Tag: safety

Missouri Officials Will Begin Unannounced Marijuana Dispensary Visits For New Product Testing Initiative Next Month

State cannabis regulators will begin their first attempt next month to double check the work of licensed testing labs tasked with ensuring the safety of Missouri marijuana products.

Starting July 1, staff with the Division of Cannabis Regulation will arrive unannounced at dispensaries and collect about 50 products a month off the shelves. They’ll take them to the Missouri State Public Health Reference Laboratory to be tested for things like mold, pesticides and a whole range of other things.

Ryan Bernard, the division’s testing and research unit manager, said the unannounced sampling has been in the works for a while as a way to add an extra level of compliance. The division, Bernard said, isn’t expecting to find problems.

“We won’t know until we see the data,” Bernard said. “I have full faith and confidence in our testing licensees that they’re testing according to rule as it’s been outlined.”

However, national testing lab experts told The Independent that Missouri’s regulators might be shocked at the results.

“Shelf testing has not gone well in any state that I know of, especially if it’s just starting,” said Josh Swider, vice chair of the cannabis working group for American Council of Independent Laboratories. “It will be very telling very fast.”

Swider pointed to a citation in Arizona in April of a cannabis lab, where the state found more than a dozen alleged “deficiencies” including problems with the lab’s potency testing and pesticide and microbial detection methods.

Swider called the levels of pesticides on the Arizona products “sickening.”

“But this is what you’re seeing around the country,” said Swider, co-founder and CEO of Infinite Chemical Analysis Labs in San Diego. “Regulators are starting to enforce. They’re realizing an issue that’s been systemic for a long time.”

Other common issue Missouri regulars might also find, he said, are inflated levels of THC on products.

Regulators previously talked about conducting a “round robin” testing, where the state’s certified testing labs would double check each other’s work under the state’s instruction. Amy Moore, director of the Division of Cannabis Regulation (DCR), told lawmakers in 2023 that this additional testing rule was “critical.”

“The challenges in regulating and relying on for-profit cannabis testing labs,” Moore told lawmakers at a 2023 committee hearing, “is one of the most discussed challenges in the national cannabis regulatory community.”

However, the state never ended up getting the process going for a variety of factors, Bernard said, so the unannounced samples will be the regulators first attempt at a testing backstop.

Lawmakers began allocating money for this kind of sampling to be tested at the state laboratory in the fiscal year that began on July 1, 2024 with $3.8 million. Most of it went unspent because the cannabis testing methods were “still in the process of being implemented,” according to state budget documents. Another $2.4 million was allocated for this fiscal year ending on June 30, and it’s unclear how much of it has been spent.

Bernard couldn’t speak on the budget for testing, he said, because the division and state lab budgets are “totally separate.”

“Our operating budget is DCR only,” he said. “State public health labs is theirs.”

The lab will receive another $2.4 million for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

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‘World Pride’ Celebration at DC’s Dupont Circle Marred by Shooting and Stabbings After Safety Concerns Overridden to Open Park

D.C.’s Democrat politicians had successfully fought the Trump administration to take down fencing at Dupont Circle National Park erected for safety reasons. The fencing was removed Saturday morning for the World Pride celebration.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser issued a statement Saturday announcing the fencing was coming down, vowing “Great news, DC! Dupont Circle is reopening today for WorldPride 2025.We thank the National Park Service for their partnership, and below is our joint statement:”

Video posted by WJLA-TV, “DUPONT CIRCLE SHOOTING Crowds ran towards shelter when they heard gunshots near Dupont Circle following the WorldPride celebrations. Officers quickly responded to the scene and are searching for suspects.”

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Doritos and Mountain Dew could carry a new ‘not recommended for human consumption’ warning under landmark Texas bill

A Texas bill on the brink of becoming law would crack down on major food manufacturers, requiring them to label products with warnings about ingredients “not recommended for human consumption,” under the standards of countries other than the U.S.

Senate Bill 25 would require U.S. food manufacturers to, beginning in 2027, clearly mark products sold in Texas with warning labels that the foods contain certain ingredients like bleached flour and synthetic food dyes that other countries have prohibited or required warnings for. The legislation would impact major food manufacturers like General Mills, whose brands Pillsbury Toaster Strudel contain bleached flour, as well as PepsiCo, the conglomerate behind Doritos and Mountain Dew, which contain dyes.

The bill also outlines requirements for physical education and nutrition education in schools. The legislation reached the desk of Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Sunday.

Supported by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the bill’s enactment would notch a victory for Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) movement. The HHS secretary, as part of his MAHA efforts, has advocated for the banning of dyes, additives, and seed oils, arguing the ingredients increase the risk of cancer, hyperactivity in children, inflammatory bowel diseases, and allergic reactions.

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Biden Made Communities Less Safe By Forcing DEI On Police And Fire Departments

The Trump administration has dropped the Biden administration’s push for onerous consent decrees on police and fire departments. These legal settlements micromanaged police operations and mandated DEI-based hiring and promotion practices.

“These radical requirements seem disconnected from how police departments actually work,” said Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon on Friday. “They tie officers’ hands and make communities less safe.”

The proposed consent decrees required departments to change how they tested prospective hires, increasing the share of black and female candidates hired.

Dhillon also warned that consent decrees drain resources, saying, “Once a judge imposes a consent decree, cities typically spend $10 million or more each year to comply with endless legal demands.”

Such money could instead go toward actually policing our streets.

Data on DEI

DEI practices have been pushed on police departments by Democrat presidents for decades, and economists have studied how such decrees impact the effectiveness of police forces, particularly when they change or eliminate testing standards to reshape the racial or gender makeup of departments.

There can, however, be advantages to hiring minority officers. In many cases, residents of minority communities are more likely to cooperate with officers who share their background. Minority officers can also serve undercover more effectively.

Consent decrees increase minority hiring by eliminating or reducing intelligence test standards. Since all new hires take these tests, the practice risks lowering the quality of new hires across the racial spectrum. Such recruiting has led to increased crime rates, and the largest increases have occurred in more heavily minority areas.

The effect is quite significant. On average, cities that had consent decrees for hiring imposed on them saw their violent and property crime rates falling relative to other cities before the consent decrees and rising relative to other cities afterward. The average yearly decline relative to other cities before the consent decree was -5.3 percent for violent crime, and the average yearly increase afterward was 4.8 percent.

Police departments that hired more black officers after changing their hiring rules also tended to lower their hiring standards the most. A 1 percent increase in the share of black officers correlated with a 4 percent rise in property crime and an almost 5 percent increase in violent crime. These crime spikes hit hardest in areas with the largest black population.

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Despite Cancellation of Moderna’s mRNA Bird Flu Jab, Efforts for mRNA-LNP H5N1 Jab for Cattle Forges Ahead

Citing a decision based on safety, integrity, and trust connected to a product that “was not scientifically or ethically justifiable,” the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) notified Moderna on May 28 that it was terminating the company’s $776 million contract for the development of a bird flu vaccine for humans. That decision is undoubtedly the correct decision. Yet, meanwhile, realizing the danger to humans of the under-tested mRNA technology platform, the US government continues to fund research on H5 influenza mRNA-lipid nanoparticle (LNP) vaccines for use in cattle.

And to make matters worse—and essentially negate the progress made with the termination of HHS’s contract with Moderna—the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved on May 31 a new Moderna COVID-19 mRNA jab called mNEXSPIKE®, which the DARPA partner noted was “for use in all adults 65 and older, as well as individuals 12 through 64 years of age with at least one underlying condition that put them at high risk for severe outcomes from COVID-19.”

While this article ponders the ongoing experimentation with mRNA technology in cattle for bird flu, the FDA’s approval of mNEXSPIKE® is reckless. Meanwhile, as we discuss cattle, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the US Department of Energy continue to use federal funding to create mRNA-LNP jabs targeting highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b in Holstein calves. The USDA allocated $824 million in emergency funding in May 2024 to bolster H5N1 efforts, including vaccine development for livestock, with ongoing research to evaluate effectiveness in lactating dairy cattle and eventually other animal species.

To help push the needle forward quickly, a 2025 preprint conducted by researchers at the USDA’s National Animal Disease Center and the University of Pennsylvania—who have received consulting fees from Big Pharma groups, including Pfizer—aims to paint the research in a glowing light, noting that an H5 mRNA-LNP vaccine induced robust antibody and T-cell responses in calves, offering partial protection against H5N1. However, notably, the preprint failed to report biodistribution data, only mentioning intramuscular administration but not whether the mRNA or LNPs were tracked in tissues beyond the intramuscular injection site. But make no mistake. We know that both the mRNA and toxic LNPs can also enter the bloodstream, leading to systemic distribution to organs across the body, including the liver, spleen, heart, and other tissues.

Concerningly, we also know mRNA-LNPs cross the blood-brain barrier, settling into essentially every organ in the human body, causing damage to the brain, heart, liver, and bone marrow in humans. Why isn’t this deadly hazard being studied in cattle? Thus far, no studies have directly quantified H5 mRNA-LNP biodistribution in cattle, particularly in lactating dairy cows, where H5N1 replication in the mammary glands raises significant concerns about milk safety.

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Urgent health warning as the terrifying side effects of Ozempic emerge

Dozens of Aussie weight loss drug injection patients have complained of symptoms consistent with drug-induced hepatitis, sparking a warning from experts to get regular GP check-ups. 

Patients on GLP-1 agonists Wegovy and Ozempic reported flu-like symptoms, fatigue, abdominal cramps and vomiting, thought to be related to liver injury. 

The most severe cases were rushed to hospital after experiencing symptoms associated with inflammation of the liver. 

The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has received three separate reports of hepatitis or liver injury associated with semaglutide medicine use – marketed as Ozempic and Wegovy. 

Two patients were on Ozempic while the other was using Wegovy. 

Patients on Mounjaro have also expressed concerns online.

‘Any of you on Mounjaro have had to stop taking it due to it affecting your liver? I’m currently in hospital with medication induced hepatitis and they’re positive it’s from the Mounjaro,’ one woman wrote.

Another commented: ‘Wegovy badly affected my liver and I had to stop, fortunately I didn’t end up in hospital’. 

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Japan Rides The Censorship Bandwagon

The manufacturer of the replicon mRNA Covid “vaccine” in Japan, Meiji Seika Pharma, has brought a lawsuit against a member of the Japanese parliament, Kazuhiro Haraguchi. Haraguchi had commented that the Covid injections are “akin to a biological weapon,” a statement which the Meiji Pharma president claimed was beyond the bounds of acceptable expression.

However, statements like Haraguchi’s about the dangers of the Covid mRNA injections are now commonplace in many nations, and drug companies do not seem to be suing people for making them, at least in the US. Instead, state attorneys general in Kansas and Texas have been suing Pfizer for misrepresenting its Covid injections.

In general, Japan has been gradually evolving into a place where it is difficult to publicly express ideas unapproved by powerful business interests and officialdom. In addition to government and mainstream news media collusion to keep Covid medical realities from the Japanese public, the government passed a law to squelch nonconforming messaging online.

The intentions behind this measure are clear: Prominent government figures have openly declared their conviction that “misinformation” is a major problem in Japan. In December 2024, Prime Minister Ishiba stated that he was considering more regulations concerning Internet discourse that he considers problematic, and a prominent LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) politician named Noda commented recently that Japan was being influenced more and more by “fake” information.

In May 2024, Japan’s parliament passed a law to enable the quick elimination of defamatory posts from social media platforms like Facebook and X. By this law, such platforms would have to make explicit sites for taking requests to delete posts and also make clear their criteria for taking down posts. The new law went into effect on April 1, 2025.

Unsurprisingly, some Japanese YouTube vloggers are expressing concerns that, under the new set of regulations, their vlogs may soon be targeted as purveyors of “misinformation,” especially when they criticize government policy.

Only online media platforms are targeted in this development, even though Japanese print communications and TV programs have also often been guilty of spreading harmful disinformation. Ironically, in many instances, this is not because they are unregulated but precisely because they are under the thumb of government agencies.

For example, the Japanese National Police Agency has deliberately leaked information about people under investigation in order to pressure them into confessing to crimes. Since the Japanese public often naively believes that suspicion equals guilt, this tactic results in terrible consequences for the unjustly accused.

In 1996, after an unsuccessful attempt by the Aum Shinrikyo cult to assassinate three Japanese judges, police leaked to news media outlets some details of their investigation of Yoshiyuki Kono, an innocent man whose family was also severely injured in the attack.

Kono’s experience of being hounded by both the authorities and the mainstream news media mirrors that of Richard Jewell, the heroic security guard who became a suspect after the 1996 Atlanta Olympics bombing. The FBI deliberately leaked details of their investigation to American mainstream news outlets, which proceeded to harass and condemn Jewell along with the investigating FBI agents, though the case eventually unraveled.

Even before the social media platform law, Japanese news media outlets were effectively controlled by the government. As a result, Japan was ranked lowest among all Group of Seven nations for freedom of the press in the World Press Freedom Index. Japan’s overall ranking dropped from 68th to 70th after the 2024 social media law was passed. 

The reasons for this are the press club system and the self-censorship of most Japanese reporters. Each government ministry has a press club consisting of representatives from prominent news media outlets, and they receive official briefings from government officials. However, these members of the press can be banned from these briefings if they do anything that reflects badly on the government.

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Moderna Pulls Application for FDA Approval of Flu-COVID Shot After FDA Calls for New Clinical Trials

Moderna is withdrawing its application for U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of its mRNA-1083 combination flu and COVID-19 vaccine, the company announced today — just one day after the FDA said it would require new clinical trials to approve COVID-19 boosters for healthy people under 65.

According to Fierce Biotech, the company will resubmit its application when data from a Phase 3 trial of its mRNA-1010 flu vaccine, which is a component of the combined shot, are available later this year. The company expects to have interim data from the trial available this summer.

Markets reacted negatively to the news, with Moderna’s shares falling 1.4% in premarket trading on Wednesday, The Guardian reported.

According to Reuters, Moderna’s decision to withdraw its application at this time “is the latest sign of increased regulatory scrutiny of the vaccine approval process since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took the top U.S. health job earlier this year.”

Last week, for instance, the FDA approved Novavax’s new COVID-19 vaccine, but limited its approval to groups that are considered high-risk.

Sayer Ji, co-founder of Stand for Health Freedom and founder and director of GreenMedInfo, said Moderna’s decision to withdraw its application is “telling” and “appears to reflect not only concerns over efficacy but also a growing public skepticism toward hastily developed, multi-antigen formulations that lack sufficient long-term safety data.”

Ji said:

“The withdrawal may be a preemptive move to avoid public scrutiny or regulatory resistance tied to unresolved questions in their clinical data. Combination shots, especially those involving mRNA platforms, introduce compounded risks due to the simultaneous delivery of multiple immunogenic agents.

“These risks are poorly understood and grossly under-evaluated, particularly in vulnerable populations. The immunological complexity of such a vaccine also raises questions about long-term impacts on immune regulation, potential autoimmunity and unintended synergistic effects that could compromise health rather than protect it.”

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EPA declares Flint water emergency over after more than $100 million in taxpayer-funded grants

Anearly decade-long fight for safe drinking water in Flint is over.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin announced Monday the city met all of the requirements of a Safe Drinking Water Act emergency order, which has been lifted.

The EPA issued the order in January 2016.

“Today we celebrate a decade’s worth of hard work and partnership at the local, state and federal level to ensure the residents of Flint, Michigan have access to clean, safe drinking water,” Zeldin said in a statement Monday. “Lifting this emergency order is a cause for great celebration for residents of Flint who worked so hard and sacrificed so much to get to this point.”

Zeldin said water sampling shows the city’s water system is in compliance with lead standards.

Since the order was implemented, the city has replaced more than 97% of its old lead pipes, and the water system has tested below the acceptable limit since July 2016.

The EPA has given more than $100 million in taxpayer-funded grants to the city and the state since 2016 to address the issues.

“The lifting of the EPA’s emergency order is a powerful testament to the strength, and advocacy of Flint residents,” Flint Mayor Sheldon A. Neeley said. For nearly a decade, we have worked tirelessly to restore trust and integrity to our water system, as well as meeting rigorous standards. While this milestone marks progress, our commitment to clean, safe drinking water remains unwavering. We will continue to advance infrastructure, strengthen safeguards, and ensure that the mistakes of the past are never repeated. Flint families deserve nothing less.”

The city’s water crisis began in 2014 when it switched from Detroit’s system to the Flint River to save money. Without proper treatment, that water corroded lead pipes that led to lead contamination and a declared public health emergency.

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Alarming Graph Reveals US Beef Industry Is “Hijacked By Chemical Pushers” 

The “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) movement is gaining steam as a disruptive force in helping to rescue the nation’s deteriorating food supply chain and public health. It marks a clear inflection point from decades of dependency on ultra-processed foods and pharmaceutical giants profiting from Americans’ imploding health over the last half-century. 

Last week, Goldman Sachs analysts highlighted a decisive shift in consumer behavior, with shoppers increasingly favoring cleaner, “better-for-you” food options. Even Bloomberg has begun to acknowledge MAHA’s rising impact.

At its core, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s movement aims to revive the nation’s health by restoring integrity to the food supply chain—prioritizing cleaner food with fewer chemicals and less industrial farming while reducing reliance on the pharmaceutical industry’s profit-driven approach to managing chronic disease. It turns out that cleaner food and regular exercise may be all it takes to help cure a nation of its sickness. Not Ozempic.

Bloomberg pointed out that food safety and production standards are again in focus following a new U.S.-UK trade deal. While the agreement reduces barriers to billions of dollars in U.S. exports—including beef—the UK continues to ban hormone-treated meat and chlorine-washed chicken, practices common in the U.S. but prohibited in the EU and UK due to stricter regulations.

For readers unaware of how toxic the food supply chain has become under the control of mega-corporations, this graphic from Bloomberg speaks volumes. It underscores the urgent need for Americans to seek cleaner, locally produced food from farmers and ranchers or even their own backyards. 

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