Tuesday, June 07, 2022

Cannabis-related products demonstrate short-term reduction in chronic pain

OHSU researchers find thin evidence in federally funded systematic review of scientific literature

OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY

Evidence behind the effectiveness of cannabis-related products to treat chronic pain is surprisingly thin, according to a new systematic evidence review by researchers at Oregon Health & Science University.

The federally funded review, which will be updated on an ongoing basis, was published today in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Researchers did find evidence to support a short-term benefit in treating neuropathic pain – caused by damage to peripheral nerves, such as diabetic neuropathy resulting in pain described as burning and tingling, involving two FDA-approved synthetic products with 100% tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC: dronabinol (under the trade name Marinol) and nabilone (Cesamet). Both products also lead to notable side effects including sedation and dizziness, according to the review.

Another product, a sublingual spray of equal parts THC and cannabidiol, or CBD, extracted from the cannabis plant, known as nabiximols, also showed evidence of some clinical benefit for neuropathic pain, although that product is not available in the U.S. This product also led to side effects, such as nausea, sedation and dizziness.

“In general, the limited amount of evidence surprised all of us,” said lead author Marian S. McDonagh, Pharm.D., emeritus professor of medical informatics and clinical epidemiology in the OHSU School of Medicine. “With so much buzz around cannabis-related products, and the easy availability of recreational and medical marijuana in many states, consumers and patients might assume there would be more evidence about the benefits and side effects.

“Unfortunately, there is very little scientifically valid research into most these products,” she said. “We saw only a small group of observational cohort studies on cannabis products that would be easily available in states that allow it, and these were not designed to answer the important questions on treating chronic pain.”

Voters in Oregon, Washington and 20 other states have legalized medical and recreational marijuana, however the researchers found many of the products now available at U.S. dispensaries have not been well studied.

“For some cannabis products, such as whole-plant products, the data are sparse with imprecise estimates of effect and studies had methodological limitations,” the authors write.

This situation makes it difficult to guide patients.

“Cannabis products vary quite a bit in terms of their chemical composition, and this could have important effects in terms of benefits and harm to patients,” said co-author Roger Chou, M.D., director of OHSU’s Pacific Northwest Evidence-based Practice Center. “That makes it tough for patients and clinicians since the evidence for one cannabis-based product may not be the same for another.”

The living review, including a visual abstract summary of the findings, will also be shared on a new web-based tool launched by OHSU and VA Portland Health Care System early this year to help clinicians and researchers evaluate the latest evidence around the health effects of cannabis. Known as Systematically Testing the Evidence on Marijuana, or STEM, the project includes “clinician briefs” to help health care workers translate the clinical implications.

“This new living evidence review is exactly the type of resource clinicians need to clarify for patients the areas of potential promise, the cannabis formulations that have been studied and, importantly, the major gaps in knowledge,” said co-author Devan Kansagara, M.D., M.C.R., professor of medicine in the OHSU School of Medicine and a staff physician at the VA Portland.

Reviewers searched more than 3,000 studies in the scientific literature as of January of this year and landed on a total of 25 with scientifically valid evidence – 18 randomized controlled studies and seven observational studies of at least four weeks.

The effects of cannabis and related products are based on their ability to mimic the body’s own endocannabinoid system. The system is comprised of receptors and enzymes in the nervous system that regulate bodily functions and can affect the sensation of pain. In the evidence review, researchers sorted the types of product into high, comparable and low ratios of THC to CBD and compared their reported benefits and side effects.

Dronabinol and nabilone fit into the high THC to CBD ratio category, with 100% THC (no CBD), showing the most benefit among the products studied, with meta-analysis of the six randomized controlled studies demonstrating statistically valid benefits for easing neuropathic pain compared to a placebo.

“Honestly, the best advice is to talk to your primary care physician about possible treatments for chronic pain,” McDonagh said. “If you want to consider cannabis, you need to talk to your doctor.”

In addition to McDonagh, Chou and Kansagara, co-authors included Benjamin J. Morasco, Ph.D., Jesse Wagner, M.A., Azrah Y. Ahmed, B.A., and Rongwei Fu, Ph.D.

The project was funded by Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, contract number 75Q80120D00006. Statements in the report should not be construed as endorsement by the AHRQ or the Department of Health and Human Services.

JOURNAL

Annals of Internal Medicine

DOI

10.7326/M21-4520

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Literature review

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Cannabis-Based Products for Chronic Pain. A Systematic Review

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

6-Jun-2022

Some cannabis products associated with short-term chronic pain improvements, but side effects a concern

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS

1. Some cannabis products associated with short-term chronic pain improvements, but side effects a concern

Abstract: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M21-4520

Editorial: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M22-1512

URLs go live when the embargo lifts

A review of 25 trials and studies assessing cannabinoids has found that oral synthetic cannabis products with high THC-to-CBD ratios and extracted cannabis products with comparable tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)-to-cannabidiol (CBD) ratios were associated with moderate, short-term chronic pain improvements. However, these products were associated with higher risks for adverse events and few benefits in overall functioning. The findings are published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Approximately 100 million Americans are living with chronic pain. While opioids are frequently prescribed to manage chronic pain, they demonstrate little affect on pain overall and are associated with significant adverse effects. Cannabinoid products are a potential alternative and can come from multiple sources, including synthetic, extract, or whole plant. The term “cannabinoid” references compounds that are active in cannabis, such as THC and CBD. These compounds have previously demonstrated pain-relief properties that vary depending on the ratio of THC to CBD.

Researchers from Oregon Health & Science University reviewed 18 randomized, placebo-controlled trials, comprising 1,740 participants, and 7 cohort studies, comprising 13,095 participants, to evaluate the benefits and harms of cannabinoids for chronic pain. They found that synthetic products with high THC-to-CBD ratios were associated with moderate improvement in pain severity and response but were also associated with an increased risk for sedation and dizziness. The authors also found that small improvements in overall function were demonstrated for products with comparable THC-to-CBD ratios, but no improvements were demonstrated for products with high THC-to-CBD ratios. However, they determined that evidence for whole-plant products, CBD, and other cannabinoids was limited by serious imprecision and lack of ability to assess consistency and study methodological limitations. The authors also note that reviewed studies did not evaluate harm outcomes including psychosis, cannabis use disorder, and cognitive deficits, and studies did not include patients who were at higher risk for harms.

An accompanying editorial by authors from the University of Michigan Medical School advises clinicians to be willing to provide compassionate guidance to patients who use cannabis products by using a strategy of pragmatism and knowledge of patient experience, known cannabinoid effects, and harm reduction. The authors highlight that this review can offer information to clinicians on routes of administration, the effects of CBD versus THC, dosing, and potential adverse effects.

Media contacts: For an embargoed PDF or to speak with editorialist Christine Laine, MD, MPH, please contact Angela Collom at acollm@acponline.org. To speak with the lead author Marian S. McDonagh, PharmD, please email Erik Robinson at robineri@ohsu.edu.

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2. New co-prescription of opioids and benzodiazepines decreased by nearly 60% between 2016 and 2019

Abstract: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M21-4656

URL goes live when the embargo lifts

A study of national opioid and benzodiazepine prescription trends found that number of patients with concurrent opioids and benzodiazepines declined significantly since 2016, particularly among young adults. The research report is published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Opioids and benzodiazepines can lead to synergistic respiratory depression when taken together, which increases overdose risk. The percentage of all opioid overdose deaths involving benzodiazepines increased from 8.7% in 1999 to 21% in 2017, and benzodiazepines were involved in 1 out of every 3 prescription opioid overdose deaths in 2017.

Authors from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Boston Medical Center studied data from a national database containing prescription records from a sample of approximately 49,900 retail pharmacies that dispense nearly 92% of retail pharmacy prescriptions in the United States to examine trends in patients receiving concurrent opioid and benzodiazepine prescriptions from 2016 to 2019 at national and state levels. They found that the number of patients newly initiated with concurrent prescriptions declined 59 percent from 2016 to 2019 and only accounted for 28.5 percent of total patients with concurrent prescriptions in 2019, indicating that far fewer patients started treatment with opioids and benzodiazepines together. According to the authors, their findings highlight the need for continued public health and clinical actions, including greater adherence to evidence-based prescribing guidelines, more patient education, and alternative pain-management options. They add that these data highlight the need for evidence-based protocols to safely de-prescribe opioids and/or benzodiazepines for patients already exposed.

Media contacts: For an embargoed PDF or to speak with someone from ACP, please contact Angela Collom at acollom@acponline.org. To speak with the corresponding author, Kun Zhang, PhD, please contact Helen Kingery at wzq8@cdc.gov.

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JOURNAL

Annals of Internal Medicine

DOI

10.7326/M21-4520

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Systematic review

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Cannabis-Based Products for Chronic Pain

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

7-Jun-2022

The deadly cost of pandemic politics

People in Republican counties were more likely to die from COVID-19, new UMD-led analysis shows

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND

COVID-19 Deaths by Voter Share — IMAGE: CUMULATIVE COVID-19 DEATHS PER 100,000 PEOPLE, BY COUNTY PROPORTION OF REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL POPULAR VOTE IN THE 2020 ELECTION, JANUARY 1, 2020–OCTOBER 31, 2021 view more
CREDIT: NEIL JAY SEHGAL ET AL EXHIBIT 2 FROM HEALTH AFFAIRS JUNE 2022 PAPER THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN COVID-19 MORTALITY AND THE COUNTY-LEVEL PARTISAN DIVIDE IN THE UNITED STATES

The partisan divide in the United States throughout the COVID-19 pandemic stretched beyond differences in attitudes about masking, social distancing and vaccines. According to a new study led by a University of Maryland researcher, it also is tied to a clear difference in mortality rates from the virus.

In the study, published today in Health Affairs, Neil Jay Sehgal, assistant professor of health policy and management in UMD’s School of Public Health, and co-authors from UMD and the University of California, Irvine Program in Public Health compared the number of COVID-19 deaths through October 2021 with counties’ voting behavior in the 2020 presidential election. Their analysis controlled for other characteristics likely to influence COVID-19 transmission and mortality such as age, race/ethnicity, chronic disease and access to health care.

They found that Republican counties (where 70% or more voted Republican) experienced nearly 73 more COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 people compared to Democratic counties (where less than 30% voted Republican).

“People living in states and counties with more conservative voters are dying at higher rates from a largely preventable disease,” Sehgal said. “COVID-19 vaccine uptake only explained 10% of the difference in mortality between red and blue counties. The vaccine-only approach to public health isn’t doing enough to combat the continued toll we are paying.”

The disparity in mortality rates between Republican and Democratic counties was due largely to structural, policy and behavioral differences in the more conservative counties.

“Voting behaviors at the county level are likely to represent the compliance or lack of compliance with mask mandates, vaccine uptake and use of other protective policies to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic,” said senior author Dylan Roby, associate professor of health, society and behavior in the UC Irvine Program in Public Health.

Since the United States surpassed 1 million deaths from COVID-19 earlier this spring and infection rates are up in many states, these policies could help prevent infections and reduce the chance of serious outcomes among those who do get infected, including death or the lingering symptoms known as long COVID, which may affect as many as 30% of people who have been infected.

“The impact of partisanship doesn’t only impact people of one political stripe,” Sehgal said. “Not everyone who lives in a Republican county votes Republican. In very few of these counties was there 70% or greater vote share. Even in the reddest counties, you have people who aren’t able to vote or aren’t able to leave, and yet are subject to the policies and behaviors that surround them. If they are older, immunocompromised or an essential worker, that puts them at greater risk of death or disability.”

JOURNAL

Health Affairs

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

The Association Between COVID-19 Mortality And The County-Level Partisan Divide In The United States

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

6-Jun-2022

COVID-19 conspiracy theories associated with depression

Reports and Proceedings

EUROPEAN PSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATION

The Global COVID-19 pandemic has been marked by a significant minority of people expressing conspiratorial beliefs. Now a new study has shown that these beliefs may be harmful, especially to those who are prone to anxiety and depression. This work is presented at the European Congress of Psychiatry, with simultaneous peer-reviewed publication*.

Surveys have shown that huge numbers of people are open to conspiratorial beliefs about COVID-19. Survey in the US found that around a quarter of Americans believe that the outbreak was “intentionally planned by powerful people”. In major European counties (Germany, France, Italy and the UK), between 30% and 40% of people believe that government is taking the chance to control citizens, or working with the pharmaceutical industry to conceal vaccine effects**.

“These polls show that tens of millions of people are open to belief in some level of conspiracy as a result of the COVID epidemic” said lead researcher Dr Paweł Dębski (Medical University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland). “Our work now shows for the first time that these people are more at risk of more serious anxiety or depression symptoms than the rest of the population. And as the WHO has indicated, false beliefs may also put the rest of the population at risk”.

The research group, from several Polish Universities, recruited nearly 700 volunteers (585 female, 110 male, 5 other, average age 24.8) and asked them about their beliefs. They developed and validated a new way of measuring belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories, the COVID-19 Conspiratorial Beliefs Scale. The researchers used this in conjunction with other questionnaires such as the Generic Conspiracist Beliefs Scale (which measures how much one believes in general conspiracy theories, such as major international decisions being taken a secret group, or covering up evidence of aliens), and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (which measured the level of anxiety and depression). Combining the analysis enabled them to see how belief in COVID conspiracies is higher in those who believe in other conspiracies, and also to correlate belief in COVID conspiracies with levels of anxiety and depression***.

Dr Debski continued, “We see that the severity of anxiety can be increased in those who express a belief in conspiracy theories. However there is a very significant increase in the severity of depression symptoms. At this stage, we are unable to say whether a belief in conspiracy theories cause more anxiety and depression, or whether people who are more anxious and depressed are more attracted to these theories”.

The COVID-19 Conspiratorial Beliefs Scale suggests a series of 10 scenarios and asks the volunteers to rate their belief from 1-5. The most widely believed COVID-19 conspiracy theories (in order of belief) were:

SARS-CoV-2 tests are unreliable, they may be positive in the case of infection with another virus (with 3.114 out of a possible 5 points maximum)
Governments deliberately spread false information about COVID-19 in order to conceal the actual state of the pandemic (3.034 out of 5)
Vitamins and minerals supplementation can cure SARS-CoV-2 infection (2.616 out of 5)

Pawel Dębski said, “This is a fast moving field. COVID has only struck us in the last couple of years, and developing the tools to evaluate the mental health effects takes time. Our recruitment was via the internet, and we need to develop better recruitment methods. Our next steps are to see whether beliefs are related to specific psychological traits, and whether any pro-health messages can help”.

Commenting, Professor Umberto Volpe (Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy), Chair of the European Psychiatric Association section on Digital Psychiatry said:

“Conspiracy theories and misinformation during infectious outbreaks are nothing new, as they have always proliferated in the history of human epidemics. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the exponential growth of digitalization and social media has made new ‘virtual spaces’ available. Social media have been important in compensating for the lack of personal contact, but the wider use of digital media may also have helped spread misinformation more rapidly, and to amplify harmful messages. This ‘Infodemic’ may be generally stressful, as well as causing people to doubt public health messages, but, as this study highlights, it may pose also an additional mental health risk for those who are more prone to false beliefs”.

This is an independent comment; Professor Volpe was not involved in this work.

Notes

*This work is published in the peer-reviewed journal, Frontiers in Psychiatry, to coincide with the presentation at the European Congress of Psychiatry. This paper will be available at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.870128/abstract. For advance access, please contact the press officer, details below.

** For US data see https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/07/24/a-look-at-the-americans-who-believe-there-is-some-truth-to-the-conspiracy-theory-that-covid-19-was-planned/ . For European data see https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/22/covid-pandemic-leaves-europeans-more-likely-to-believe-conspiracy-theories-study

***probability levels predicting the severity of symptoms of anxiety (p=0.021) and depression (p<0.001) by the intensity of the tendency to conspiratorial beliefs.

ENDS

For a smooth-running economy, rule of law matters

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN

AUSTIN, Texas — Countries in which courts more easily enforce contracts see less economic volatility overall than nations that don’t adhere as well to the rule of law. That’s the finding from a study by a finance researcher at The University of Texas at Austin.

The research suggests that when contract enforcement is poor, employee morale suffers, ultimately sparking churn, which leads to more economic volatility and greater differences in productivity across companies. Countries that adhere less to the rule of law as measured by the World Bank have greater volatility in their growth rates and in the economy overall.

“In countries where the rule of law is worse, if I’m an employer, I have more incentive to default on my promises to you when a bad shock hits,” said study co-author William Fuchs, a professor of finance in the McCombs School of Business. “Without an avenue for concerned employees to seek help, you work less, become less productive, and that amplifies the shock to the economy.”

The findings appear in the Journal of Monetary Economics.

Fuchs, with Martin Dumav of the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and Jangwoo Lee of Chinese University of Hong Kong, used game theory—the study of how people make strategic decisions—to create a model in which two entities, such as a boss and an employee, interact over time.

The model includes two building blocks. The first is the concept that businesses are hit by shocks that make them more or less profitable. The second is that contracts are not perfectly enforceable, depending on the legal environment. This lack of contract enforcement can tempt a person to renege on a promise, and when it’s the boss, there’s a cost. The business relationship is damaged.

The team compared two theoretical economic environments, one with strong rule of law, or contract enforcement, and the other marked by poor enforcement. Then they studied the effects of economy-wide and company-specific shocks.

The researchers found that a 1-point decrease (in a scale of 1-5) in the rule of law measure is associated with a reduction in aggregate volatility by 1.2 percentage points. In countries with weaker legal systems, workers in less productive businesses are quicker to stop putting in effort during rocky economic times.

India and China, for example, which rely more on relational contracts based mostly on trust between parties, could potentially decrease the ratio of productivities of the most productive to least productive companies by about 60% if they could strengthen their legal systems to the level of that in the U.S.

The findings have implications for relationships among employers and employees, businesses, and governments across the globe. Building trust is especially important for businesses in countries where the rule of law is weak and relational contracts are the norm. Organizations can work on building trust well before a major shock hits, and empowering employees to challenge broken promises can also help companies gain credibility.

“The economic cycle could be smoother if you had better rule of law,” Fuchs said. “Whatever businesses can do to build trust and make a commitment to enforce promises, that’s a very valuable thing.”

For more details about this research, read the McCombs Big Ideas feature story.

JOURNAL

Journal of Monetary Economics

DOI

10.1016/j.jmoneco.2022.03.010

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Self-enforcing contracts with persistence

The secret race to buy the ocean floor

Private companies are pushing for licenses to commercially mine the ocean floor. And the organization created to protect the deep sea is helping them accomplish this.

Step aside football: women's cricket booms in Brazil

Jun 07 2022

Brazil's Pocos de Caldas is the capital of a quirky quest to turn the land of Pele and Neymar into a passionate cricketing nation

Poços de Caldas (Brazil) (AFP) - On a concrete playground in a poor hillside neighborhood in Brazil, ecstatic children are chasing a ball at top speed.

But in an unusual scene for the football-mad country, they are indifferent to the goalposts nearby, instead swinging cricket bats and fielding drives.

Welcome to Pocos de Caldas, a city of 170,000 people that is the capital of a lovably quirky quest to turn the land of Pele and Neymar into a passionate cricketing nation.

Defying stereotypes, Brazil is emerging as a force to be reckoned with in cricket, especially the women’s national team, who were given professional contracts in 2020 – making the country the first in the world to take its women’s team pro before the men’s.

Brazil is the first country to take its women's team pro before the men's

Most players have learned the game from 63 community youth programs run by the organization Cricket Brasil, whose president is ex-professional cricketer Matt Featherstone, an Englishman who married a Brazilian and moved here two decades ago.

“My wife thinks I’m mad” for trying to get Brazilians playing cricket, jokes Featherstone, 51, a strapping sportsman with infectious enthusiasm.

But his charisma and community spirit have turned Pocos de Caldas, a tiny spa hub nestled in the green mountains of southeastern coffee country, into what Mayor Sergio Azevedo boasts is “the only city in Brazil where more kids play cricket than football.”

- Cricket, samba style -

When Featherstone moved to Brazil in 2000, he tried spreading his love of cricket at private schools, but soon realized he was competing against rugby, hockey, sailing and “everything else you can imagine,” he says.

Cricket Brasil's president is ex-professional player Matt Featherstone

But in poor neighborhoods, where the options were “football or football,” he discovered families were elated to have a new sports program.

Unlike in England, where cricket is sometimes seen as a game for rich men, “here we have a blank piece of paper to invent cricketing culture as we wish,” he says.

Roberta Moretti Avery, the women’s team captain, recalls her first reaction seeing cricket on TV.

“It wasn’t the best impression,” laughs the 36-year-old.

“I didn’t understand it, I just saw all these people dressed in white. And it seemed to last forever.”

But she noticed the sport was similar to a Brazilian street game she liked, known as “bats” or “taco.”

The story goes that Brazilian slaves invented the game, played with broomsticks for bats and bottles for wickets, after seeing cricket played by Brits brought over to build Brazil’s railroads in the 19th century.

Thanks to community projects, Pocos de Caldas has more than 5,000 cricket players

The enthusiasm and openness at Cricket Brasil ended up winning her over, says Moretti Avery, a petite dynamo with a wide grin and a mean swing honed by playing golf.

Brazil has put its own stamp on cricket. The women’s team play Brazilian funk at practice, samba before matches, and prefer loud parties at the grounds to tea and cucumber sandwiches.

“The way cricket was developed here was really cool. We’ve made it fun,” says Moretti Avery.

- Expanding horizons -

Thanks to the community projects, launched in 2009, Pocos de Caldas has more than 5,000 cricket players.

The mayor of Pocos de Caldas boasts it is "the only city in Brazil where more kids play cricket than football."

Cricket Brasil wants to reach 30,000 and expand to other cities.

Some are winning international recognition.

In October, Laura Cardoso, a 16-year-old all-rounder, made world headlines with what one sportswriter called a “miraculous” performance, bowling a hat-trick as Brazil took five wickets in six balls in the final over to win a dramatic one-run victory over Canada in the T20 World Cup qualifiers.

It was a feat never accomplished in a women’s T20 international.

Just back from a stint playing professionally in Dubai, Cardoso, a natural athlete with a powerfully compact physique, could well become one of the world’s top players, Featherstone says.

The young phenom, now 17, takes it all in stride.

“Oh my gosh, what did I do to get here?” she says with a laugh near the national team’s training center, donated by the city government.

Brazil’s women currently stand 28th in the T20 international rankings, and are aiming a lot higher.

They have won four of the past five South American championships.

And with success comes cash from the International Cricket Council and sponsors.

Cricket Brasil’s annual budget has grown from around $5,000 a decade ago to $350,000, enabling the organization to launch a trainee coach program and send promising talents to university.

Women's national team player Lindsay Mariano prepares to leave home for practice

Cricket has been life-changing for players like 20-year-old Lindsay Mariano.

“Before I played, I didn’t even have a passport,” she says, on a break from training for the national team’s upcoming African tour.

“Now, I’ve traveled around the world thanks to cricket.”

Royal workshop: Brazil gets first cricket bat factory

Jun 07 2022

Luiz Roberto Francisco makes hundreds of wooden bats for Cricket Brasil in Pocos de Caldas, Brazil

Poços de Caldas (Brazil) (AFP) - In a workshop with a stunning view of the mountains of southeastern Brazil, self-taught carpenter Luiz Roberto Francisco is chipping at a piece of pine and turning it into a rare artifact for this football-mad country: a cricket bat.

Francisco, 63, is the proud owner of Brazil’s first cricket bat factory, based in the small city of Pocos de Caldas in Minas Gerais state, population 170,000.

Not coincidentally, the leafy spa city is also the headquarters of Cricket Brasil, an organization headed by Matt Featherstone, an English ex-cricketer who has set the ambitious goal of getting 30,000 Brazilians playing the sport he loves in the next three years.

Since Featherstone, 51, retired from professional cricket and moved here with his Brazilian wife in 2000, he and Cricket Brasil’s 19 staff have managed to grow the sport exponentially.

When Francisco discovered there was no machine in Brazil to apply the 2,000 pounds of pressure needed to bring the bats to the right density, he invented one himself

There are now more than 5,000 cricketers in Brazil, thanks mainly to the organization’s 63 community youth programs, and the women’s national team have won four of the past five South American championships.

But that all ground to a halt when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, leaving those spreading the gospel of cricket without one key import: bats.

Enter Francisco, a retired electrician at the local Alcoa aluminum plant who is known around Pocos de Caldas as a deft handyman and ingenious problem solver.

Featherstone sought him out.

“He told me he needed someone to make cricket bats, and asked me: ‘Are you up to the challenge?’” Francisco says.

“I told him, ‘I accept!’”

- Gumption and YouTube -

Francisco had never held a cricket bat in his life.

But he used a combination of YouTube videos, trial and error, and sheer gumption to turn the woodworking shop on the porch of his house into Royal Bats, his new company.

From a YouTube video on crafting cricket bats, he learned he would need to apply two tonnes of pressure to the wood to bring it to the right density.

Francisco, the proud owner of Brazil's first cricket bat factory, named his company Royal Bats

“There was no machine in Brazil to do that,” says the bespectacled woodworking whiz, giving a tour of his tidy shop.

“So I tried some different things, and ended up inventing one myself.”

He wasn’t sure what kind of local wood would work best, so he started picking up scraps and branches anytime he came across them.

After months of trial and error, he and Cricket Brasil settled on pine.

Francisco can now churn out a bat in about five hours.

They cost about 100 reais (about $20) apiece – roughly 70 times less than a premium bat imported from overseas.

As cricketing culture continues to spread, Francisco is expanding his product line.

He now makes wickets and foldable cricket chairs, as well.

US Inflation News: The Number That Crushes Family Budgets Of Low-Income Americans The Most

By Panos Mourdoukoutas Ph.D.
06/05/22

No matter how it is measured, inflation is at historically high levels. But the number that matters the most for low-income family budgets is grocery inflation, which runs at 13.2%.

After receding for several years, inflation, the precipitous rising of the price of goods and services, is back, and it's hurting the lives of U.S. consumers and businesses in several ways.

First, it's devastating family budgets of middle and low-income Americans and undermining the value of money set aside in conservative savings accounts that do not grow in value in line with rising prices.

Second, it pushes interest rates and the dollar higher, undermining America's export growth and the profitability of the nation's large businesses that draw a big chunk of their earnings from overseas markets.

Third, it threatens to push the nation's economy into another recession or another stagflation.

Fourth, it spoils the nation's mood, as evidenced in survey after survey. For instance, 18% of recent Gallup survey respondents named the old villain the top problem the U.S. faces, the highest since the mid-1980s.

But how high is inflation?

How does it affect the economy, especially the middle and low-income Americans who live under tight family budgets?

It depends on how it's measured.

First, there's the Consumer Price Index (CPI), a measure of inflation at the retail level, a proxy for the rise of the cost of living for consumers. It ran at an annual rate of 8.3% in April, near a 41-year high.

Then there's the Producer Price Index (PPI), a measure of inflation at the wholesale level, a proxy for the broad impact of inflation across the economy, including the competitiveness of the nation's businesses in global markets. It ran at 8.8% in April, also close to a 41-year high.

And there's Personal Consumption Inflation (PCE), another measure of the cost of living. It ran at an annual rate of 6.3% in April, very close to the 6.6% March record.

Grocery inflation (GI), compiled by Numerator's Inflation Insights Hub, provides weekly tracking of prices and consumer sentiment to find out how inflation impacts all shoppers. It was running at an annual rate of 13.2% in May -- well above the other three inflation numbers, with health and beauty prices running at an annual rate of 10.1% and household inflation rising at 15.8%.

That's terrible news for middle and low-income Americans who spend a more significant part of their family budgets on groceries proportionally.

"With inflation on the rise, consumers continue to pay more for their everyday goods. This is especially true for grocery products. And with grocery prices rising fastest in channels like Online, Dollar, and Mass, middle-income shoppers are disproportionately more impacted, as they typically spend more of their grocery dollars in these channels than the average consumer," Shawn Paustian, of Numerator Analytics at Numerator, told International Business Times.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

South Africa confirms arrest of Gupta brothers in UAE

South Africa on Monday said the United Arab Emirates had arrested Rajesh Gupta and Atul Gupta, brothers who face charges of political corruption under former South African president Jacob Zuma.

© Rodger Bosch, AFP

The two countries ratified an extradition treaty in April 2021, but it was not immediately clear whether the arrests would lead to the brothers' return to South Africa.

"Discussions between various law enforcement agencies in the UAE and South Africa on the way forward are ongoing," South Africa's ministry of justice and correctional services said in a brief statement, adding that it will continue to cooperate with the UAE.

The brothers are accused of using connections with Zuma, who was in office from 2009 to 2018, to win contracts, misappropriate state assets, influence cabinet appointments and siphon state funds. Zuma and the Guptas deny any wrongdoing.

The Indian-born brothers left South Africa after Zuma resigned in 2018. An inquiry was established in 2018 to examine allegations of graft during Zuma's years in power.

The UAE’s ratification of the extradition treaty with South Africa was a move that South African President Cyril Ramaphosa's government hoped would lead to the return of the Guptas to face charges.

South Africa's largest opposition party welcomed the arrests.

"We hope that this is indeed the beginning of arrests and prosecution of those who have – locally and abroad – looted our country for years and are directly responsible for the hardships that millions of South Africans face today," the Democratic Alliance said in a statement.

'Racketeering'

The Guptas came to South Africa in 1993 to build a sprawling business empire in mining, computer technology and media.

They had been granted South African citizenship but fled the country shortly after a judicial commission probing corruption started in 2018.

After four years of investigations, Chief Justice Raymond Zondo compiled a report, revealing how the wealthy brothers became enmeshed in the highest levels of government and the ruling African National Congress (ANC).

In a series of reports published this year, the investigators said procurement contracts at the proprietor of all rail, ports and pipelines amounted to "planned offences of racketeering activity conducted by a racketeering enterprise" linked to the Guptas.

The investigators also concluded that Zuma "would do anything that the Guptas wanted him to do for them".

The corruption scandals engulfing Zuma led to his downfall. He was jailed last year for 15 months for refusing to testify before the investigators. He was released on parole, having served just two months of the term.

In July last year, Interpol said the Gupta brothers were being sought for fraud and money laundering in connection with a 25-million rand (€1.5 million) contract paid to a Gupta-linked company, Nulane Investment, to conduct an agricultural feasibility study.

Paul Holden, an investigator who runs an NGO alongside a former ANC MP, estimated that the cost of the Guptas' alleged illicit activities in South Africa could be as much as 50 billion rand (€3 billion).

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and REUTERS)

SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/06/criminal-capitalim-south-africa-wealthy.html

FEMICIDE IS NOT HONORABLE

Death of three sisters spotlights India dowry violence

Aishwarya KUMAR
Mon, June 6, 2022

Before the three sisters and their children were found dead in a well, they left a message blaming the family they had married into.

Kalu, Kamlesh and Mamta Meena were victims of a dispute over dowries, the often hefty sums Indian parents pay to marry off their daughters.

The sisters had wed brothers from the same household and lived under the same roof, but suffered constant violence from their husbands and in-laws, according to the trio's grieving relatives.

They were abused constantly, they say, including when their father failed to meet demands for more money.

All three were found dead last month near their marital home, a village on the outskirts of Jaipur, along with Kalu's four-year-old son and infant child. Both Kamlesh and Mamta were pregnant.

"We don't wish to die but death is better than their abuse," read a message on WhatsApp left by one of the sisters after their disappearance, a cousin said.

"Our in-laws are the reason behind our deaths. We are dying together because it's better than dying every day."

Authorities are investigating and currently treating the deaths as suicides, a senior police officer in Jaipur told AFP.

The sisters' distraught father, Sardar Meena, said life had been a living hell for his daughters, whose husbands banned them from pursuing their education and constantly harassed them for more payments.

"We had already given them so many things, you can see them in their home," he told AFP, counting off the beds, television sets and refrigerator he provided to the family.

"I am the father of six girls, there is a limit to how much I can give," added Sardar, who earns a meagre income as a farmer.

"I had educated them and just doing that was difficult."

Police have arrested the three husbands, their mother and a sister-in-law on charges of dowry harassment and spousal abuse.

AFP's attempts to contact the men's family were unsuccessful.
- 'Dignity of the family' -

India outlawed the practice of paying dowries more than 60 years ago, and harassment or extortion over the payments is a criminal offence.

But the custom persists, particularly in rural areas, undergirded by social conventions that treat women as an economic burden and demand compensation for accepting them as brides.

Local news outlets regularly report on marital property disputes that end in murder.

Last year, a man in the southern state of Kerala was jailed for life after using venomous snakes to murder his wife and take sole control of their property, which included a new car and 500,000 rupees ($6,500) provided by her family as dowry.

Courts have also been punitive in their treatment of dowry harassment, last month jailing a man in Kerala for 10 years after his payment demands were blamed for driving his wife to suicide.

A pervasive taboo around divorce -- only one in 100 Indian marriages end in dissolution -- has kept married women from contemplating escape from abusive situations.

For the Meena sisters, leaving was never seen as an option, even though their relatives were aware of the violence.

"Once they were married, we thought they should remain in their marital homes, to maintain the dignity of the family," Sardar said.

"If we had gotten them remarried in another home, and if that situation turned out to be worse, then what will we do? We'll lose face."
- 'End of the road' -

India's National Crime Records Bureau recorded nearly 7,000 dowry-related killings in 2020 -- around 19 women every day.

The same agency reported that more than 1,700 women killed themselves that year over "dowry-related issues".

Both figures are dependent on reports to police, and experts say the actual number of cases is much higher, as with other data on family violence.

"In an hour, some 30 to 40 women are victims of domestic violence... and these are just documented (cases), so it must be much more than that," Kavita Srivastava, an activist with India's People's Union for Civil Liberties, told AFP.

Srivastava said the dowry dispute involving the Meena sisters was just one part of their tormentors' efforts to control their lives and restrict their independence.

The fundamental cause, she added, was a widespread social acceptance of domestic violence in India that leaves women feeling trapped in oppressive and violent relationships.

"If even one woman has to kill herself because her marital life seems like the end of the road," she said, "I feel the Indian state has failed for those women."

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