying no, they wouldn’t cover it,' he said. The insurer would, however, continue to pay for thousands of dollars worth of opioids.... Sagle is currently appealing the WSIB decision, an expensive process that can take as long as two years.

"Christine Arnott of the Ontario WSIB said the insurer is concerned with opioid addiction and is working to address the situation. 'We are focused on limiting exposure to the harms associated with opioid use and lowering risk of addiction. So far we have reduced the number of WSIB drug claims for opioids by 47 percent. We treat requests for coverage of medical marijuana on a case-by-case basis,' Arnott said.... And, she noted, the WSIB is 'always looking at the evolving scientific evidence around the effectiveness of pain management and updat[ing] our approach accordingly.'"

Read more: https://www.straight.com/cannabis/1102796/injured-workers-ontario-advised-seek-opioids-instead-cannabis
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Ron Paul endorses NJ Libertarian for US Senate

Ron Paul Endorses Murray Sabrin for US Senate - New Jersey Today:

July 16, 2018 -"Congressman Ron Paul, a three-time presidential candidate, has endorsed Murray Sabrin’s U.S. Senate candidacy....

"'Murray’s dedication to, and knowledge of, the principles of liberty will make him an effective advocate for freeing the people of New Jersey — and the nation – from excessive taxes, debt, and inflation, as well as ending the ongoing violations of our right to free speech, property, and privacy. Murray will also be an outspoken Senator for peaceful relations with other nations, and work to ensure that our immigration policies adhere to common sense solutions like his proposal to have immigrants obtain sponsors so they can assimilate and become financially independent,' said the former congressman, whose son is US Senator Rand Paul.

"Sabrin was Ron Paul’s 2008 New Jersey spokesman during the 2008 Republican presidential primary campaign.

"'I am honored to receive Dr. Paul’s endorsement,' said Sabrin. 'For more than four decades Dr. Paul was America’s leading advocate of limited government at home and a non-interventionist foreign policy. “He also was a critic of the Federal Reserve’s destabilizing policies, which have been responsible for the economy’s booms and busts'....

"Sabrin, a professor in the Anisfield School of Business at Ramapo College, was nominated by the Libertarian Party of New Jersey to compete with Democratic incumbent Robert Menendez, Republican pharmacy CEO Bob Hugin and Green Party candidate Madelyn Hoffman. Menendez is the first sitting US Senator to face bribery charges in nearly 40 years....

"As a son of Holocaust survivors, Sabrin says he is a passionate defender of the right to self-defense, civil liberties and peaceful relations with other nations. Sabrin arrived in America in August 1949 with his older brother and his parents and he became a U.S. citizen in June 1959.

"Paul previously endorsed Sabrin in 2014, when he was a contender against then-Mayor Cory Booker and arch-conservative Jeff Bell."

Read more: http://njtoday.net/2018/07/16/ron-paul-endorses-murray-sabrin-for-us-senate/
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Sprott Money talks to LP of Canada's Tim Moen

Canada’s crazy Libertarians want to legalize lemonade stands, baby-walkers and Bitcoin - Peter Diekmeyer (21/06/2018) | Sprott Money:

June 21, 2018 - "Maxime Bernier’s near win of the Conservative Party leadership suggests that Canadians increasingly are tempted by smaller government. But maybe Bernier is in the wrong party. So says Tim Moen, the dynamic leader of the Libertarian Party of Canada....

"'Libertarians have long been a small niche in Canadian politics, which is dominated by special interests. But recent events have energized our base. Maxime Bernier's near-win of the Conservative Party leadership and his subsequent repudiation by the party’s establishment provided Canadians with a key message: those who want liberty, free markets and smaller government will be more at home in the Libertarian Party'....

"You recently provided Bernier a chance to run for the Libertarian Party’s leadership by offering to step aside. What makes you think he would do a better job than you?
"'Maxime has a national profile, well-established credentials and excellent knowledge of the threats posed by the Bank of Canada’s disastrous monetary policies. Libertarians are a party of ideas not of personalities. We work with anyone who is willing to build a better country. If that means stepping aside to take on new talent, I’d do so in a second'....

"What are the key issues on the minds of Canadians?
"'The people I talk to are all increasingly worried about their quality of life, their futures and those of their kids. Canadians trust government to resolve those issues. But governments have let them down. You can see this in three key issues: pipelines, free trade and taxes.

"'On the Trans Mountain pipeline governments at various levels created a slew of burdensome regulations that impeded the development of a promising energy resource. Then to 'solve' the problem that it created, the Trudeau administration wants to invest billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money.

"'As for the trade "wars" – there is an argument that they are ... just an excuse for governments to raise taxes (which they call "protective tariffs") and to pick winners and losers in the economy. For example, the Trump Administration gets to protect US steel producers and the Trudeau Administration protects dairy farmers. In short, deals are made in the backrooms and consumers lose'....

"It sounds like you aren’t a big believer in government?
"'People have a fundamental misunderstanding that government is there to help. That is only partly true. Government, like corporations, will help …but they help themselves first. That’s why we need rigid checks and balances. Sadly, these have been eroding.

"'As a result, governments in Canada and around the world have been growing both in real terms and as a percentage of GDP. Governments get away with this through their control of the public education system which, over 12 years, tells kids that governments can solve any problem.

"'However governments increasingly ARE the problem. We have all heard stories about 'dangerous baby-walkers,' bans on high diving boards and kids’ lemonade stands being shut down. These actions stifle innovation, creativity and productivity. We’d change course on all these issues.'"

Read more: https://www.sprottmoney.com/Blog/canadas-crazy-libertarians.html
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Carbon extraction becoming commercially viable

Sucking carbon dioxide from air is cheaper than scientists thought - Jeff Tollefson, Nature:

June 7, 2018 - "Siphoning carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere could be more than an expensive last-ditch strategy for averting climate catastrophe. A detailed economic analysis published on 7 June suggests that the geoengineering technology is inching closer to commercial viability.

"The study, in Joule, was written by researchers at Carbon Engineering in Calgary, Canada, which has been operating a pilot CO2-extraction plant in British Columbia since 2015. That plant — based on a concept called direct air capture — provided the basis for the economic analysis, which includes cost estimates from commercial vendors of all of the major components. Depending on a variety of design options and economic assumptions, the cost of pulling a tonne of CO2 from the atmosphere ranges between US$94 and $232. The last comprehensive analysis of the technology, conducted by the American Physical Society in 2011, estimated that it would cost $600 per tonne.....

"'We’re really trying to commercialize direct air capture in a serious way, and to do that, you have to have everybody in the supply chain on board,' says David Keith, acting chief scientist at Carbon Engineering and a climate physicist at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

"Founded in 2009, Carbon Engineering is one of a few companies pursuing direct air capture technologies. One competitor, Climeworks in Zurich, Switzerland, opened a commercial facility last year that can capture 900 tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere each year for use in greenhouses. Climeworks has also opened a second facility in Iceland that can capture 50 tonnes of CO2 a year and bury it in underground basalt formations.

"Climeworks says that capturing a tonne of CO2 at its Swiss plant costs about $600. Company officials expect the figure to dip below $100 per tonne in 5-10 years as operations ramp up. In the meantime, Carbon Engineering’s paper provides the most detailed look yet at the cost of such technology....

"In the end, the economics of CO2 extraction will depend on factors that vary by location, including the price of energy and whether or not a company can access government subsidies. But the cost per tonne is still likely to remain above the market price of carbon for the foreseeable future.... But CO2-extraction technology could gain a foothold in markets where the CO2 can be sold at a premium, or converted into a useful product like fuel....

"Carbon Engineering hopes to build a small facility that can produce 200 barrels of fuel per day by 2021, and then a commercial plant that can produce 2,000 barrels per day. 'This is completely doable industrial technology,' [Keith] says. 'We just need to begin, set up markets and see what happens.'”

Read more: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05357-w
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3D-printed gun software posted on internet

Cody Wilson Takes Gun Plans Offline After Judge Issues Restraining Order - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Declan McCullagh:

August 1, 2018 - ""A few hours after U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik, a Clinton appointee, muzzled Defense Distributed with a court order Tuesday evening, the CodeIsFreeSpeech.com mirror site appeared. It's a project of the Calguns Foundation, the Firearms Policy Coalition, and other civil rights groups, and includes freely downloadable computer-aided design (CAD) files for the AR-15, AR-10, Ruger 10-22, Beretta 92FS, and other firearms.

"Soon after the court order, Defense Distributed founder Cody Wilson announced that his site, DEFCAD.com, was 'going dark'.... But the court order does not apply to the advocacy groups behind CodeIsFreeSpeech. They were not named as defendants in the lawsuit brought by the Washington state attorney general. Therefore, they don't need to comply with the ruling....

''We, and many others around the country, completely support Cody and Defense Distributed,' Brandon Combs, president of the Firearms Policy Coalition, tells Reason. 'Some governments and elected officials might want to censor this speech because they prefer a police state. We don't'....

"Absent from Lasnik's 7-page ruling is any consideration of the First Amendment implications of censoring information about building firearms. This has been legal since before the United States was founded....

"DEFCAD.com's files are not only being mirrored at CodeIsFreeSpeech — they or something like them are also available on innumerable other sites.....  Look for Defense Distributed's attorneys to argue that this is yet another reason the temporary restraining order should be dissolved. A hearing is scheduled for August 10 in Seattle....

"[T]he Seattle lawsuit is one of a flurry of warning letters and legal challenges from anti-gun states aimed at forcing Defense Distributed not to publish its files. The company recently won the ability to publish after reaching a settlement with the Justice Department in its lawsuit claiming that restrictions on sharing firearm code violate the First Amendment — a clear echo of earlier litigation over encryption code nearly a generation ago."

Read more: https://reason.com/blog/2018/08/01/breaking-cody-wilson-takes-gun-plans-off
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Koch's a joke, Trump tweets

Koch Brothers Break With Trump: 5 Things You Need to Know - IVN.us - W.E. Messamore:

August 1, 2018 -"In the face of mounting criticism from the notorious libertarian billionaire industrialists, Charles and David Koch, Donald Trump flamed the Koch Brothers on Twitter Tuesday, tweeting:

The globalist Koch Brothers, who have become a total joke in real Republican circles, are against Strong Borders and Powerful Trade. I never sought their support because I don’t need their money or bad ideas. They love my Tax & Regulation Cuts, Judicial picks & more. I made…..
….them richer. Their network is highly overrated, I have beaten them at every turn. They want to protect their companies outside the U.S. from being taxed, I’m for America First & the American Worker – a puppet for no one. Two nice guys with bad ideas. Make America Great Again!

Here are 5 things you need to know about the Koch Brothers and their dispute with Donald Trump:

1. The Koch Brothers are not conservatives. They’re libertarians.
"[T]he Kochs (pronounced “Coke,” not “Kautch” or “Coach”) are not conservative. They are libertarian. Really they would prefer to describe themselves as classical liberals, which means they believe in the philosophy of limited government ... and they oppose ... efforts to expand the size, role, and influence of the government into the private lives of individuals, and into the complex interactions of the marketplace. So ... the Kochs opposed the war in Iraq (which even many Democrats supported), supported gay marriage before even many Democrats (like Hillary Clinton) did, and support open borders and the free flow of people as well as goods and ideas across borders.

2. The Koch Brothers are hardly a joke in Republican circles.
"As the conservative National Review points out ... 'In 2016, seven of eight Koch-backed Senate Republicans and 96 percent of all Koch-backed candidates nationwide won on Election Day'....

3. Steve Bannon has warned GOP candidates to refuse Koch money
"Trump’s former advisor, Steve Bannon, piled on as well, warning Republican candidates in an interview with CNBC: 'You take Koch money, it’s going to be toxic. We are going to let people know that if you take Koch money there’s a punishment'....

4. But Koch money is already refusing GOP candidates
'As Bloomberg reports: 'The network’s decision Monday not to support Representative Kevin Cramer against Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota was cast as a warning to other Republicans who might be tempted to stray from the free-market, fiscally restrained approach backed by the Kochs and their followers.... The decision not to back Cramer ... was announced at a briefing for more than 500 donors gathered at a luxury resort in Colorado Springs, Colorado.'

5. This ... is one more example of how the political party duopoly no longer makes any sense
"As libertarian ... Reason Magazine (which is partially funded by grants from the Koch Foundation) points out: 'Political tribalism ... demands blind loyalty. Shut up and get with the program, as Steve Bannon puts it. But the tribe that Donald Trump and the Republican Party represent is growing smaller every day. The same holds true for Democrats as well.'"

Read more: https://ivn.us/2018/08/01/koch-brothers-break-trump-5-things-need-know/
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Koch machine breaks with Trump GOP over trade

Koch group condemns ‘divisiveness’ and ‘lack of leadership’ in Washington - The Washington Post - Michelle Ye Hee Lee:

July 29, 2018 - "Top officials with the donor network affiliated with billionaire industrialist Charles Koch this weekend sought to distance the network from the Republican Party and President Trump, citing tariff and immigration policies and 'divisive' rhetoric out of Washington.

"At a gathering of hundreds of donors ... officials reiterated their plans to spend as much as $400 million on policy issues and political campaigns during the 2018 cycle.... But ... network co-chair Brian Hooks lamented 'tremendous lack of leadership' in Trump’s Washington and the 'deterioration of the core institutions of society.' He called out the White House and Trump-allied GOP lawmakers, particularly over trade policy and increased federal spending, and added that 'the divisiveness of this White House is causing long-term damage'....

"Koch — now solely at the helm after the retirement of his ailing brother David this year — stopped short of blaming the president personally for the political divisions.... Asked about Democrats possibly retaking control of the House, he said: 'I don’t care what initials are in front [of], or after, somebody’s name'....

"In reality, the network is expected to be a powerful force for the political right during the midterm elections, particularly in states where Senate Democrats are most vulnerable. It is also heavily backing the confirmation of federal judge Brett M. Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.... But some of Trump’s most ­controversial actions break sharply with the priorities of the libertarian-leaning network, which opposes Trump’s tariffs on foreign goods and his hard line on immigration, including the now-suspended zero-tolerance policy that saw hundreds of migrant families separated at the border....

"[N]etwork leaders pointed to their recent ad campaigns thanking Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) for co-sponsoring legislation that rolled back Dodd-Frank financial regulations, and attacking Rep. Lou Barletta (R-Pa.) — the Trump-backed candidate for Senate ... — for a vote to increase federal spending.... Emily Seidel, chief executive of the network’s political arm Americans for Prosperity, said ... 'The fact that we’re willing to do this during an election year shows everyone that we’re dead serious.... This network will no longer follow anyone’s lead or be taken for granted,' ... as donors applauded.

"The network is holding education sessions for its activists across the country to extol the value of free trade and pro-immigrant laws, and countering Trump’s approaches on both issues. They are undertaking ... 'a multiyear, multimillion-dollar commitment' to promote the benefits of free trade.....

"The network has met twice a year since 2003, when Koch ­convened a small group of like-minded business leaders to oppose increasing federal spending and steel tariffs under the George W. Bush administration. Fifteen years later, the network has grown to encompass more than 700 donors who each contribute at least $100,000 annually to Koch-linked groups. "

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/koch-group-condemns-divisiveness-and-lack-of-leadership-in-washington/2018/07/29/314398c2-933f-11e8-a679-b09212fb69c2_story.html?utm_term=.4d623f0171bc
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