Equipment operator to be charged in Pa. collapse

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/06/07/equipment-operator-charged-pa-collapse/2402341/

• Toxicology reports say the man was high on marijuana
• He faces six counts of involuntary manslaughter
• He has been arrested 11 times in the past

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A felon who was allegedly high while operating demolition equipment when a downtown building collapsed and killed six people will be charged with involuntary manslaughter, a top city official said Friday.

Sean Benschop, 42, faces six manslaughter counts along with six counts of risking a catastrophe, six counts of reckless endangerment and other charges, Deputy Mayor Everett Gillison told The Associated Press.

Authorities believe Benschop had been using an excavator Wednesday when what was left of the four-story building gave way and fell on top of a neighboring Salvation Army thrift store, killing two employees and four customers, and injuring 13 others.

A toxicology report showed “evidence that he was high” on marijuana, Gillison said. That finding, combined with witness statements and evidence from the scene, led to the decision Friday to raid his North Philadelphia home and later seek an arrest warrant, he said.

“The D.A. has approved it (his arrest), and my police officers are out looking for him as we speak,” said Gillison, the deputy mayor for public safety.

Benschop, who also goes by the name Kary Roberts, has been arrested at least 11 times since 1994 on charges ranging from drugs to theft to weapons possession, according to court records. He was twice sentenced to prison in the 1990s after being convicted on drug trafficking charges. Benschop’s last arrest, for aggravated assault, came in January 2012, but the case was dismissed for lack of evidence.

Benschop did not return phone messages left at numbers listed in his name, though he told The Philadelphia Inquirer on Thursday that he couldn’t comment because of the investigation.

The victims include a pair of 24-year-old artist friends shopping at the store and a newly engaged woman working her first day there.

Video shot of the scene days before the fatal collapse show bricks falling onto a sidewalk, which remained open to pedestrians, as a worker used heavy equipment to take out a front wall.

Some blame has been lobbed at demolition contractor Griffin Campbell, whose background includes arrests for drugs, assault and insurance fraud, along with two bankruptcy filings. He was being paid $10,000 for the job, according to the demolition permit.

Campbell violated several federal safety regulations, while building owner Richard Basciano should have picked a more qualified and competent contractor to do the work, said lawyer Robert Mongeluzzi, who represents injured store worker Nadine White in a lawsuit filed Friday against the pair.

“From what we can understand, given (Campbell’s) checkered past, and what appears to be a total lack of experience and know-how, we believe that was a grossly negligent selection,” said lawyer Robert Mongeluzzi, who won court permission Friday to examine the debris after city officials finish their investigation.

The collapse has brought swift and mounting fallout in a city where demolition contractors are lightly regulated. Officials have begun inspecting hundreds of demolition sites citywide, and a city councilman charged that dangerous, under-the-radar tear-downs are taking place throughout Philadelphia.

The city is also preparing to implement sweeping changes in its regulations of building demolition, Mayor Michael Nutter said Friday, adding that every active demolition site is being inspected for safety.

The mayor appeared forlorn at the afternoon news conference at City Hall, apologizing to the victims’ families for the deaths and promising the city would do better.

“We lack the resources to have a police officer on every corner, or L&I (License and Inspections) at every construction site every hour of the day, (but) we can do much better,” Nutter said. “We will not accept the status quo in the face of this tragedy.”

Nutter’s reform plan for construction sites that includes the random drug testing of heavy equipment operators.

“If that’s a factor here, that certainly takes things in a very different direction,” Nutter said hours before the charges were confirmed.

The mayor also pledged to adopt tougher background requirements for demolition contractors, including information about each worker’s experience, and more frequent site inspections when demolitions are under way.

Several homicide prosecutors and police department crime scene investigators were on the scene this week when a steel beam from the site was removed.

Construction engineers have said adjacent buildings should be evacuated during critical phases of a demolition project. The other victims also include two immigrants from Africa, a 68-year-old man from Liberia described as a devoted husband and Salvation Army worker, and a 52-year-old woman from Sierra Leone who had nine children and loved to hunt for bargains.

The Salvation Army was concerned enough about the demolition that its attorneys reached out to a lawyer for building owner STB Investments Corp., a company linked to prominent businessman and developer Richard Basciano.

“There was communication between The Salvation Army and the attorney of the neighboring building’s owner, pertaining to the demolition. The neighbor assured The Salvation Army that they would be taking proper precautions,” Maj. Robert W. Dixon, director of operations of The Salvation Army of Greater Philadelphia, said in a statement Friday afternoon.

“These discussions were never finalized,” he said.

Regular Marijuana Users May Be Skinnier, Have Better Blood Sugar Control: Study

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/15/marijuana-users-skinnier-blood-sugar-control_n_3280053.html

People who regularly smoke marijuana may have better control of their blood sugar and may be skinnier than non-marijuana users, according to a new study.

The research, published in the American Journal of Medicine, shows that people who reported regularly using marijuana had a lower risk of insulin resistance and had lower fasting insulin levels, compared with people who never used marijuana. Researchers also found an association between using marijuana and having a smaller waist circumference and higher levels of “good” HDL cholesterol, compared with non-users. The research was conducted by scientists from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, the University of Nebraska and the Harvard School of Public Health.

“It is possible that the inverse association in fasting insulin levels and insulin resistance seen among current marijuana users could be in part due to changes in usage patterns among those with a diagnosis of diabetes,” like if people with diabetes are advised to quit smoking, study researcher Dr. Elizabeth Penner, M.D., M.P.H., said in a statement. “However, after we excluded those subjects with a diagnosis of diabetes mellitus, the associations between marijuana use” and insulin, cholesterol and waist circumference still remained true.

Though marijuana is illegal in much of the country (it’s the most commonly used illegal drug here in the U.S., according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse), medical marijuana is currently legal in 19 states to help alleviate symptoms from treatments such as chemotherapy, researchers noted.

But it’s important to note that research shows marijuana can detrimentally affect daily life by affecting mental health, raising likelihood of dropping out of school, and even hurting IQ levels when used during adolescence, according to NIDA. In addition, because marijuana is frequently smoked, the smoke can lead to breathing problems and respiratory disease.

The new study included data from 4,657 people who were part of the National Health and Nutrition Survey from 2005 to 2010. Among all the study participants, 1,975 had used marijuana before but weren’t current users, and 579 were current marijuana users. There were 2,103 people who had never used it.

Researchers found that the associations between marijuana use and insulin and cholesterol levels were especially pronounced among the current users — they had 16 percent lower fasting insulin levels, compared with never-users — but not as pronounced among those who had used marijuana before, but weren’t current users.

And even though researchers acknowledged that people who use marijuana consume more calories than non-users, they still found links between smaller waist circumference and marijuana use. However, they said they were not sure why this association exists.

Recently, MyHealthNewsDaily reported on a study from Columbia University researchers showing that a pill form of marijuana — which contains the drug’s active ingredient — may actually be better at relieving pain than the smoked form. Plus, the pill may be less prone to abuse since fewer people in the study said that they thought the effects were pleasurable, according to MyHealthNewsDaily.

Butcher feeds marijuana to pigs to create true high-quality meat

http://now.msn.com/marijuana-fed-pigs-are-being-sold-by-butcher-william-von-schneidau-at-pike-place-market

In a quick conversation with BB Ranch butcher William von Schneidau recently, he said to me, “Oh, and, by the way, we are feeding our pigs marijuana now. We’re calling them pot pigs.”

At first I didn’t think I heard him right. Then I thought he might be joking. But he wasn’t. The Pike Place Market butcher shop is most definitely adding “weed to the feed,” as Schneidau says in this getting-funky-with- it video about his recent Pot Pig Gig dinner.

Seattle got its first taste of marijuana-fed pigs at this event in March, when BB Ranch served a head-to-tail menu of swine fed on stems, leaves, and root bulbs from Top Shelf Organic, a medical marijuana co-op.

So it’s not like the pigs were smoking a hookah or grazing on buds. All farms have excess, even the marijuana-growing kind, and with the new legality of the drug, it made sense to him to try and help out by finding a use for those cast-off bits of plant. It sounds like an idea conceived by someone holding a bong in a hazy basement, but hey, sustainability comes in all forms.

Mixing the fresh herby greens to the regular pig slop adds fiber to the pigs’ diet and reportedly gave the meat a more savory bite. Von Schneidau hopes to do a blind taste test soon to compare pot-fed pork’s flavor with the traditional variety. He currently has a pot prosciutto curing at BB ranch, if you’re curious for a taste.

The butcher teamed up with Bucking Boar Farms of Snohomish for this adventure, though weed isn’t the first controlled substance that’s been added into the pigs everyday slop. The farm has also been feeding pigs spent vodka grains from Project V Distillery of Woodinville, producing what von Scheidau terms “vodka pigs.”

But do the pigs get stoned? Apparently, not all mammals can process THC, but most have cannabinoid receptors. Cannabinoids are the other chemicals in marijuana, often linked to the medicinal properties, which help with pain and discomfort. Pigs have these receptors, and the four that ate this enhanced feed gained more weight and likely felt way more mellow than their non-ganja feeding friends.

Matt McAlman of Top Shelf, the marijuana co-op, says the stems and leaves added to the feed have a higher cannabinoid content than the flower of the plant, so these little piggies are probably pretty darn happy. 

According to von Schneidau, halfway through the first Pot Pig Gig, a woman stood and asked if the diners could take an “intermission.” He was perplexed, but agreed. She asked the communal table full of strangers, “Whose got a pipe?” About 75 percent of the group headed out to Post Alley and in von Schneidau’s words, “Got baked.” I’m willing to bet that the second half of the meal was a lot more entertaining than the first.

Another Pot Pig Gig is in the works for this summer. Look for updates at the BB Ranch Facebook page.

Butcher feeds marijuana to pigs to create true high-quality meat

http://now.msn.com/marijuana-fed-pigs-are-being-sold-by-butcher-william-von-schneidau-at-pike-place-market

In a quick conversation with BB Ranch butcher William von Schneidau recently, he said to me, “Oh, and, by the way, we are feeding our pigs marijuana now. We’re calling them pot pigs.”

At first I didn’t think I heard him right. Then I thought he might be joking. But he wasn’t. The Pike Place Market butcher shop is most definitely adding “weed to the feed,” as Schneidau says in this getting-funky-with- it video about his recent Pot Pig Gig dinner.

Seattle got its first taste of marijuana-fed pigs at this event in March, when BB Ranch served a head-to-tail menu of swine fed on stems, leaves, and root bulbs from Top Shelf Organic, a medical marijuana co-op.

So it’s not like the pigs were smoking a hookah or grazing on buds. All farms have excess, even the marijuana-growing kind, and with the new legality of the drug, it made sense to him to try and help out by finding a use for those cast-off bits of plant. It sounds like an idea conceived by someone holding a bong in a hazy basement, but hey, sustainability comes in all forms.

Mixing the fresh herby greens to the regular pig slop adds fiber to the pigs’ diet and reportedly gave the meat a more savory bite. Von Schneidau hopes to do a blind taste test soon to compare pot-fed pork’s flavor with the traditional variety. He currently has a pot prosciutto curing at BB ranch, if you’re curious for a taste.

The butcher teamed up with Bucking Boar Farms of Snohomish for this adventure, though weed isn’t the first controlled substance that’s been added into the pigs everyday slop. The farm has also been feeding pigs spent vodka grains from Project V Distillery of Woodinville, producing what von Scheidau terms “vodka pigs.”

But do the pigs get stoned? Apparently, not all mammals can process THC, but most have cannabinoid receptors. Cannabinoids are the other chemicals in marijuana, often linked to the medicinal properties, which help with pain and discomfort. Pigs have these receptors, and the four that ate this enhanced feed gained more weight and likely felt way more mellow than their non-ganja feeding friends.

Matt McAlman of Top Shelf, the marijuana co-op, says the stems and leaves added to the feed have a higher cannabinoid content than the flower of the plant, so these little piggies are probably pretty darn happy. 

According to von Schneidau, halfway through the first Pot Pig Gig, a woman stood and asked if the diners could take an “intermission.” He was perplexed, but agreed. She asked the communal table full of strangers, “Whose got a pipe?” About 75 percent of the group headed out to Post Alley and in von Schneidau’s words, “Got baked.” I’m willing to bet that the second half of the meal was a lot more entertaining than the first.

Another Pot Pig Gig is in the works for this summer. Look for updates at the BB Ranch Facebook page.