NASCAR Claims Mayfield Tested Positive for Amphetamines
July 6th, 2009 by Rick
Suspended since May for failing a random drug test, NASCAR driver Jeremy Mayfield has been spinning his wheels in anticipation for his day in court to have the suspension lifted. On Wednesday, July 1st, Mayfield received his chance in federal court. NASCAR revealed that Mayfield had tested positive for methamphetamines. Mayfield says he never touched the drug and contends that a mixture of taking Adderall for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and Claritin-D for allergies caused him to test positive.
Mayfield’s lawyer, Bill Diehl, argued that Aegis Sciences Corporation, based in Nashville, TN, that runs the testing program for NASCAR, tested both the “A” and “B” samples. Diehl stressed the fact that Mayfield should have been given the opportunity to send the “B” sample to an independent laboratory.
Diehl said:
They say ‘We’re not bound by anything. We’re NASCAR. We can do what we want to do’. [...] If they decide to ban Coca-Cola, or coffee or orange juice, their argument is ‘We can’. That smells bad, and it stinks enough that the court should intervene.
Apparently the court felt the same way, U.S. District Court Judge Graham Mullen, reinstated Mayfield into NASCAR by issuing a temporary injunction. However the damage had already been done, preventing Mayfield from entering this past Saturday’s race in Daytona, FL.
Only owning a low budget team, Mayfield had to lay off ten employees, borrow money from family and sell any personal assets he had in order to keep up with living expenses. His wife, Shana, owns the #41 Toyota now, but hasn’t been having it race because of financial reasons.
Mayfield said:
Shana and I, as well as everyone at Mayfield Motorsports, will do everything in our power to race next weekend.
Unfortunately he’s not on the race entry list for next week’s race in Chicago. Mayfield has missed eight races since his suspension back in May.
UK Doctor Claims Cannabis Clear Cause of Death
July 2nd, 2009 by Rick
The drug warriors must be salivating at the mouths from the following story run by the UK site The Daily Mail. Cheshire deputy coroner Geoff Roberts is apparently attempting to become the first person in history to successfully link smoking marijuana to a death.
Adie Gardner, a 17-year old former pot smoker, had a seizure last year in October which led to a heart attack. Despite past drug use with amphetamines and cocaine and having a heart attack a year before the one that killed him, the coroner believes that his cannabis use caused his death.
Dr. Roberts said:
Very sadly this young man died as a result of the direct toxic effects on the heart that the use of cannabis had, as such it was an avoidable death. [...] The post mortem showed no findings of recent drug use. But his body was left with a legacy of using cannabis in the past which directly led to his death.
Really? It’s curious to note that he had a history of drug use, including meth and coke, yet the doctor attributes smoking herb as the cause of his death. It would be more credible that he was nervous on his second day of his new job and he had a heart attack, the direct result being stress combined with a weakened heart from past drug abuse and already having suffered a heart attack once before.
The really crazy part of this story is the fact that there are other doctors that agree with the coroner.
Dr. Mark Nicol, the doctor that treated him before said:
Drug problems were acknowledged at that time. This case highlights that Cannabis is potentially life threatening.
At least he said potentially. Many things in life can be potentially life threatening. Mere case of wordplay.
Dr. Sally Hales, the doctor that conducted the post-mortem, said:
A history of using cannabis, amphetamines and cocaine would appear to be the most likely cause’ of the teenager’s death.
At least she included the other drugs… maybe the fact that he had a heart attack before and this time around he had myocarditis (inflammation of the heart) factored into his death. Once someone has a heart attack they are susceptible to future heart attacks.
There are simply too many factors that could have led to the teenage Gardner’s death to come out and say that marijuana was ultimately the cause of his persistent condition. Unfortunately, this is how the drug warriors operate… keeping the truth from the news and obscuring it with anything and everything that will justify their prohibition against marijuana and inane scientific claims.
Amphetamines Used to Fight Cocaine Addiction
December 10th, 2008 by Perry
Following the logic of using methadone to treat heroin addiction, several studies are being conducted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse to use amphetamines to fight the urge of stimulation felt by cocaine addicts.
While the studies, like those done with methadone, seem more aimed at fighting the symptoms rather than curing the disease of addiction, the results have been mixed. At a British clinic in Cornwall, doctors reported that while using dexamphetamine, eventually two-thirds of those who injected cocaine quit using. A similar trial in Australia yielded a 40 percent decrease in users reverting back to cocaine.
There are severe practical limitations to the study, namely that high doses of opioids are not nearly as toxic as a high dose of amphetamines, which can cause brain damage, psychosis, heart attack and stroke. This is especially a concern for scientists, who can’t afford to have a participant in the study try and “top” the prescription drug with a street version because of the lethal risks involved. Another risk, like methadone, is decreasing the dependency of one drug, at the expense of increasing it in another.
However, the benefits of safe, controlled use of needles and post-addiction behavior have justified continued study in several countries where cocaine injection is becoming a growing dilemma.
