Missouri’s Driving-Under-the-Influence law appears to have a big hole in it…..because it doesn’t cover all of the “influences.” House Transportation chairman Neil St. Onge says he was “kind of shocked” to learn from a Kansas City Star reporter that the state’s DUI law does not cover drivers under the influence of drugs. St. Onge is sure the legislature will move to close that loophole next year. The big question is how the legislature will establish a blood-drug level such as the blood-alcohol level for drunk driving. He says he has read that marijuana can stay in a person’s system for a month, meaning a trace in a person’s blood would not be enough to prove a person is driving under the influence of drugs. St. Onge assumes other states have set standards. He also thinks some standards exist in Missouri’s worker’s comp law and might exist in unemployment law. If history is a guide, however, passage of a DUI law for drugs might not be a given. It took several years to get the point-zero-eight drunk driving law through the general assembly.
Talent In Race of Life Against McCaskill
Republican incumbent Senator Jim Talent is in the political fight of his life against Democratic challenger Claire McCaskill. Both candidates sat down with the Missourinet’s Brent Martin for half-hour interviews to discuss the race.
In this –the first of a three-part series, Senator Talent insists the country is safer now than five years ago when terrorists attacked New York and Washington. He points to creation of the Department of Homeland Security and passage of 70 laws since then. Talent says the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission are being implemented. The country seemed unified after the attacks, divided now. Talent says, if re-elected, he hopes to work with Democrats to restore that unity and get all oars in the water. He says Republicans and Democrats have been hitting each other over the head with their oars, rather than putting their oars in the water and rowing.
Claire McCaskill says the country isn’t safer, that the Bush Administration and Congress have ignored the 9/11 Commission recommendations. McCaskill says the country hasn’t accomplished anything in Iraq, wasting both money and lives. And she blames Republican tactics in the 2004 election for dividing the country. McCaskill says Republicans used the terrorist attacks in a brazen, political way that caused a fracture in the unity of this country. McCaskill charges Republicans, including Talent, have resorted to those tactics again this year, using fear and smear in their campaigns.
Interview with Senator Talent
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Interview with Claire McCaskill
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SLU Study Finds Doctors Influenced by Articles in Medical Publications
A study by researchers at Saint Louis University indicates articles in medical publications can have a lot of influence over how doctors deal with their patients – especially if the news is negative. Co-author Doctor Mark Schnitzler says many physicians trust the information in such publications as the Journal of the American Medical Association and the New England Journal of Medicine. He points to a couple of 2005 articles suggesting a link between nesiritide, a popular medication for acute decompensated heart failure, and an increased risk of kidney failure and death. Doctors were quick to cut back on prescribing the drug. Its use dropped by about two-thirds over the course of nine months. Doctor Schnitzler says physicians don’t act as quickly when there’s good news about a drug because they suspect the results could be compromised by drugmakers eager to paint a rosy picture of the benefits of their products. He likens the impact of medical articles on doctors to the effect articles in Vogue have on the fashion industry.
