A new episode of Five Minutes Five Issues posted on Thursday. You can listen to it, and read a transcript, below. You can also find previous episodes of the show at Stitcher, iTunes, YouTube, and SoundCloud.
Listen to the new episode here:
Read a transcript of the new episode, including links to further information regarding the topics discussed, here:
The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity welcomes you to Five Minutes Five Issues.
Starting in five four three two one.
Hello, I am Adam Dick, a Ron Paul Institute senior fellow.
Let’s start.
Issue one.
Last week, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) announced its new policy statement regarding vaccination mandates. The policy statement declares that the AAP “recommends that all states and the District of Columbia use their public health authority to eliminate nonmedical exemptions from immunization requirements” for children attending school or child care.
The AAP claims 64,000 doctors as members.
The elimination of religious and philosophical exemptions, as proposed by the AAP, would likely require that virtually all children in school or child care be vaccinated in accordance with state governments’ vaccination schedules. In Mississippi, where only medical exemptions are recognized, only 17 out of over 45,000 kindergarten students were exempt from the state’s vaccination mandates in the 2013-2014 school year.
Issue two.
With more and more state and local governments backing away from the war on marijuana, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is preparing to start a war on another plant.
Jacob Sullum reported Monday at Reason that the DEA plans, by the end of the month, to place kratom in Schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act.
Sullum provides much information regarding this soon-to-be-forbidden plant. He notes, among other things, that kratom comes from a tree “native to Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, and Papua New Guinea” and that, in addition to its recreational use, kratom has been used overseas “for centuries to ease pain, boost work performance,” and help people “wean themselves from opiate addiction.” And, one more thing, Sullum explains that “evidence indicates that kratom is less hazardous than drugs that are legally used for similar purposes.”
Issue three.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, in a speech last week in Arizona, talked about two ways he wants biometric monitoring of Americans and visitors to America.
Trump said that the US government needs, as he put it, to “finally complete the biometric entry-exit visa tracking system which we need desperately.”
Trump also said he wants to ensure that E-Verify, which is promoted as a tool for stopping illegal immigrants from being employed in America, “is used to the fullest extent possible under existing law.” Trump continued that he would “work with Congress to strengthen and expand [E-Verify’s] use across the country.”
This week, Ron Paul responded to Trump’s E-Verify proposal. Paul wrote in an editorial that E-Verify “is a police state non-solution” that would require “legal American citizens to carry a biometric national ID card connected to a government database to prove that the government allows us to work.”
Issue four.
Some people are asking why the National Rifle Association (NRA) is not advocating for the gun rights of people who use marijuana or have state authorization to use medical marijuana, especially after the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decided last week that the US government prohibition on such people buying guns is constitutional.
NRA leaders have again and again stated the policy position that dictates the organization will not stand up for these gun rights. Here is how NRA Chief Executive Officer Wayne LaPierre stated the position last year in an NRA video: “The NRA has demanded the strongest possible prosecution of the federal gun laws for over 20 years.”
Issue five.
Many people are debating about San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s decision not to stand during the US national anthem before football games. Maybe the more important matter to debate is whether there should be any national anthem observance at sporting events.
Chris Rossini writes at the Ron Paul Liberty Report that a national anthem observance at sporting events “resembles a form of religious worship” and that, “for life, liberty, and peace, the most dangerous thing that people can choose to worship is the government.”
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That’s a wrap.
Transcripts of Five Minutes Five Issues episodes, including links to related information, are at the Ron Paul Institute blog.
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