In the first half, constitutional lawyer specializing in food and drug law Jonathan Emord updated his work on various issues such as ECT, psych drugs, and the Right to Try Bill. He recently petitioned the FDA on behalf of Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) patients to demand that the agency not reclassify shock therapy from Class III to Class II. The treatment induces a grand mal seizure by putting 70 to 460 volts of electricity through the temples into the brain and is used for drug-resistant patients with such conditions as severe depression, psychosis, and bipolar disorder. "There is no scientific proof of the long-term safety and efficacy of this device," he stated, adding that many people who receive this treatment become entirely cut off from their emotions, and have trouble maintaining the coherency of their thoughts.
The long-term objective is to get rid of ECT altogether, he suggested, but at least by maintaining its Class III status, it keeps the procedure in a more restricted category. He argued that there's a link between psych drugs or antidepressants and mass shootings (many of the shooters are on such prescriptions). These pharmaceuticals, said Emord, should not be prescribed to kids and teenagers as the adverse effects are profound. Further, when people do take these meds they need to be closely monitored -- this typically isn't done, he cited. President Trump recently signed the Right to Try bill, which Emord was pleased about it. He noted that he was one of the original authors of the legislation that allows terminally ill patients to gain access to experimental drugs that are not FDA approved.
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Inspired by his own experiences with the unknown, John Olsen has spent 30 years interviewing and documenting stories of those who have witnessed the strange and unusual in Utah and the western United States. In the latter half, he shared accounts of everything from ghosts and hauntings to glitches in the matrix, strange creatures, and Sasquatch. He detailed growing up in a house built in the 1800s that turned out to be haunted. Initially, family members heard footsteps on the stairs, when no one was there. One afternoon when Olsen came home from school and plopped down in front of the TV, an apparition of a tall figure appeared in a hat and overalls and sat down across from him in the rocking chair. He closed his eyes in fear, and when he opened them the apparition was gone, but the chair continued to rock for a moment.
One of Olsen's collected stories concerned a hiker named Brad who went on a climbing trek to Utah's Mount Naomi, an elevation of about 9,000 feet. At the last moment, the person joining Brad on the hike canceled, so he ended up going alone. After a number of hours, he decided to rest for the night and put out his bedroll about 40 yards from the main trail and read one of his old books before falling asleep. In the middle of the night, he awoke with a start. All of sudden he was hit in the chest with a pebble, and heard a strange whistling, Olsen recounted. As he slipped on his boots and flipped on his headlamp, he saw a green-grayish humanoid with very sharp features and teeth sitting on a nearby rock. He noticed that the creature was holding the book he'd been reading earlier and this freaked him out. He got an adrenaline rush and rushed down the trail to escape. Olsen believes the humanoid's description matches that of a Pukwudgie, a sinister little wild man of the woods, according to Native American lore, that can appear and disappear.
News segment guests: John M. Curtis, Steve Kates