'Resist 45' Activist Gets $45,000 Taxpayer Grant To Study 'Transgender Health'

The National Institute of Health (NIH), in its infinite wisdom, has just awarded nearly $45,000 to a post-doctoral student at Duke University, and unabashed "Resist 45" activist, for the specific purpose of studying "transgender health."  According to the NIH website, the project got underway on May 1st and is expected to continue through August 2018...at which point we"re almost certain more taxpayer money will be thrown at worthy follow-up projects.

But, perhaps even more important that the topic of the grant is the person to whom the grant has been awarded.  Ethan Cicero is a post-doctoral student at Duke University and an avid "Resist 45" activist.   He has written numerous previous research reports in the past on extremely critical healthcare issues like whether or not hospitals should ask individuals for their preferred pronouns and “be sensitive to shared spaces” by keeping the “gender to which they identify in mind” when placing transgender individuals in rooms.

Cicero has also attacked doctors for “incorrectly us[ing] sex and gender interchangeably,” since gender is “more abstract and refers to the complex relationships among gender biology (sex), gender identity (one’s sense of being female, male, both, or neither), and gender expression (outward presentation behaviors, and roles).”

Meanwhile, in an article published in the January 2016 issue of the Journal of Emergency Nursing entitled ""I Was a Spectacle…A Freak Show at the Circus": A Transgender Person’s ED Experience and Implications for Nursing Practice," Cicero went so far as to blame America"s emergency rooms for the high attempted suicide rates of transgender people.

"Few worry about clinician competence or are concerned that they may be denied care; however, transgender personal contemplating and ED visit sometimes face these issues.  The scarcity of of clinical providers adequately prepared to care for transgender persons is a major barrier to seeking care.  In addition, some transgender people encounter denial of services, discrimination, harassment, and even violence in healthcare settings.  The accumulation of barriers cause some transgender people to avoid seeking even routine preventative care.

The implication of these barriers is profound.  The lack of high-quality, equitable healthcare is directly  associated with a high lifetime suicide rate in the transgender community."

New flash, Ethan, everyone hates going to the emergency room...it has nothing to do with your "gender expression."

As the The Washington Free Beacon points out, Cicero"s controversial public statements go well beyond his emergency room research papers and were spread all over his FaceBook page before it was recently changed to private.  Perhaps he didn"t think that the NIH would appreciate his post alleging the Pence"s pro-life views only applied to “white, straight, and American individuals/babies.”

Ethan Cicero, a post-doctoral student at Duke University, received the grant. Cicero describes his employer as "The Resistance" on his now-private Facebook account.

Cicero"s cover photo on the social media platform reads "Resist 45," in reference to President Donald Trump. He changed his profile picture to "Not My President" on Inauguration Day.

"Hey Women"s Marchers, vagina does not equal woman," Cicero wrote on Facebook, referencing the liberal march the day after Inauguration Day that received criticism from transgender activists for not being inclusive to biological men who identify as women.

"Stop erasing trans/gender nonconforming people," Cicero said, linking to an article in the Washington Post with the headline, "It"s time to drop the vagina as a protest symbol."

Cicero"s Facebook account was changed to private shortly after the request for comment was sent.

We simply can"t wait to see what amazing things Ethan can write about with his new $45,000 budget. 

For the First Time Ever, the Federal Govt is Referring to Marijuana as Medicine

A profound shift in the federal government’s stance on cannabis was marked by subtle changes made this month to one webpage. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health, now has a webpage titled Marijuana as Medicine. Prior to March 2017, it was titled Is Marijuana Medicine?

Apparently, they feel the question has been answered. The timing of NIDA’s update is very curious, as there are signs from the Trump administration that a crackdown may be coming on states’ cannabis legalization progress made over the last few years.

The Department of Justice is now headed by rabid prohibitionist Jeff Sessions, who cites falsehoods and Reefer Madness propaganda when discussing cannabis. Only a few days ago, Sessions said cannabis “is slightly less awful” than heroin – a mind-boggling display of ignorance. Trump chose to keep Chuck Rosenberg as head of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), who said medical cannabis is “a joke” and oversaw the department’s decision to keep the plant as a Schedule 1 drug with “no medicinal use.”

Perhaps this stunning level of denial – in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence of cannabis’ ability to treat a variety of ailments – prompted NIDA to make their change. Twenty-eight states have legalized medical cannabis in some way, eight more have legalized its recreational use, and more states are set to join the list. They aren’t doing this on a whim; decriminalizing medical use is an acknowledgment of cannabis’ power as medicine.

Some would argue that the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services 2001 patent 6630507 called “Cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants” was a tacit acknowledgement of medial cannabis. But still, no government agency admitted the obvious conclusion.

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In 2015, the federal government unwittingly admitted cannabis is medicine in 2015 when the National Cancer Institute supported a study finding that cannabis kills cancer cells. Now, with the revised webpage title, NIDA appears to have moved beyond a reasonable doubt.

“The term medical marijuana refers to using the whole, unprocessed marijuana plant or its basic extracts to treat symptoms of illness and other conditions. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not recognized or approved the marijuana plant as medicine.

However, scientific study of the chemicals in marijuana, called cannabinoids, has led to two FDA-approved medications that contain cannabinoid chemicals in pill form. Continued research may lead to more medications.

Because the marijuana plant contains chemicals that may help treat a range of illnesses and symptoms, many people argue that it should be legal for medical purposes. In fact, a growing number of states have legalized marijuana for medical use.”

The webpage now has an informational box on CBD and Childhood Epilepsy. This is a rather dramatic inclusion, as cannabidiol (CBD) has become a very promising treatment for childhood epilepsy. At the Dec. 2015 meeting of the American Epilepsy Society, the largest study presented there confirmed the astounding benefits of medical cannabis to treat seizures.

There is now a better explanation of cannabinoids, making a distinction between those naturally derived from the plant and those manufactured in a lab. NIDA also acknowledges the “state-approved medicinal use of marijuana,” and says “continued research [on cannabinoids] might lead to more medications.”

Indeed, we are only just beginning to unlock the secrets of the body’s endocannabinoid system, and using cannabis to stimulate this system for relieving inflammation which is thought to be the cause of many diseases.

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Interestingly, the NIDA update also removed a link to WhiteHouse.gov regarding state laws, because the Trump administration removed the White House page explaining state cannabis laws. It appears that talk of respecting states’ rights may be just another Trump lie.

Kudos to NIDA for taking a step in the right direction and being the first federal entity to explicitly acknowledge cannabis as medicine.