You've probably never of her, but Frances Kelsey may have saved your life. Sometimes it takes a scandal to get the public's attention, but it also helps to have a courageous figure who takes on big business to protect public health and safety.

Alameda County recently passed an ordinance that requires pharmaceutical companies to develop, manage and pay for a new local drug take-back program. There's good reason to believe very few people will participate in this program. It is also likely to result in higher drug prices and will produce few environmental benefits.

Schedule I drugs have "no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States" and "a lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision" -- a classification that holds marijuana more dangerous than cocaine, morphine, or methamphetamine.

Society today is far less tolerant of childish behavior -- hence, the growing popularity of the ADHD label, which has become the "go-to diagnosis" for children that don't fit the psycho-therapeutic public school mold of quiet, docile and conformist.

Here's an outrage that must be changed: Big Pharma has been systematically price-gouging the Medicare program for seniors and people with disabilities -- and raking in billions in excessive profits.

Republicans on Capitol Hill have dug themselves into a deep and narrow chasm whose walls are about to close in. In a matter of weeks, they may find themselves squeezed mercilessly between their implacable right wing and constituents feeling the pain of sequestration.

If you watched the SOTU, you might have missed the scheme that Obama unveiled that will ruin the Medicare prescription drug program, destroy pharmaceutical companies' incentive to develop new life-saving medicines and even imperil our country's economic growth. I know I missed it.

It's no surprise that American corporations spend billions of dollars each year on lobbying, trying to gain favorable treatment from legislators. What some may find a bit unnerving is the industry that's leading the pack in these efforts.