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Welcome to REASON Express, the weekly e-newsletter
from REASON Magazine.
REASON Express is written by Washington-based journalist Jeff A. Taylor
and draws on the ideas and resources of the REASON editorial staff. For
more
information on REASON, visit our Web site at www.reason.com.
Send your comments about REASON Express to Jeff A. Taylor (jtaylor@reason.com)
and REASON Editor-in-Chief Nick Gillespie (gillespie@reason.com).
REASON Express
July 17, 2001
Vol. 4 No. 29
1) Sickly Suspects
2) Satellite of Greed
3) Vol Pols Lose Tax Battle--Again
4) Quick Hits
- - Police State Prescription - -
Happenings in the small southwest Virginia town of Pulaski should give
pause both to drug warriors and anyone who thinks that licensing powerful
drugs is a simple thing.
Residents of Pulaski will have to provide fingerprints at the area's six
pharmacies to get the painkiller OxyContin. Local police say the drug is
the object of rampant prescription fraud that fuels a booming black
market.
"Anything that will stop the flow onto the streets we'll be happy
with," said Detective Marshall Dowdy of the Pulaski police.
"This is a seemingly
never-ending battle."
Indeed, it is a battle that has been waged since earliest human history.
Ever since the first semi-rotten, half-fermented fruit produced the first
alcoholic buzz, man--or at least a goodly chunk of the population--has
sought out one form of altered consciousness or another.
So it is no surprise that OxyContin, which comes in a time-release pill
and is similar to morphine, has become the source of a relatively cheap
high in rural areas far from urban drug supplies. Nor is it a wonder that
people with chronic pain seek the drug--it is a very effective painkiller.
Doctors readily
prescribe it precisely because it isn't morphine.
But now OxyContin use is being stymied by fears of its abuse. A patient
may have good reason to want to avoid giving his or her fingerprints to
the drug store, all but declaring to the world that they are a likely drug
abuser or con artist.
Perhaps a solution is not to treat painkillers like controlled substances,
but to treat currently controlled substances more like standard
painkillers. This would not only ease many of the troubles of the standard
drug war, but allow
sick folks to keep both their medicine and their dignity without state
interference.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/
A44111-2001Jul10.html
********************************************************
- - Sky High Taxes - -
Good tax collectors find new things to tax. Los Angeles County Assessor
Rick Auerbach may turn out to be taxman of the century if he succeeds in
slapping property taxes on several satellites.
The eight birds orbiting the equator are worth $100 million each to Hughes
Electronics, which happens to have offices in the county. That's enough to
make Hughes owe L.A. County a multi-million-dollar tax bill, Auerbach
claims.
Auerbach counts satellites as taxable movable personal property--like
boats, construction equipment, and ice-skating costumes. But Hughes says
that geostationary birds are stationary, hence, not movable, and, it
follows, not taxable.
The matter seems destined to end up in court. But don't bet against the
tax guys. For years California had no compunction about reaching over
state
borders to tax the pensions of former California residents. Only an act of
Congress stopped that.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/state/la-00005
6553jul10.story?coll=la%2Dnews%2Dstate
*********************************************************
- - Trouncing the Tax Man - -
Career politicians usually have a stubborn streak. How else can they be
told year after year that used car salesmen are held in higher regard than
they are and still come back for more?
But Tennessee pols appear to be positively mule-headed. Several times in
recent years they have attempted to pass a state income tax. Each time
they have been beaten back by public opposition.
It happened again last week as hundreds of demonstrators swarmed the
capitol building, spurred on by radio talk show hosts, the emerging last
line of defense against rapacious government.
Lawmakers had discussed a 3.5 percent income tax that would allow, or so
the story goes, less reliance on sales taxes. But the history of taxation
shows that even if new levies are offset by initial cuts in existing
taxes, the taxes almost always grow to result in a bigger overall tax
burden in the end.
Thanks to their alert citizens, and little thanks to their legislators,
Tennessee remains one of nine states without a state income tax, a
competitive
"handicap" that state politicians are convinced they must fix.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,29445,00.html
***********************************************************
QUICK HITS
- - Quote of the Week - -
"We make drugs called embryos, I guess, so now we have to be
regulated by the FDA as though we are Pfizer or something." Jamie
Grifo, a fertility doctor at New York University Medical Center, on new
FDA demands that fertility doctors fill out an Investigational New Drug
application any time they mix male and female genetic material.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A
43947-2001Jul10.html
- - Windows Shut - -
New Mexico settled its antitrust problems with Microsoft. The firm will
pay the $100,000 or so the state has already spent on the case and has
promised to give computer makers more freedom in customizing Windows
installs.
http://www.dallasnews.com/texas_southwest/4172
30_microsoft_12e.html
- - Mommy State - -
A 7-year-old California boy with a brain disorder finds relief from mood
swings in marijuana muffins. The state says that's a misapplication of
medical
marijuana laws and amounts to child abuse. Local officials could take the
child from his mother as a result.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/news/local01_2001
0711.html
- - Union Gaps - -
The National Education Association says that charter schools must operate
just like other public schools. Anything that would be forbidden in the
wider school system--same-sex academies, for-profit operation,
non-certified teachers--should likewise be banned from charter schools.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,29241,00.html
#########################################
REASON NEWS
The Scene! Check out REASON Editor-at-Large Virginia Postrel's frequently
updated observations on current events and ideas. Visit The Scene at
http://www.dynamist.com/scene.html
For the latest on media appearances by REASON writers, visit http://www.reason.com/press.html.
#########################################
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