A brand new research conducted by psychology experts at Haifa University in Israel suggests that cannabis used promptly to rats that suffer psychological trauma can efficiently block the development of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). As long as the rats were addressed with marijuana within 24 hours of the stressful experience, PTSD indicators were prevented. The study was published in the journal Neuropsychopharma-cology. Article source: Marijuana cures PTSD in rats, Israeli study shows

Stopping PTSD in rats

PETER COSTELLO: No, Labor said it wanted an even more expensive policy. It wanted free health care – the so-called Medicare Gold – for people over 65. The most irresponsible policy probably put down in a federal election period. So fortunately that policy never saw the light of day.

Expensive? Irresponsible? No and No.

Medicare Gold was one policy Labor got right in the 2004 auction. It could have been, maybe still is, the turning point in Labor's approach to policy. It was based on a principle, and backed up with economic estimates. The modelling that supported free health care for the over-75s is admitted in the Productivity Commission's report on Ageing Australia, but the PC preferred to give weight to data that aligned with Costello's expected conclusions. Who gains in Costello's world? When he says we will have to pay more for healthcare (drugs, investigations, devices), is the pharmaceutical industry pleased, or disappointed?

The big ticket items in Western healthcare include Cancer, Arthritis, Diabetes, Asthma, Stroke, Cardiovascular and Hypertension. Each of them is integated with the pharmaceutical industry (pharma). Alan Ramsey, senior journalist for Sydney Morning Herald, wrote about cancer services in Country health care a poor cousin

How much do we need to pay, as a community, for comprehensive and equitable care for people with any of the many different cancers, regardless of their choices and geographical location? How much is being spent, taking all into consideration, on cancer treatments? There are different places to start, in order to come to an answer. For example, we could ask our army of health economists and policy wonks to make an estimate of the breakdown in the next $1billion that Australians spend on their health.

One thing is for certain, pharma is dedicated to making us pay more for medicines, in order for shareholders to get bigger profits from their investments in pharma. And herein lies a deep problem, as explained in this short article on the dynamics of pharma profits. Simply put, a big global company must keep risking more and more on "blockbuster" drugs, in order to maintain its prime position as a profit maker. Right now, as a result of the problems with
the Cox-2 inhibitors, there is speculation about further consolidation in the industry, as in Should Pfizer Buy Merck? at Forbes.

There is currently an invitation out there to make a submission to the Senate Inquiry into Mental Health. I've taken a look at the guidelines and fear that there will be little change to be made.

The National Mental Health plans call for more involvement of General Practitioners as Primary Carers for the mentally ill and to this end, government has made additional allowances available for GPs to spend more time with their mentally ill clients. This is a very good thing but ultimately pays no attention to the fact that GP numbers seem to be decreasing, and many have now closed their books in an effort to gain control over their office hours. The other solution as seen by the government has been to throw money at NGOs who put up their hands for dollars to take care of the mentally ill. But NGOs will not employ trained and experienced mental health workers: instead, they give their workers a 6 week crash course and expect them to cope. They do not. They can not.

I would like to ask what others think about private health insurance. After receiving our latest statement, we think it is time to review it. But when getting over the shock we realise that there is not a lot we can do. A member of our family has an on-going disease and could need more surgery and also physiotherapy. So what to do. Hip and knee replacements come at a premium in the government system with years to wait, so we stay in private cover because of fear of the unknown.

This is just one example of why we need private cover. The other is dental.

So why does the government allow the health funds to put their premiums up and at the same time cut back on benefits? They do make a profit. But is this profit enough to cope with an emergercy? Some one in this field may be able to let us know.

I was on of the early readers of NHJ. It made me both sad and angry. The first questions I asked, was 'What can I do about this situation?' My first inclination was to run out and join the ALP. But on reflection I thought - to what end? So thy can have my subscription and I can stand in front of a polling booth? Woo Hoo! Is that making a difference?

Since Tony Abbot of Abbott and Costello can establish 'Australians for Honest Politics' why can not a lobby/exposure group called 'Not Happy John Inc' be established? A extra-political group dedicated to 'Keeping the Bastards Honest'. Worth Consideration?

Margo: Hi Neville. I hear on the grapevine that a few political types are thinking of starting a 'Not Happy John' group to sponsor independent-minded candidates. My hope is that if there's enough interest from Australians on this site - the mailing list is growing fast - we can create an Australian version of the brilliant American website www.moveon.org, which has har

I thoroughly enjoyed the book, well written, well presented. Thanks!

I think though, that this book could have been written about a leader of any stripe or party. There appears to be a real movement towards 'de-democratising' democracies. Perhaps the Iraqis will end up with a democracy while the rest of us drift off elsewhere. I think the big value of your work is in exposing JH as being a non-conservative. I remember Paul Keating speaking to this same subject last year (?). I'm glad you have expanded his comments in the way you have done. I look forward to 'Not Happy Mark (Tony, Peter....?)'

We really need to keep the report cards going on these guys. Thanks Margo.

Hi all. Thanks for dropping in to the NHJ! daily blogsite, and - first up - our thanks especially to the brilliant Penguin IT team for their patience, skill and creativity in arcing up this site for us to play with. Love your work, guys!

Now in the best traditions of cyber-organics, we're not exactly sure how this blog-beast is going to develop in the coming weeks, since this whole site is still in a way a new-ish concept in interactive, post-publishing 'value-adding' (to chatter in the vogueish Bean Monkey-speak for a tic. Groan.) But in general the aim of this section of the NHJ! website will be to blog more or less daily in order to keep interested types informed about how the project is progressing overall. Among other things, we'll try to:

a) let you know what Margo is up to as far as promotions and appearances for/related to the book are concerned;
b) point you towards related cyber-stuff, such as external reviews, comments and discussions arising from the book;<