I WANNA BE, I WANNA BE, LIKE BARACK. FDA approves trial for drug that can keep you in the dark.

 A drug that stimulates the body’s tanning response — turning pasty skin caramel for up to two months — has been approved for human trials, but not for tanning.

Although the drug will not be available for cosmetic purposes any time soon, similar compounds are already being widely abused on the pharmaceutical black market. The official product, a man made hormone called afamalenodtide, has received U.S. government approval to begin clinical trials. “It’s a bioabsorbable implant that you just inject into the skin,” said Colin Mackie, director of business development for Clinuvel, the company bringing the drug to the U.S. “It stimulates melanin production.” Melanin is the body’s natural pigment. It’s responsible for the color of skin and protects humans from harmful solar radiation. The drug will be tested as a treatment for patients who face serious danger from the sun’s rays, like those with rare genetic diseases or who must take immunosuppressants, Mackie said. But online retailers already offer a similar (but not identical) compound under a more descriptive brand name, Melanotan II, which American and British health officials warn are already being abused. “Using it could be dangerous to short and long-term health,” British health officials said in November. It has not been tested for safety, quality or effectiveness and we don’t know the potential side effects yet.” This week two British Medical Journal researchers warned that injecting the compound could change the size and shape of moles, which under normal circumstances can be a precursor to skin cancer. Melanotan’s plight highlights the difficulty in bringing drugs with large recreational or cosmetic potential to market for decidedly more medical conditions. Before the drugs can make it through safety and efficacy trials, rogue users — almost like pre-release movie filesharers — begin to test the drug on themselves. These high-demand, off-label uses could make regulatory agencies reluctant to approve the pharmaceutical for legitimate uses. Both Melanotan I and II are synthetic cousins of a naturally occurring hormone that stimulates the production of melanin, the skin’s pigment. But Melanotan II, in particular, appears to have aphrodisiac and erectile function effects as well. First created and tested back in the late ’80s at the University of Arizona, the synthetic tanning hormone received media attention from around the world. Tom Brokaw, in a 1991 broadcast, said that medical researchers had announced “what could be the answer” to tanning without the skin damage associated with the process. Wired first featured melanotan back in 2002, dubbing it the “Barbie drug” for its purported ability to induce weight loss and increase libido. The label has stuck and is often used in the press But the drugs were a good idea in search of a disease. Fair-skinned people’s desire to be tan is not a disease, and the tanning behaviors it induces could cause skin damage and cancer. Now, though, Clinuvel has found five, admittedly obscure, medical conditions that the drug could treat. Over the last several years, the Clinuvel’s CEO, Philippe Wolgen, has battled to make his drug sound less and less sexy. “This will not be a cosmetic drug,” Wolgen told a biotech trade publication last year. “I oppose systemic treatment for cosmetics.” He changed the company’s name from the provocative Epitan to the boring Clinuvel. It might not make for great advertising copy, but the CEO’s moves appear to have paid off. “The FDA’s decision is a landmark event in Clinuvel’s growth,” Wolgen said in a release this week. “Today’s progress reflects some of the choices we had to make in our program early on in 2006 when changing the direction of the company.” But even as he tries to position his drug to be taken seriously, industry analysts following his company know that the drug could be a blockbusters on the cosmetics market. After all, once a drug is approved by the FDA for one purpose, it’s easier to extend it to new conditions, just like the glaucoma-treatment turned eyelash enhancer. “[Melanotan] has potential as a ‘Life Style’ drug for those millions of people who prefer just a darker tint,” a German analyst wrote back in 2004 [pdf]. “Market research has shown that the product has blockbuster potential in particular when used as a ‘Life Style’ drug, which draws a strong comparison to Botox or Viagra, two products with booming sales today.” Hopeful tanners took it upon themselves to deliver on that blockbuster potential as Melanotan languished in the pharmaceutical industry’s basement. Recent British media reports indicate widespread use of the compound. Purportedly, the drug is ordered online and comes in a white powder that is mixed with sterile water. That combination is injected into the abdomen. One woman told the Daily Mail that she intended to keep using the injections despite their unknown provenance and possible side-effects. “At first, injecting myself in my tummy seemed strange, but now I don’t even think about it — the needle is so fine I hardly feel it,” she said. “And I am so pleased with the results that despite the adverse publicity I’m going to continue with them.” An online forum dedicated to Melanotan has more than 25,000 posts, most of which are about “Usage and Experimentation.” Many describe detailed regimens for attaining darker skin and/or improved sexual function. Here in the United States, Melanotan II appears widely available online, although the FDA warned Tennessee’s Melanocorp, which bills its product as “100% US Made Melanotan II,” to stop shipping to Americans in 2007. The company continues to ship to European countries. The company provides a dozen or so purported before-and-after pictures, like the photo above. Though the results could be suspect, they look eerily similar to results obtained in trials at the University of Arizona or by Clinuvel (images at left). In early animal trials, injections of the drug caused a yellow dog’s fur to become black and visibly darkened a frog’s skin in minutes. Image: Top: Melanocorp.com. Bottom: Clinuvel.

Steve jobs DIDNT DO IT: Proof the world is fucked up- Mayor of Lancaster California

“I have no desire to work with them,” he said. “I have no desire to help them. The only thing I want to do is crush them and remove them from the community. … The days of accommodating a gang member are over.”

Lancaster city officials voted unanimously Tuesday to adopt an ordinance designed to discourage gangs by imposing penalties on the owners of dogs deemed “potentially dangerous” or “vicious.” 

The new law specifically targets two breeds of dog that officials say are favored by gang members: pit bulls and Rottweilers. When the law goes into effect in 30 days, it will require that all pit bulls, Rottweilers, and pit bull and Rottweiler mixes with “predominant physical characteristics” of those breeds be spayed or neutered. (Puppies under 4 months of age and dogs considered to be at high risk for surgical complications will be exempt from the spay/neuter requirement.)  Our colleague Ann Simmons at the L.A. Now blog reports:

Opponents of the ordinance turned out in force at the council’s meeting Tuesday night and argued that the new law could lead to racial profiling by law enforcement officials, who they said might unfairly accuse black or Latino males seen with a pit bull as a gang-bangers.

HERE’S A THOUGHT , HOW ABOUT FIRST TAKING THE DOGS AWAY. CUTTING OFF THEIR NUTS DOSENT MAKE THEM BITE SOFTER, OR CAUSE THE “GANGSTAS” TO BITE SOFTER EITHER!!

But Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris, who pushed for the new regulations, said he was confident that law enforcements officials could properly identify gang members.
Some critics suggested that Parris invite gang members to sit down and discuss the issue. But the mayor dismissed this idea.

So here is a mayor in a GANG  infested outskirt of Los Angeles – saying and thinking he wont or does not have to work with gangs. NOTE to Mayor: THERE Countries across the GLOBE must deal /work with gangs, or they stay GANGS, and become bigger and stronger GANGS, and then you end up as MOSCOW.  

HEY MR MAYOR-  it,s Lancaster-  I’ve been there,  it’s not the pit bulls and rotties that need to be neutered.  It the leaders.

DAMN I SHOULD GET INTO POLITICS

SWEEP THE DRUNK WITH POWER AND FORMED BY STUPIDITY LEADERS OF THE WORLD

 

Steve jobs DIDNT DO IT: Proof the world is fucked up: 3-year-old Hitler can’t get name on cake

The father of 3-year-old Adolf Hitler Campbell, whose request for a birthday cake with the child’s full name on it was rejected by a New Jersey supermarket, is asking for a little tolerance.

Heath Campbell and his wife, Deborah, are upset not only with the decision made by the nearby ShopRite, but also with an outpouring of angry Internet postings in response to a local newspaper article about the cake.

Heath Campbell, who is 35, said in an interview Tuesday that people should look forward, not back, and accept change. ”They need to accept a name. A name’s a name. The kid isn’t going to grow up and do what (Hitler) did,” he said.

After ShopRite refused the request for the cake as inappropriate, the Campbells got a cake decorated at a Wal-Mart in Pennsylvania, Deborah Campbell said.

About 12 people attended the birthday party on Sunday, according to Heath Campbell.

The Campbells’ other two children also have unusual names: JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell turns 2 in a few months and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell will be 1 in April.Heath Campbell said he named his son after Adolf Hitler because he liked the name and because “no one else in the world would have that name.”

Campbell said his ancestors are German and that he has lived all his life in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, which is across the Delaware River from Easton.

For this one I have to go against sweep da leg policy and be biased: BY Saying Thank God, they ain’t BLACK

 

Steve jobs DIDNT DO IT: Proof the world is fucked up-”Gun club, police chief indicted in boy’s Uzi death”

Three men, including a small-town police chief, were indicted Thursday on involuntary manslaughter counts in the gun-fair death of an 8-year-old who accidentally shot himself in the head with an Uzi that a prosecutor said he never should have been allowed to handle.

The club where the fair was held also was charged. The fair had promised shooters would have certified instructors in an advertisement, but District Attorney William Bennett said the child, Christopher Bizilj, was supervised by an uncertified 15-year-old boy.

Christopher, of Ashford, Conn., lost control of the 9mm microsubmachine gun as it recoiled while he was firing at a pumpkin Oct. 26 at the Machine Gun Shoot and Firearms Expo at the Westfield Sportsman’s Club in western Massachusetts.

Pelham Police Chief Edward Fleury was charged because he owns the sponsor of the gun fair, COP Firearms & Training. Two men who brought the automatic weapon to the show, Carl Guiffre of Hartford, Conn., and Domenico Spano, of New Milford, Conn., also were indicted.

God is on vacation…

“I’m my own worst enemy,” Burress said. “The things that have happened to me, I have no one to blame but myself. That’s what makes Plaxico Burress Plaxico Burress.”

 

Here is the rule: As soon as you start to refer to yourself in the 3rd person- you have gotten bit by the GOD COMPLEX. You are headed for a fall.

Attention Walmart Shoppers- YOU KILLED A MAN!

We at SWEEP DA LEG send our prayers and condolence’s to the family of Jdimytai Damour:  A Wal-Mart worker who was killed Friday when “out-of-control” shoppers desperate for bargains broke down the doors at a 5 a.m. sale. Other workers were trampled as they tried to rescue the man, and customers shouted angrily and kept shopping when store officials said they were closing because of the death, police and witnesses said.

Nothing else for us to say To: YOU BUNCH OF ASSHOLES, WHO SNUFFED THE LIFE OUT OF A MAN, HIS DREAMS, ALL HE WAS, AND ALL HE EVER WILL BE-  EXCEPT  HAPPY THANKSGIVING- ENJOY YOUR CHEAP ASS PRODUCTS!