Chuck Baldwin • September 1, 2015

Over the summer, a new breed of untested chemical drugs hit the streets in major cities across the U.S. with a highly misleading name, adding to the potential harm these drugs can do. Called “synthetic marijuana” or “synthetic pot” by the media, these chemicals have absolutely nothing to with the relatively harmless THC found in real marijuana. A better name would be “demon dust” as it shares much more in common with “angel dust,” the PCP derivative infamously used to lace marijuana and tobacco.

These new chemicals got the name because they affect the same sensors in the brain that THC affects. The scientific name is “synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists,” and they were invented in the lab for research purposes, initially by professor John W. Huffman for use with HIV/AIDS, multiple sclerosis and chemotherapy. But these particular compounds have never been tested on humans. “It bothers me that people are so stupid as to use this stuff,” he is quoted as saying.

Given the general knowledge that no one has ever died from an overdose of real marijuana, the continued use of the name “synthetic marijuana” is a powerful and potentially deadly misnomer. How many users actually believe it is synthesized THC and therefore as safe as the real thing? They smoke too much and die — rather than fall asleep or eat a bag of chips.

The bad name is also damaging the reputation of the real thing. Marijuana has made great strides in becoming legal in the U.S., effectively decreasing the number of criminals, lowering crime, and offering a safe, mellow, legal alternative to hard drugs and alcohol, the most abused drug in America and the cause of more domestic and street violence than any other drug.

The District of Columbia legalized marijuana for recreational use by anyone over the age of 21 in February, yet there is no legal way to acquire it in the city. That defeats its purpose, since the law, as it is, continues to create criminals out of everyday citizens and very likely inadvertently pushes more people to try the dangerous drugs that the media erroneously calls “synthetic marijuana.”

The media needs to stop referring to these killer chemical compounds as “synthetic marijuana,” and the District needs to continue thumbing its nose at the Feds and get legal pot on the street.

Chuck Baldwin • August 31, 2015

The former chief of staff to Mayor Vincent Gray started as Georgetown University’s first ever vice president for government relations and community engagement last Monday. Chris Murphy, a 1998 Georgetown Law graduate, brings more than 25 years of experience in the nonprofit, local and federal sectors.

“Georgetown is a very important member of, and contributor to, the Washington, D.C., community and plays a critical role in so many national conversations,” Murphy says. “I am eager to expand on those relationships so that Georgetown can play an even more influential and helpful role.”

In the newly created position, Murphy will coordinate the university’s engagement with local community groups, as well as the federal government, the District of Columbia and other area governments.

Before working for the mayor, Murphy served as editor of the Georgetown Law Journal, deputy chief of staff for the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, general counsel and executive director of human resources for Atlantic Media Company, and founded City Year Washington, D.C., an AmeriCorps program, for which he also served as executive director.

Chuck Baldwin • August 17, 2015

A new hospital has been officially proposed at Georgetown University, replacing a parking lot next to the main hospital. MedStar Health filed a letter of intent with regulators on July 30, which states the $400 million hospital is “intended to address current and future needs for additional care capacity and overcome the structural limitations … that impede additional medical surgical delivery upgrades.”

Approval of the plans requires numerous internal and external reviews and a public hearing before the District’s State Health Planning and Development Agency can act.

Construction is intended to begin by the end of 2016 and finish in 2020.

Chuck Baldwin • July 9, 2015

This is the first summer the biomass of fruit flies in our kitchen and bathrooms seemed to outweigh the human family in our house. After my ultra-clean sister-in-law said she just waits until winter and they all go away, I took to Web to find out how to collect and kill them, right now.

Using mostly vinegar-and-fruit-based recipes, along with some physical trickery, I’ve figured out the more effective ways to undo summer’s reputation as the season of the never-leaving guests.

Probably the easiest trap-and-kill method is to mix some apple-cider vinegar with three drops of dish soap in a wide-mouthed jar. The idea is that the soap breaks the surface tension in the vinegar. The beer bugs land on the irresistible vinegar, sink and drown. Yay!

Another Internet-favorite is to combine vinegar with very ripe fruit — the stuff that seemed to birth the fruit flies in the first place — in a jar and put an inverted cone of paper in the top of a taller jar. Sort of like a minnow trap, the irritating scourges of humanity fly down the cone, through a dime-sized hole in the end, to the delectable mixture at the bottom — and can’t find their way out. My problem with this method is that it doesn’t kill them. OK, I added some dish soap as well, so any hapless horrors that miss the fruit and land in the vinegar, sink and meet their maker. That made me feel better.

A variation on that method is to tightly rubber-band plastic wrap to the top of the jar, poke a small hole in it and hope for the same results. I tried this version initially as I couldn’t easily figure how to secure a wrapped cone of paper, either to itself or the jar. And I like the idea of tossing the wrapped jar in the trash with flies inside, dead or alive.
Simplest is often best. Besides, who wants to lose to something slightly larger than a flea, trying to outsmart it? The fruit and vinegar, with hole-punched plastic wrap, trapped and killed one fly. The paper cone (I finally used one of the leftover shaved-ice cones from a birthday party, and snipped the tip off) netted a dozen or so, some drowned and some still trying to figure a way out.

But the four horsemen of the fruit-fly apocalypse are three drops of dish soap and some apple-cider vinegar, about an inch in a short, wide jelly jar. In 45 minutes one jar reaped destruction on about three dozen souls. (This method is not for Buddhists — they should use the paper cone, without the soap, and release them into the wild.) I now have these stationed in critical flight zones in the kitchen, and one in each bathroom. Soon, I will be rid of the pests, and eventually the vinegar traps.

Why did I write this article instead of letting you Google it yourself? I’ve been living with these beasts for over two weeks now and didn’t look it up until today — after attacking them, mano a mano, with a fly-swatter, and even spraying dog-tick and flea spray in places that were not the dog, to little effect. I thought I’d save you the wait. Enjoy summer.