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Wednesday, November 30, 2022

Biden Fails With Court Request to Restore Student Debt Relief

 

  • US appeals panel refuses to overrule lower-court judge
  • Biden’s forgiveness plan has been on hold since mid-October

The Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness plan remains on hold, after the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals denied a request from the federal government to temporarily reverse a lower court order that blocked rollout of the plan.

A three-judge panel of the New Orleans-based appeals court on Wednesday rejected the request in a brief order, which means the plan will remain on hold while the administration appeals an order from a Texas judge that declared the debt relief proposal unlawful.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-01/biden-fails-with-court-request-to-restore-student-debt-relief

How Inflation Changes Culture

 by Jeffrey Tucker via DailyReckoning.com,

The midterm elections are over (no Red Wave), but nothing has changed. In fact, the Biden regime will probably become even more emboldened to pursue destructive economic policies because it will interpret the lack of a Red Wave as some kind of mandate.

Every day seems to be a day of spin, with every regime apologist assuring the public that inflation is getting better. Just look at the wonderful trend line! They point to the latest inflation numbers, which were down a bit from the month prior.

The regime insists that yes, inflation will vex us for a bit more time but will settle down in a few months. Plus, the president is working to fix this! And we know the American people are on board with him since no Red Wave materialized.

But in the footnotes, you’ll find the truth: it was a tiny drop and mostly for technical reasons and the main reason for the drop has already disappeared from the price trends.

Has any political propaganda on this topic ever been this ineffective? It’s truly a joke.

Where’s the Relief Coming From?

The producer price index that came out recently paints a clearer picture. It’s grim. It reveals no softening at all. In fact, it shows that there are plenty of coming price increases. Here is the index by commodities from 2013 to the present.

Remember how last year many people finally came to the conclusion that we had to learn to live with COVID? That was a smart choice because there was no way that the China-style suppression method could work.

Well, here we are now with a preventable inflation pandemic and the realization that we have to learn to live with inflation. Soon we’ll realize that we have to live with recession at the same time.

But what does this mean?

The impact will be felt not just in terms of economics but in culture. Inflation causes a society-wide shortening of time horizons.

True Prosperity

Let’s review some basics. All societies are born desperately poor, fated to live off foraging and just getting by. Prosperity is built through the construction of capital, which is the institution that embodies forward thinking.

To make capital requires the deferral of consumption: you have to give up some today in order to make tools that enable more consumption tomorrow. This means discipline and a future orientation. And it means, above all, savings that can be invested in productive projects. Only through that path can societies grow rich.

A key component of this concerns the stability of the medium of exchange. And not just stability: a currency that rises in value over time incentivizes saving and thus investing for the long term.

The late 19th century provided a good example of this. Under the gold standard, money grew more valuable over time, thus rewarding long-term thinking and instilling that outlook in the culture at large.

Live for Today

Inflation has the opposite effect. It punishes saving. It forces a penalty on economic behavior that is future-oriented. That means also discouraging investment in long-term projects, which is the whole key to building a complex division of labor and causing wealth to emerge from the muck of the state of nature. Every bit of inflation trims back that future orientation.

Hyperinflation utterly wrecks it.

Living for the day becomes the theme. Taking what you can get now is the method and the theme. Grasping and spending. You might as well because the money is only going down in value and goods are in ever shorter supply.

Better to live hard and short and forget the future. Go into debt if possible. Let the devaluation itself pay the price.

The Seeds of Destruction

Once this attitude becomes instilled in a prosperous society, what we call civilization gradually devolves. If inflation persists, this kind of short-term thinking can wreck everything.

This is why inflation is not just about rising prices. It’s about declining prosperity, the punishing of thrift, the discouragement of financial responsibility, and a culture that gradually falls apart.

Another factor in reducing time horizons is legal instability. This was my first concern when the lockdowns began. Why would anyone start a business if governments can just shut it down on a whim? Why plan for the future when that future can be wrecked by the stroke of a pen?

Many people had assumed that this new path would be short-lived. Surely the politicians would wise up and stop the madness. Surely! Tragically, it got worse and worse. The spending and printing began and ramped up over time. It was a perfect storm of sheer madness, and now we are paying the highest possible price.

The Hinge of History

We need to speak frankly about what’s happening to the global economy. It’s not just about supply chain breakages. Those can be repaired. It’s not just about inflation affecting every country. We are living amidst a fundamental upheaval in the whole world.

The most significant single danger to global prosperity now comes in the form of a devastating and deeply tragic wreckage of the country that was set to lead the world in finance and technology: China.

The WSJ summarizes the current pain:

China in 2021 accounted for 18.1% of global gross domestic product, according to International Monetary Fund data, behind the U.S. at 23.9% but ahead of the 27 members of the European Union at 17.8%. It accounts for almost a third of global manufacturing output, according to United Nations data from 2020. China’s economy expanded modestly at the beginning of the year but data for March and April point to a sharp slowdown.

The trouble there traces to the top. When Xi Jinping locked down Wuhan, the world celebrated him for achieving what no other leader in history had achieved: the eradication of a virus in one country. Even now, he gets accolades for this.

The rest of the world followed, and elites in all countries said that this path was the future.

Going Backwards

Now the virus is on the loose all over the country, and the eradication methods are intensifying. This is crushing economic growth and now threatening genuine economic depression in the country that only a few years ago was seen as the greatest economic engine of the world.

It’s truly the case that Xi Jinping has put his personal pride above the well-being of all people in China. The scientists in the country know that he is wrong about this but no one is in a position to tell him.

We cannot really trust the data coming out of China but officially the rate of infection in that country is one of the lowest in the world. Billions more people need to get the bug and recover in order to have anything close to herd immunity. This means that lockdowns are the way for years to come so long as the present regime remains in power.

American prosperity for decades has relied on: relatively low inflation, fairly stable rules of the game, and widening trade with the world and China in particular. All three are at an end. Yes, it is heartbreaking to watch it all unfold.

I’m not defending China’s human rights abuses. Far from it. But the best way to end these abuses is through engagement, not estrangement.

We all need hope right now but it’s very difficult to find, since we are on a course that is not likely to be fixed for a very long time.

https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/how-inflation-changes-culture

Pregnant women's cannabis usage in legalized U.S. states raises calls for screening

 Pregnant women living in US states where cannabis is legal must be screened for the drug, for the health of both mother and baby, claim scientists who in a new national study have found that they are far more likely to use the substance.

Published in The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, the peer-reviewed research shows pregnant women were around 4.6 times more likely to report using cannabis, where it is legal for medical and recreation, compared to where CBD is only allowed.

A large proportion of women reported using the drug for medical purposes, which is in keeping with "a growing body of evidence" that suggests in order to alleviate pregnancy symptoms cannabis is being used as a substitute for medical drugs in legalized areas.

"Therefore it is increasingly important to evaluate the risk-benefit profile of cannabis as compared to other medical treatments to understand any potential therapeutic indications for cannabis use in pregnancy," says Lead Author Kathak Vachhani, who was a student in the Keenan Research Summer Student Program at St. Michael's Hospital, a site of Unity Health Toronto, when the research was conducted.

The team is calling for prenatal and primary care providers to screen and counsel patients regarding cannabis use in pregnancy, particularly in states where it is legal, for the potential effects on fetal development.

They also state public messaging "around the risks" of cannabis in pregnancy is "particularly relevant now," as many states have recently implemented cannabis laws and established cannabis markets.

The legalization of cannabis products has increased exponentially in the last decade in the United States. The legalization has been piecemeal -- states variously allow the use of cannabidiol (CBD) products, the use of medically prescribed cannabis, the use of cannabis for recreational purposes, or some combination thereof. Use of these products has risen among all demographics.

Among the least studied are pregnant women. Because cannabis has been known to be used to treat some symptoms associated with pregnancy -- notably nausea and vomiting.

Here, the team used data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) between 2017 to 2020 to analyze the consumption of cannabis by 1,992 pregnant women.

While previous studies have examined the use of cannabis by pregnant women in restricted geographic areas and under particular legislative parameters, this study involved a broader dataset to compare use across legalization frameworks in 27 states.

The authors found self-reported use was "significantly higher" in pregnant women residing in states that allow medical and adult use, compared to those residing in states with restricted use.

"The unweighted dataset consisted of 426 CBD-only, 1,114 medical, and 394 reactional group respondents," they claim. Weights were applied to each datapoint to obtain the population they represented. Of this weighted data, 2.4% from CBD-only regions reported cannabis use, while 7.1% from medical regions and 6.9% from adult-use regions reported the same. Respondents from the medical and recreational areas were 4.5 and 4.7 times more likely to use cannabis than those in CBD-only areas.

Most respondents who reported cannabis use smoked it partially or mostly for recreational purposes. "Mode of intake and reason for consumption did not differ between state groups," the authors observe.

But what impact is this having on the mother or the fetus?

Previous studies have shown that medical cannabis usage during pregnancy can be effective for nausea and vomiting. Medical cannabis may be suitable to treat pregnancy-specific conditions which, if untreated, could be more harmful to the fetus than cannabis.

However, safe usage depends on having a comprehensive understanding of the benefits and risks of cannabis when weighed against the risks of untreated or refractory conditions such as hyperemesis gravidarum.

Therefore, more research is needed, states Vachhani, who is also from the University of Toronto Temerty Faculty of Medicine.

"Cannabis is a complex substance and its use is further complicated by factors such as the form of intake and frequency of use.

"From the mother's health standpoint, our current understanding is rudimentary regarding the complex

interplay between use (whether CBD or THC-based) and long-term health outcomes for the mother.

"There is currently no accepted therapeutic indication or safe amount of cannabis that may be consumed during pregnancy.

"Although further studies may lead to an accepted therapeutic indication, based on the current consensus the positive association between cannabis use and legalization found in our study warrants further inquiry."

The analysis carried out here was limited by a relatively small sample size, a lack of information regarding timing of use in pregnancy, lack of information about the chemical composition of cannabis consumed, and the potential for self-reporting biases.


Story Source:

Materials provided by Taylor & Francis GroupNote: Content may be edited for style and length.


Journal Reference:

  1. Kathak Vachhani, Andrea N. Simpson, Duminda N. Wijeysundera, Hance Clarke, Karim S. Ladha. Cannabis use among pregnant women under different legalization frameworks in the United StatesThe American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 2022; 1 DOI: 10.1080/00952990.2022.2136035

Secret to waking up alert and refreshed

 Do you feel groggy until you've had your morning coffee? Do you battle sleepiness throughout the workday?

You're not alone. Many people struggle with morning alertness, but a new study demonstrates that awaking refreshed each day is not just something a lucky few are born with. Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have discovered that you can wake up each morning without feeling sluggish by paying attention to three key factors: sleep, exercise and breakfast.

The findings come from a detailed analysis of the behavior of 833 people who, over a two-week period, were given a variety of breakfast meals; wore wristwatches to record their physical activity and sleep quantity, quality, timing and regularity; kept diaries of their food intake; and recorded their alertness levels from the moment they woke up and throughout the day. Twins -- identical and fraternal -- were included in the study to disentangle the influence of genes from environment and behavior.

The researchers found that the secret to alertness is a three-part prescription requiring substantial exercise the previous day, sleeping longer and later into the morning, and eating a breakfast high in complex carbohydrates, with limited sugar. The researchers also discovered that a healthy controlled blood glucose response after eating breakfast is key to waking up more effectively.

"All of these have a unique and independent effect," said UC Berkeley postdoctoral fellow Raphael Vallat, first author of the study. "If you sleep longer or later, you're going to see an increase in your alertness. If you do more physical activity on the day before, you're going to see an increase. You can see improvements with each and every one of these factors."

Morning grogginess is more than just an annoyance. It has major societal consequences: Many auto accidents, job injuries and large-scale disasters are caused by people who cannot shake off sleepiness. The Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, the Three Mile Island nuclear meltdown in Pennsylvania and an even worse nuclear accident in Chernobyl, Ukraine, are well-known examples.

"Many of us think that morning sleepiness is a benign annoyance. However, it costs developed nations billions of dollars every year through loss of productivity, increased health care utilization, work absenteeism. More impactful, however, is that it costs lives -- it is deadly," said senior author Matthew Walker, UC Berkeley professor of neuroscience and psychology. "From car crashes to work-related accidents, the cost of sleepiness is deadly. As scientists, we must understand how to help society wake up better and help reduce the mortal cost to society's current struggle to wake up effectively each day."

Vallat, Walker and their colleagues published their findings last week in the journal Nature Communications. Walker, the author of the international bestseller, Why We Sleep, runs one of the world's preeminent sleep research labs, the Center for Human Sleep Science, and is a member of the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at UC Berkeley.

A personalized approach to eating

Walker and Vallat teamed up with researchers in the United Kingdom, the U.S and Sweden to analyze data acquired by a U.K. company, Zoe Ltd., that has followed hundreds of people for two-week periods in order to learn how to predict individualized metabolic responses to foods based on a person's biological characteristics, lifestyle factors and the foods' nutritional composition.

The participants were given preprepared meals, with different amounts of nutrients incorporated into muffins, for the entire two weeks to see how they responded to different diets upon waking. A standardized breakfast, with moderate amounts of fat and carbohydrates, was compared to a high protein (muffins plus a milkshake), high carbohydrate or high sugar (glucose drink) breakfast. The subjects also wore continuous glucose monitors to measure blood glucose levels throughout the day.

The worst type of breakfast, on average, contained high amounts of simple sugar; it was associated with an inability to wake up effectively and maintain alertness. When given this sugar-infused breakfast, participants struggled with sleepiness.

In contrast, the high carbohydrate breakfast -- which contained large amounts of carbohydrates, as opposed to simple sugar, and only a modest amount of protein -- was linked to individuals revving up their alertness quickly in the morning and sustaining that alert state.

"A breakfast rich in carbohydrates can increase alertness, so long as your body is healthy and capable of efficiently disposing of the glucose from that meal, preventing a sustained spike in blood sugar that otherwise blunts your brain's alertness," Vallat said

"We have known for some time that a diet high in sugar is harmful to sleep, not to mention being toxic for the cells in your brain and body," Walker added. "However, what we have discovered is that, beyond these harmful effects on sleep, consuming high amounts of sugar in your breakfast, and having a spike in blood sugar following any type of breakfast meal, markedly blunts your brain's ability to return to waking consciousness following sleep."

It wasn't all about food, however. Sleep mattered significantly. In particular, Vallat and Walker discovered that sleeping longer than you usually do, and/or sleeping later than usual, resulted in individuals ramping up their alertness very quickly after awakening from sleep. According to Walker, between seven and nine hours of sleep is ideal for ridding the body of "sleep inertia," the inability to transition effectively to a state of functional cognitive alertness upon awakening. Most people need this amount of sleep to remove a chemical called adenosine that accumulates in the body throughout the day and brings on sleepiness in the evening, something known as sleep pressure.

"Considering that the majority of individuals in society are not getting enough sleep during the week, sleeping longer on a given day can help clear some of the adenosine sleepiness debt they are carrying," Walker speculated.

"In addition, sleeping later can help with alertness for a second reason," he said. "When you wake up later, you are rising at a higher point on the upswing of your 24-hour circadian rhythm, which ramps up throughout the morning and boosts alertness."

It's unclear, however, what physical activity does to improve alertness the following day.

"It is well known that physical activity, in general, improves your alertness and also your mood level, and we did find a high correlation in this study between participants' mood and their alertness levels," Vallat said. "Participants that, on average, are happier also feel more alert."

But Vallat also noted that exercise is generally associated with better sleep and a happier mood.

"It may be that exercise-induced better sleep is part of the reason exercise the day before, by helping sleep that night, leads to superior alertness throughout the next day," Vallat said.

Walker noted that the restoration of consciousness from non-consciousness -- from sleep to wake -- is unlikely to be a simple biological process.

"If you pause to think, it is a non-trivial accomplishment to go from being nonconscious, recumbent and immobile to being a thoughtful, conscious, attentive and productive human being, active, awake, and mobile. It's unlikely that such a radical, fundamental change is simply going to be explained by tweaking one single thing," he said. "However, we have discovered that there are still some basic, modifiable yet powerful ingredients to the awakening equation that people can focus on -- a relatively simple prescription for how best to wake up each day."

It's not in your genes

Comparisons of data between pairs of identical and non-identical twins showed that genetics plays only a minor and insignificant role in next-day alertness, explaining only about 25% of the differences across individuals.

"We know there are people who always seem to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed when they first wake up," Walker said. "But if you're not like that, you tend to think, 'Well, I guess it's just my genetic fate that I'm slow to wake up. There's really nothing I can do about it, short of using the stimulant chemical caffeine, which can harm sleep.

"But our new findings offer a different and more optimistic message. How you wake up each day is very much under your own control, based on how you structure your life and your sleep. You don't need to feel resigned to any fate, throwing your hands up in disappointment because, '… it's my genes, and I can't change my genes.' There are some very basic and achievable things you can start doing today, and tonight, to change how you awake each morning, feeling alert and free of that grogginess."

Walker, Vallat and their colleagues continue their collaboration with the Zoe team, examining novel scientific questions about how sleep, diet and physical exercise change people's brain and body health, steering them away from disease and sickness.

Other co-authors of the paper are Sarah Berry, Paul Franks and Tim Spector of King's College London; Neli Tsereteli of Lund University in Malmö, Sweden; Joan Capdevila, Haya Al Khatib and Jonathan Wolf of Zoe Ltd.; Ana Valdes of the University of Nottingham in the U.K.; and Linda Delahanty, David Drew and Andrew Chan of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston. The study was funded by Zoe Ltd. and the Department of Twin Studies at King College London.

Story Source:

Materials provided by University of California - Berkeley. Original written by Robert Sanders. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Journal Reference:

  1. Raphael Vallat, Sarah E. Berry, Neli Tsereteli, Joan Capdevila, Haya Al Khatib, Ana M. Valdes, Linda M. Delahanty, David A. Drew, Andrew T. Chan, Jonathan Wolf, Paul W. Franks, Tim D. Spector, Matthew P. Walker. How people wake up is associated with previous night’s sleep together with physical activity and food intakeNature Communications, 2022; 13 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-34503-2

Orthofix gets unsolicited offer from 2 private equity firms

 Orthofix Medical Inc. ("Orthofix") today announced that it received an unsolicited, non-binding indication of interest from two private equity fund sponsors to acquire all of the outstanding equity of Orthofix for $23.00 per share in cash. The non-binding indication of interest was subject to, among other things, the completion of due diligence, to the sole satisfaction of the sponsors, the arranging of debt financing to fund the purchase price, the completion of unspecified regulatory approvals, and internal approvals by the investment committees of the sponsors.

As previously announced, Orthofix has entered into a definitive merger agreement with SeaSpine Holdings Corporation to combine in an all-stock transaction, pursuant to which, at the close of the transaction, Orthofix stockholders will own approximately 56.5% of the combined business, and SeaSpine stockholders will own approximately 43.5% of the combined business. The transaction is expected to close early in the first quarter of 2023, subject to Orthofix and SeaSpine stockholder approvals and other customary closing conditions.

The Orthofix board engaged in a comprehensive and thorough review and evaluation of the indication of interest Orthofix received, in consultation with legal and financial advisers. Following such review and evaluation, the Orthofix board unanimously determined that the SeaSpine merger transaction continues to be in the best interests of Orthofix and its stockholders. The Orthofix board further unanimously determined that it is unable to conclude that the indication of interest is reasonably likely to lead to a superior proposal under the terms of Orthofix's merger agreement with SeaSpine.

The Orthofix board reaffirms to stockholders its recommendation in favor of the SeaSpine merger transaction and remains fully committed to completing the transaction with SeaSpine.

A special meeting of Orthofix stockholders has been scheduled for January 4, 2023 to vote on a proposal to approve the issuance of Orthofix common stock in the proposed SeaSpine merger transaction.

https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/ORTHOFIX-MEDICAL-INC-45145857/news/ORTHOFIX-MEDICAL-INC-Other-Events-form-8-K-42446837/

NY’s Cannabis Control Board is failing Job One: protect public safety

 New York’s Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act passed more than a year and a half ago, but even as illegal weed shops and public puffing proliferate, the Cannabis Control Board has yet to adopt final regulations.

Worse still, its 282 pages of draft language pay far more attention to “social and economic equity rules” — including prioritizing licenses for convicted drug dealers — than to what should be the board’s core mission: protecting public safety as the state rolls out a dangerous drug.

There was no excuse for the Legislature to legalize cannabis in March 2021 before the state established regulations for its sale and use. Police departments understandably felt they had to turn a blind eye to the rise in bodegas selling potent gummies and more, as well as to pot smoking in public parks and playgrounds. That leaves a vast gray market of untaxed pot products of unknown quality that will be difficult to suppress.

But the proposed licensing regime, still stuck in draft, poses its own problems. Crucially, it fails to regulate the “potency” of marijuana “flower” for smoking. Vermont and Connecticut have 30% tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) caps — and a physician-led movement in Vermont seeks to lower that to 15%. New York’s draft rules propose no cap at all.

Many bodegas have begun selling CBD and THC products.
Illegal cannabis shops, many of which sell to those under 21, have popped up.

High-potency pot and cannabis extracts pose addiction and mental-illness risks. That’s what’s meant by warnings that today’s weed isn’t like that of the ’60s. Producers strive for potency much higher than the street drug’s 1990s 4% THC average. The board caps THC content for “orally ingested products” such as gummies but not for the stuff that’s smoked.

Nor do the proposed rules limit how many of the potent potables can be purchased at one time. A Boston University School of Public Health study warned specifically about the need for “limits on the total amount of THC in the transaction.”

An obvious concern: large purchases and later resale to those under 21. A retailer is authorized to curb sales based on a “risk of diversion” — but that decision is left to “the opinion of the retail dispensary employee.”

Police turned a blind eye to much of the illegal marijuana sales in the city.
AP

A related problem: potential large purchases by authorized medical-marijuana patients. That issue, especially regarding high-potency pot, has already prompted Colorado to require tracking of individual transactions.

The board devotes page after page to how to apply for a retail license and the “equity” rules guiding that process, including for “distressed farmers.” It even discusses the importance of biodiversity in hemp cultivation.

But its list of what can lose someone a license fails to emulate a basic element of liquor law: sale to a buyer under 21.

Those regulations primarily focus on gummies and oils.
There are no regulations around the potency of marijuana flower.
AP

This is no minor matter, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports: “The association between marijuana and schizophrenia is stronger in people who start using marijuana at an earlier age and use marijuana more frequently.” A new study in the journal Addictive Behaviors concludes, “Recreational legalization is likely to increase cannabis use among adolescents and young adults who perceive cannabis as less harmful.”

Will pot dealers be certain to check IDs? Note the board would deny license renewals to those who fail to keep a “labor peace agreement” with a “bona fide labor organization” or fail to inform it of the wages paid employees. No specific mention of underage sale. Retailers must only provide a plan as to how employees will “monitor and prevent” such transactions.

Pot retailers will, in fact, have easy access to young smokers. The proposed regulations will let retailers locate as close as 500 feet from schools; California and Colorado, both early legal-pot adopters, set the limit at 1,000 feet. Better for the board to let localities decide for themselves, but a special section limits local rule-making.

Nor is there a prohibition against drive-through sales. Potheads may find them convenient, but the board should be wary because of the obvious risk of weed-induced impaired driving. This matters more because there is no breath test for driving while high like that for drunk driving. Police will rely, the board says, on a 10-point assessment of impairment — a subjective test.

The board will give the booming gray market another boost: It’ll let “home-growers” store up to five pounds of pot for their personal use. That may mask a black-market operation. How are police to distinguish between personal and illicit cultivation? The NYPD has plenty to do without getting search warrants for apartment pot growers.

And the board’s signature “social equity” initiative — laid out in detail to make sure those getting licenses thanks to past convictions are not straws for the unqualified — poses problems for the neighborhoods in whose name it’s been adopted. A concentration of pot retailers in low-income minority neighborhoods is not the route to public health and self-improvement.

The best that can be said for the Cannabis Control Board is that it’s finally released draft regulations. The public has 60 days to comment. Let’s hope it does — and the board takes heed.

Howard Husock is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

https://nypost.com/2022/11/30/nys-cannabis-control-board-is-failing-job-one-protect-public-safety/

NYC doctor charged with prescribing thousands of pills in drug-dealing scheme

 A Manhattan doctor was indicted over a drug-dealing scheme in which he allegedly wrote prescriptions for pills — including opioids and Adderall — that were then sold on the street, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Dr. Noel Smith, a Tribeca family physician, is accused of writing scripts for five men who then conspired to distribute the tens of thousands of the pills through illegal street-level sales on Staten Island, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.

The drug ring was busted after investigators found Smith was allegedly prescribing controlled substances in a “manner inconsistent with public health and safety,” prosecutors said.

The doc is accused of writing prescriptions for Adderall, Klonopin and Suboxone for five of the men: Timothy Bonaguro, Ivan Iorizzo, Mark Lanfranchi, Louis Ventafredda and Christopher Gorga, a NYCHA employee.

DR. NOEL SMITH at his arraignment.
The ring was busted after investigators found Smith was prescribing controlled drugs in a "manner inconsistent with public health and safety."
DR. NOEL SMITH at his arraignment.
Dr. Noel Smith was indicted for writing prescriptions for men who sold the drugs on Staten Island streets.
One of the men sits and covers his face.
Carmine Russo hides his face during arraignment.
Police help the men in court sit down.
Ivan Iorizz, left, Russo and Elia Albanese were part of a drug ring that sold tens of thousands of pills on Staten Island streets, officials said.

The men, along with alleged associate Anthony Santo, devised a scheme that maximized their hauls of pills and allowed to build up a mountain of drugs, prosecutors charged. They would fill the prescriptions that were written in their names and assume the identity of one another to obtain as many pills as possible before hawking them.

The accused dealers carried out similar schemes with alleged associates Elia Albanese and Carmine Russo to get oxycodone pills from a different Midtown Manhattan doctor, prosecutors said.

City officials had been following the drug ring through a wiretap investigation for one year, according to the DA’s Office.

Smith was charged with several counts of criminal sale of a prescription for a controlled substance by a practitioner and pleaded not guilty in Manhattan Supreme Court on Wednesday. The other eight defendants were hit with a slew of charges, ranging from the criminal sale of a prescription for a controlled substance and identity theft.

Six others also pleaded not guilty. Bonaguro, Gorga and Lanfranchi were awaiting arraignment.

Because the charges are not bail-eligible, the men were released, though prosecutors requested they surrender their passports.

“As alleged, these defendants used the ongoing opioid crisis to exploit the suffering and addiction of others. And to make matters worse, a trusted Manhattan doctor prescribed pills to the defendants, which were then sold illegally to New Yorkers,” said District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement.

https://nypost.com/2022/11/30/da-alvin-brag-busts-staten-island-drug-ring-involving-doctor/