HISTORICAL AND PRESENT-DAY LANDSCAPE DEGRADATION IN ANAMBRA STATE (NIGERIA): IMPACTS AND REMEDIAL MEASURES

Author(s):  
Analike Rosemary Adamma ◽  
Emekwue Loveth ◽  
Ogbodo Emmanuel Chukwuemeka ◽  
Ezeugwunne Ifeoma Priscilla ◽  
Onoh Joy Obioma ◽  
...  

The use of Cannabis sativa is on the increase worldwide especially among adolescents and youths. This study investigated the effect of cannabis smoking on renal functions in young and apparently healthy male students of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Nnewi campus, Anambra state, Nigeria. A total of 60 male (40 cannabis smokers and 20 controls) subjects participated in this study. A well-structured questionnaire was used to obtain the demographic data and anthropometric of subjects. Thereafter, 5mls of fasting blood sample was collected from the subjects into plain container for the estimation of biochemical parameters (creatinine, urea, uric acid, electrolytes). Renal parameters were estimated using standard methods. Data obtained were statistically analyzed using paired student t-test and pearson r correlation. Result showed that the mean serum levels of urea, creatinine, K+, Na+, Cl-, ionized calcium, total calcium, total carbon dioxide, anion gap, and pH were not significantly different in both smokers and control subjects(p>0.05). However, there was significantly higher mean serum level of uric acid (2.42 ± 38.54 vs 1.92 ± 41.61; p<0.05) and total calcium (16.0 ± 0.30 vs 10.24 ± 0.18; p<0.05) in smokers compared with control subjects. Again, BMI was significantly higher in smokers compared with non-smokers (23.96 ± 3.15; p<0.05 Vs 21.95 ± 2.17; p<0.05). Therefore, cannabis use had no deleterious effect on the kidneys, but the significantly higher uric acid levels in the smokers may provide some anti-oxidant protection. However, further studies are necessary to further unravel the full potentials of cannabis use.


Author(s):  
Benjamin S. Yost

Against Capital Punishment offers an innovative proceduralist argument against the death penalty. Worries about procedural injustice animate many popular and scholarly objections to capital punishment. Philosophers and legal theorists are attracted to procedural abolitionism because it sidesteps controversies over whether murderers deserve death, holding out a promise of gaining rational purchase among death penalty retentionists. Following in this path, the book remains agnostic on the substantive immorality of execution; in fact, it takes pains to reconstruct the best arguments for capital punishment and presumes the appropriateness of execution in limited cases. At the same time, the book contends that the possibility of irrevocable mistakes precludes the just administration of the death penalty. The heart of Against Capital Punishment is a philosophical defense of the well-known irrevocability argument, which analyzes the argument’s premises, establishes their validity, and vindicates them against objections. The central claim is that execution violates the principle of remedy, which requires legal institutions to remedy their mistakes and to compensate those who suffer from wrongful sanctions. The death penalty is repellent to the principle of remedy by dint of its irrevocability. The incompatibility of remedy and execution is the crux of the irrevocability argument: because the wrongly executed cannot enjoy the obligatory remedial measures, execution is impermissible. Against Capital Punishment also reveals itself to be free from two serious defects plaguing other versions of proceduralism: the retributivist challenge and the problem of controversial consequences.


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