Hasta La Gadget!

A few weeks ago, former Governor Deval Patrick took his ceremonial “lone walk” out of the Massachusetts State House to cap-off what had been a historic eight years as the first African American governor of a state that is roughly 83 percent white. On his last day in office there was not much national attention, fanfare, or even recognition for Patrick, who worked his way up from the tough streets of Chicago’s South Side to Harvard University to the highest office in our nation’s oldest commonwealth. Patrick’s departure leaves our country without a single African American Governor and comes at a time where our Congress is only 8 percent Black (two senators and 44 House members). Although these numbers in many ways represent progress, they inversely depict how much work we still have left to do.

As the “Black Lives Matters” movement commands the American consciousness, I hear many of my friends, brothers, and sisters discuss how activism and civil disobedience are the “true” ways to create change. While that sentiment is correct marginally, I often think this new, and powerful “BLM” movement overlooks a critical issue, and that is the lack of political representation for African Americans. It’s no secret that many of our nation’s racial injustices are systematic and endemic to larger structures, so I am always a bit troubled by what seems to be a lack of attention to not only encourage, but ultimately elect more African Americans and minorities in general to public office. We have to understand the deep mutuality that exists between activism and politics. Our activism is only as strong as the elected officials we have representing and advocating for us. This is especially true at the state and local levels where the most damning pieces of legislation for African Americans such as, “Stand your ground laws,” and “Voter ID laws” have been passed and enacted by state and local legislatures.

As we push forward with our movement to build a country and a world that values people of darker hues just as much as folks with lighter ones its important to remember that protests, die-ins, and social media activism are only one part of the solution. We have to be more deliberate in getting our fellow Africans Americans engaged in the political process as well as inspired and prepared to pursue public office. Yes, Black lives matter, but so do our voices and representation.

The American Academy of Pediatrics is requesting that the Drug Enforcement Administration reclassify marijuana as a less harmful substance in order to facilitate research of the substance for medical use, according to a policy statement released Monday.

“The AAP strongly supports research and development of pharmaceutical cannabinoids and supports a review of policies promoting research on the medical use of these compounds,” the AAP statement reads. To that end, the group recommends that the DEA reschedule marijuana from a Schedule I controlled substance to Schedule II.

Under the Controlled Substances Act, the U.S. has five “schedules” for drugs and chemicals that can be used to make drugs. Schedule I is reserved for drugs that the DEA considers to have the highest potential for abuse and no “current accepted medical use.” Marijuana has been classified as Schedule I for decades, along with other substances like heroin and LSD. While a lower schedule for marijuana would not make it legal, it could ease restrictions on researching the drug.

While the AAP added that it does not support the legalization of marijuana, citing the potential harms to children and adolescents, it did say that it “strongly” supports the decriminalization of marijuana use and encourages pediatricians to “advocate for laws that prevent harsh criminal penalties for possession or use of marijuana.”

“A focus on treatment for adolescents with marijuana use problems should be encouraged, and adolescents with marijuana use problems should be referred to treatment,” the statement said.

Monday’s statement is the first change to AAP policy on the issue since 2004. At that time, the group did not request a schedule change.

The DEA is the federal agency that is primarily responsible for regulating controlled substances like marijuana. But the Food and Drug Administration, along with the National Institute on Drug Abuse, provides the DEA with recommendations about the appropriate level of restriction for various illicit substances.

The FDA is already engaged in a review of the medical evidence surrounding the safety and effectiveness of marijuana. The evaluation was initiated due to a request from the DEA, following a number of citizens’ petitions asking for a review. According to the Controlled Substances Act, the government must consider eight factors when deciding the schedule under which a substance should be classified. These include its potential for abuse, the state of current scientific knowledge about the substance and its psychic or physiological dependence liability.

The FDA could not confirm to The Huffington Post how long the review process takes, but expressed support for AAP’s move.

“FDA can’t comment on the suggestion to change the schedule for marijuana, as the latest FDA review of the issue — known as the 8-factor analysis — is currently ongoing, FDA press officer Jeff Ventura said Monday. “However, FDA agrees with the call by the AAP for rigorous scientific research into the uses of marijuana … [and] supports those in the medical research community who seek to study marijuana.”

The DEA has made previous requests, in 2001 and 2006, to the FDA for an evaluation of marijuana. Those requests were the results of public petitions requesting a rescheduling, FDA Deputy Director Doug Throckmorton explained in testimony delivered during a congressional hearing last year. But DEA regulators determined after both of those reviews that marijuana should remain a Schedule I substance. The FDA cited insufficient available research about marijuana’s effectiveness in treating a number of ailments.

While the FDA hasn’t advocated for legalization of the drug, it said in a 2014 update to its guidelines on marijuana that it is “aware that there is considerable interest in its use to attempt to treat a number of medical conditions, including, for example, glaucoma, AIDS wasting syndrome, neuropathic pain, cancer, multiple sclerosis, chemotherapy-induced nausea, and certain seizure disorders.”

Screaming teenage girls got a lot of attention in 1964 and they’re the ones immortalized in the black and white footage, but the largest number of first-generation Beatle fans were actually boys and girls between five and 10 years old — boomers born in the mid-to-late 1950s. Though not old enough to go to shows like their older brothers and sisters, they were paying very close attention. If you’re between 55 and 60, give or take a year or two, and feel an irrationally strong connection to the Beatles, this connection makes sense, given that the Beatles changed boomer childhoods in seven significant ways.

1. The Beatles made music a necessity.
Kids went from listening to Disney records and Alvin and the Chipmunks to “I Want To Hold Your Hand” and “She Loves You.” Many boomers heard music at home and at school, but it was someone else’s music. After 2/9/64, their ears were opened in a new way and they wanted this new music, made by and for young people. As one fan, age eight at the time, recalled, “Beatle music was ours. It became central to our lives.” Children as young as six didn’t want to be separated from their transistor radios. These young fans remained closely tuned in throughout the 1960s, with ears — and minds — wide open.

2. The Beatles displaced traditional childhood pastimes.
Children started spending more time listening to music, and records became the gift of choice. Cowboys and Indians, sports, Lincoln Logs, jacks, pickup sticks, and Chatty Cathy were pushed to the periphery. Boys who had just been playing army games were suddenly playing Beatles, with tennis racket guitars and trash can drums. Millions of boys (and a much smaller number of girls) begged for and got real instruments.

3. The youngest Beatles fans started routinely hanging out with older kids.
Young teens tolerated tweens and school-age kids who liked the Beatles and often let them tag along to be tutored in all things Beatle and all things cool. These mixed-age groups gave children glimpses into teenagerhood, making them grow up a little faster, or at least shifting their attention in that direction. One fan I interviewed for Beatleness recalls fantasizing about being a teenager when she was eight years old: “It was a feeling I associate with the Beatles and American Bandstand.” As the Beatles became more challenging, these mixed-age “Beatleing sessions” became the place where boomers explored the new perspectives embedded in the music. Fifty years later, the Beatles remain an important touchstone for adult siblings.

4. Children became aware of their appearance and wanted to look “cool.”
Boys as young as eight started to have strong opinions about how their hair should look and how tight their pants should be. They didn’t want a “regular boy’s haircut” because they no longer wanted to be regular boys. They wanted Beatle boots, and thought about how they, too, might look cool holding a guitar. Some preteen girls also wanted to look like the Beatles, but more often girls, even as young as eight and nine, wanted to look like Cynthia, Pattie, Jane, and Maureen. Looking cool became extremely important. Many of the millions of boomers who battled with parents over hair length and skirt length in mid-sixties were not yet in double digits.

5. The Beatles displaced traditional male role models.
Astronauts, soldiers, and athletes were suddenly less appealing than these four androgynous musicians. Young boys and girls were attracted to the Beatles’ softer style of masculinity and the fun that always seemed to surround them. Nothing about them was threatening. Boomers had never seen human beings so charismatic, and accepted the Beatles’ new proposition for masculinity.

While girls usually picked a favorite Beatle, boys appreciated the band’s camaraderie. As one male fan put it, “They’re four very tight, good friends in their own bubble; they created a safe place in the world for each other.”

These fun, cool adults, who often appeared wiser than the stodgy adults around them, immediately became role models, and as I show in Beatleness, amassed enormous cultural authority over the course of the decade.

6. Children became consumers when they became fans of the Beatles.
Young boomers rode their bikes to Woolworth’s, suburban corner stores, and rural general stores to buy Beatles-related merchandise. They cajoled money out of parents, saved allowance, or diverted lunch money to buy 45s. Older brothers or sisters could more easily afford albums. Beatles trading cards appealed to the youngest fans of both sexes, who were at the age when children love to collect, count, and sort.

Men and women now in their 50s and 60s proudly recall the first record they bought with their own money; others recall that the first time they were allowed to walk to the store without a grownup was to buy a Beatles magazine. More than mere soundtrack to important events in boomers’ lives, the Beatles were the actual substance of the events, and triggered the bittersweet rite of passage from children to consumers.

7. Beatlemania created global and generational consciousness in young boomers.
Even the youngest fans became newspaper readers, scouring the paper for items about the Beatles to cut out and put into scrapbooks, which many still have. Fans followed news about them from all over the world, and heard their hits sung in German, and so we knew we were part of a global siblinghood of Beatle fans. And young Beatle fans became Anglophiles, intrigued by a place called Liverpool.

In a way more personally meaningful than a social studies lesson, boomers became aware that we had something special in common with young people all over the world. Four years later, the Beatles sang “All You Need Is Love” to the global siblinghood during the first live, international, satellite television show.

As these kids and their older siblings heard and watched the Beatles evolve throughout the decade, the band became a significant factor in their social, emotional, psychological, aesthetic, political and spiritual development. But for the fans born at the peak of the baby boom, the Beatles altered the trajectory of childhood in a significant “before and after” sort of way, and these are the fans on whom the Beatles had the greatest cumulative impact.

Earlier on Huff/Post50:

Alexis Tsipras, the leader of the Greek Coalition of the Radical Left — best known by its acronym, Syriza — is the focus of attention in Europe after his party’s victory in Sunday’s election. Tsipras has vowed to bring change to a country devastated by an economic crisis and strict austerity measures.

After seven years as the president of his party, 40-year-old Tsipras now stands on the threshold of Greece’s presidential palace, ready to create a new government. Tsipras has been preparing for this moment for the past 2 1/2 years, ever since Syriza was proclaimed the second biggest party participating in national elections.

Some in politics would say Tsipras is a “sprinter,” since he managed to accomplish in a short period of time what others have worked for their entire lives. While the economic crisis and the indignation of the Greek people have been important factors in Tsipras’ rise and the success of Syriza, the Greek Parliament’s youngest party leader distinguished himself on the political scene early on. Even today, his political opponents belligerently bring up his political actions as a “kid.”

FROM HIGH SCHOOL TO THE LEADERSHIP OF SYRIZA

Born on July 28, 1974 in Athens, Tsipras stood out as a student at Ampelokipoi Academic High School, and was the face of the mobilizations against educational reforms promoted by the Ministry of Education. He joined the Communist Youth Of Greece at an early age, but left during his undergraduate years studying civil engineering at the National Polytechnic University of Athens. He moved over to the Youth of the Coalition of the Left, where he made his presence known.

Tsipras faced a challenging path and developed an acute instinct for political survival as he rose in the hierarchy of the youth Coalition. Many within the party were critical when Tsipras’ predecessor Alekos Alavanos recommended — or imposed, according to some — him as a candidate for mayor of Athens in 2006. Tsipras did not win that election.

Tsipras became a threat to even more people within the party in 2008, when he was elected president of the Coalition of the Left with a record percentage of the votes. His relationship with Alavanos, for example, was reportedly very poor at the time. In 2009, shortly before Alavanos resigned and Tsipras was about to become the new leader of the Coalition, the two men did not exchange a word.

THE PEOPLE’S PRESIDENT

Yiannis Dragasakis, editor of the majority of the Program of Syriza and connoisseur of international economics, on the other hand, is one of Tsipras’ closest associates. Also by his side is Nikos Papas, a personal friend since the mid-1990s, who returned from Scotland to Greece at Tsipras’ request. Papas became the director of the party’s political bureau and the press usually refers to him as Tsipras’ “alter ego.” Panos Skourtelis, the party’s spokesman, is also one of Tsipras’ trusted associates.

Those who know Tsipras well say he rarely loses control or focus; he stays on target and he is always calm. They say he rarely gets angry, and even when he does, he does not hold a grudge.

Many associates and members of Parliament refer to him as “cool.” Yet when interacting with citizens, he offers big smiles and intimate gestures.

He is, nevertheless, a man who wants to be in control. One example is the fact that no article or document exits his office before he gets a chance to edit it himself, no matter what is going on.

He keeps constant tabs on the news, and one of his early morning activities is to read through the Greek press, the Financial Times and the international edition of the New York Times. He is briefed on all other issues during the established “morning coffee sessions.”

STRICTLY PERSONAL

Beyond his political career, Tsipras is an ordinary man with a happy family. He prefers to keep his personal life out of the press as much as possible, like most European politicians who want to protect their privacy. Despite the fact that he has been part of Greece’s political scene for more than 10 years, photographers have only managed to capture very few of his private family moments.

His teenage love and partner, electrical engineer Betty Batziana, has made very few public appearances. They met in high school, and soon after both became members of the youth wing of the Communist Party. They led various student protests in 1990 and 1991. Partners in life and social struggles, they chose not to marry but to enter a civil partnership.

The couple’s two sons, 4-year-old Pavlos and 2-year-old Ernestos-Orfeas, are also kept away from the public.

Despite the increasing amount of obligations in recent years, the couple chooses to “escape” as often as possible to Aegina. Numerous former coworkers, including close associate and family friend Alekos Flampouraris, own summer houses on the island.

SMALL WEAKNESSES

With his busy schedule, Tsipras not only had to cut down on family time, but also on soccer. Tsipras was a sport fanatic and played soccer in the past. Nowadays, finding time to go to the stadium is a luxury. He says he is a fervent fan of Panathinaikos FC, and in an interview for Diva magazine in 2007, he playfully stated, “If we don’t win the championship this year, I will stop believing in Santa Claus.”

Tsipras has a weak spot for motorcycles and, until 2012, frequently moved around on two wheels. He now prefers the security of a car.

His new restrictions do not stop there: Going out for dinner or drinks has been limited, and not only because of his workload. “Being a public figure limits your social life, since sometimes you just want to have dinner or drinks with friends without everyone looking at your group,” an associate explained.

Even though he is a music lover, with a fondness for Latin American culture, he is often unable to enjoy it. Events with traditional Greek and folk music, like the festivals of his youth, are now hard to revive.

This piece originally appeared in HuffPost Greece and was translated into English.

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Naloxone, a medication known as the “overdose antidote,” can reverse the effects of an overdose from opioid drugs like heroin, Vicodin, OxyContin and morphine. Although Naloxone has saved tens of thousands of lives, and has been approved for use against drug overdose by the Food and Drug Administration since 1971, it’s typically only administered by medical professionals.

That began to change last April, when the FDA fast-tracked the approval of a device called Evzio. The device administers Naloxone as an auto-injectible, similar to the way epinephrine can be injected with an EpiPen. And it’s going to be widely available to universities, colleges, community organizations and local police and emergency authorities at a cost comparable to the federal supply schedule pricing — in other words, near the lowest possible cost that a federal institution, such as Medicare or the Department of Veterans Affairs, would pay for the device.

The rollout is a collaboration between Kaleo, the pharmaceutical company that invented the device, and the Clinton Foundation’s Health Matters Initiative. It was announced at a panel session Monday, the second day of the Clinton Foundation Health Matters Summit. Speaking at the panel session, former President Bill Clinton described the initiative as “something which I think will save a lot of lives.”

“In five years, the goal is to save 10,000 lives per year,” said Kaleo CEO Spencer Williamson in an interview with The Huffington Post prior to the announcement. More than 16,000 people died from opioid drug overdose in 2013, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

During an opioid overdose, the drugs cause a person’s breathing to slow down so much that respiration may cease entirely. The average time it takes for emergency medical services to arrive varies from region to region. Brain cells, however, begin to die within four minutes after someone stops breathing, Williamson told HuffPost.

“The goal is to improve access and ensure that Naloxone is in the hands of people when a life-threatening overdose occurs,” he said.

For people with health insurance, or coverage through Medicare, Medicaid, the VA or TriCare (the armed forces’ health plan), Evzio typically costs less than $30 out of pocket. But for people who lack health coverage and who don’t qualify for Kaleo’s assistance program (which extends to people without health coverage who earn up to 150 percent of the federal poverty line), prices climb as high as several hundred dollars. The average wholesale price for one unit of Evzio, which includes two Naloxone delivery devices and one training device, is $575, according to Williamson.

Williamson declined to put a specific number on the estimated discount or the anticipated new price of Evzio, saying that federal supply pricing is a “moving number” and constantly in flux.

Rain Henderson, CEO of the Clinton Foundation, described the federal supply pricing as the “the floor,” saying, “You can’t go any lower than the rates that the federal government gets.” But supply is another crucial issue when it comes to Naloxone access, she said.

“The manufacturing landscape has been changing quite dramatically, and the pricing and the availability of Naloxone has been unpredictable,” Henderson told HuffPost at the summit. “That makes it very hard for community groups, organizations [and] policymakers to plan for how to purchase Evzio.”

“For us, the point was to create a predictable and affordable supply,” she went on, “so you could have more organizations purchasing Naloxone and using a device like the Evzio auto-injector to save people’s lives.”

The makers of Evzio say it can be used by anyone, at any time, with little or no training. When activated, the handheld device begins “speaking” to the user, reciting instructions on how to administer the medication. According to Kaleo’s research, 90 percent of people can use Evzio properly with no prior training, and 100 percent are successful if they have been trained.

Williamson told HuffPost that because Evzio is shelf-stable, caregivers who serve opioid addicts can stock the product for up to two years and deploy it as soon as it’s needed during an emergency, as opposed to waiting what could be several crucial minutes for emergency medical crews to arrive.

“We have seen physicians very much embrace the product, because they see it as a way to really empower patients and their families to manage their challenging medical conditions,” said Williamson. “The open-arm reception to the product and awareness of the problem has been really exciting for us, and more than what we anticipated.”

Meghan Ralston, a harm reduction manager with the Drug Policy Alliance, applauded Monday’s news in an interview with HuffPost.

“The rising cost of Naloxone is an important thing we should all be talking about,” said Ralston. “Kaleo, by doing anything to make Naloxone in any way more affordable to anyone — good for them. Kudos to them.”

At the moment, it’s already possible for individuals to obtain and administer generic forms of Naloxone, either as an injection or a nasal spray. Laws vary by state about whether a prescription is needed to purchase the medication. Ralston pointed out that different formulations of Naloxone are beneficial to different types of people.

“Evzio is a completely distinct way of using Naloxone, because it talks,” she said. “Would an 8-year-old have an easier time using Naloxone via Evzio on their accidentally overdosing grandmother? Probably.”

“Anything that helps get Naloxone into an overdosing person is a good thing,” she added. “One hundred percent.”

Shoshanna Scholar, executive director of the LA Community Health Project in Los Angeles, expressed cautious optimism about the potential impact of an Evzio discount. Because Kaleo won’t disclose the discount or the new price of the product, Scholar said she can’t yet tell whether the new initiative will be able to help organizations like hers, which specializes in community-based Naloxone distribution.

In 2014, the LA Community Health Project conducted 652 trainings in overdose prevention and Naloxone administration, and at least 77 lives have since been saved as a result, according to Scholar. The majority of those overdose reversals, she said, were cases either of drug users saving each other’s lives, or family caregivers saving the lives of someone they loved.

At Evzio’s current cost, Scholar can only afford to train community members with generic injectable Naloxone. But if the eventual discount proves significant, she might consider stocking up.

“If it were possible to lower the rates significantly today, tomorrow it would be in the hands of people who are most likely to be at the event of an opioid overdose,” Scholar wrote in an email to HuffPost. “We need to keep the volume of the Naloxone we distribute at the level it is at or higher to meet the increased demand.”