A question adults frequently have occasion to ponder: If a thing is so bad for me — turkey skin, reality television, heroin — then why is it so enjoyable. A question for children to ponder: If something is made of poison, then why was it made to look so delicious to eat. Rather, it's a question they would ponder if they weren't so busy stuffing their faces full of laundry detergent.

Move over Windex and colorful toothpastes, the newest household hazards being consumed by kids are those little, candy-colored pods of detergent that eliminate the necessity to measure out a cup of the liquid stuff. (Because that was such a pain?)

Locally, a Mableton mom reported that her child became ill when she bit into a pod she found on the floor in the family's laundry room. Jessica Sutton told WSB-TV her chid was "throwing up, she was crying, she had detergent all the way down her body. It was not good." According to Georgia Poison Center, calls related to ingestion of the pods have increased in recent months. Reported symptoms include nausea, vomiting, and drowsiness.

Any/all jokes aside, in March 2012 (the most recent stats available), a vast majority — 46 percent — of household poisonings occurred in children age 0-5. House hold cleaning substances were the third most common cause. Cosmetics and other personal care products were the first.

Georgia Poison Center recommends:
— Locking up "household cleaners, pesticides, auto products, garage products, and cosmetics where children cannot see or reach them."
— Keeping products in their original containers (i.e. don't put something hazardous in a milk jug)
— Keeping their number handy: 1-800-222-1222

When Oscar the Dog was put down early this month after being hit by a car whilst being chased through the streets of Snellville by his naked, druggie owners who'd supposedly fed him LSD, it gave me a great deal of comfort to imagine that his final memories were of little dancing Grateful Dead bears and rainbow painted moonbeams (aaaand I've obviously never done acid).

Turns out Oscar's owners Nicholas Modrich and Jamie Hughes (who you can getta load of here) didn't give him LSD after all.

From WSBTV:

According to a police report, the couple admitted to taking the drug. But the report said they told the officer they had also given acid to their dog.

The couple told Channel 2 they never fed the dog LSD.

"I guess the story got twisted because somebody said we fed him LSD. We never did that. We were just concerned about where our dog was," Hughes said.

Necropsy results have come back, confirming that was indeed the case.

Great. So, Oscar just died a regular, sad, hit-by-a-car death. At least he lives on as Oscar the LSD Dog in our hearts.

click to enlarge

• Joeff Davis/CL File

Still basking in the glow of his food truck victory, councilman Kwanza Hall yesterday introduced an ordinance that would crack down on pain management clinics, known pejoratively as pill mills.

Citing a 2009 Grand Jury report from Broward County, Fla. that indicates just how quickly and exponentially pain clinics — privately-owned businesses that exist exclusively to dispense pills without necessarily diagnosing patients — can proliferate, Hall suggests a year-long period during which the city would refuse to issue businesses licenses to new pain clinics.

Hall also cites the Georgia Drug and Narcotics Agency, which found that deaths from prescription drug overdoses have continued to grow, and have continued to far outnumber deaths from illicit drug overdoses.

Of businesses to which the moratorium would apply, the ordinance says ...

... all privately owned pain management clinics, facilities, or offices (including those which advertise in any medium) for the sale or dispensing of any type of pain management services, or dispensing controlled substance medications, and defined as a Schedule II, III, IV or V controlled substance as defined by Georgia law.

(Click here for Georgia's schedule of controlled substances.)

It would not, however, apply to pharmacies.

Hat tip to commenter "Keep This Thread Alive" for pointing out this piece from "This American Life" about the drug court run by Judge Amanda Williams in Glynn County. (You can listen to the program or read a transcript if you prefer.)

The segment covers how Williams runs quite a tight ship at her drug court and spotlights the stories of a few offenders who have had varying degrees of positive and negative experiences with it.

One young woman served a stint in isolation that caused her to almost end her life. Another was incarcerated for something that probably wouldn't earn her incarceration in other courts, at a cost of $17,000 to taxpayers.

However, a notable tidbit comes near the end of the program, on page 16 of the transcript:

In his inaugural address this January, Georgia's new governor, Nathan Deal, made a big point of calling for more drug courts as a way to reduce the number of people behind bars and save money. His son, Judge Jason Deal, runs the drug court in Hall County.

Interesting!

• Courtesy Georgia Dept of Corrections
• The lethal injection gurney at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Butts County, where the state executes convicted offenders.

Turns out the federal Drug Enforcement Agency has a bit of a problem with this discovery, too.

An attorney representing a Cobb County death row inmate wrote U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder a letter alerting him to this issue, claiming that Georgia skirted federal law in an attempt to quickly secure the lethal injection drugs (which, as reported in January, are no longer being produced domestically). In response, the DEA seized Georgia's supply of the drugs yesterday.

It gets deeper: allegedly, the state Department of Corrections is not federally authorized to import drugs and failed to notify the DEA when it imported them last year.

Other states are experiencing this same issue with thiopental, due to a widespread refusal of many companies to provide it if it is going to be used in an execution.

Georgia has no executions scheduled at the moment and will not schedule any more until this issue is resolved.

The squirrels and birds near an Old Fairburn Road home are surely mellow right now. Via WSB-TV:

Firefighters called to a home in south Fulton County on Monday morning said they discovered what may be a major drug operation. [...]

"During the search, we did locate what appeared to be several marijuana plants growing in the basement of this home," said Fire Battalion Chief Markus Jones.

Jones told Moore they found about 50 plants inside the residence, including some that were up to 5 feet tall.

"They had several plants with hydro lighting there, as well as all of the makings to make plants grow real well," said Jones.

Hydro lighting, y'all. CBS Atlanta reports that firefighters actually discovered more than 400 plants inside the residence, which police tell the station was using stolen power from a nearby utility pole.