SACRAMENTO, CA -- Proposition 90 on the California ballot, which includes laudable provisions to protect Californians against the power of the government to condemn private property in order to promote other private projects or uses (as allowed by the highly controversial 2005 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Kelo v. City of New London) contains a clause that seeks to write adult entertainment out of the protection: (From the text of Proposition 90 -- Section 3e) “Nothing in this section shall prohibit the use of condemnation powers to abate nuisances such as blight, obscenity, pornography, hazardous substances or environmental conditions, provided those condemnations are limited to abatement of specific conditions on specific parcels.” Since “pornography” is a term that includes protected speech, that clause might not pass constitutional muster if challenged.

For an essay on Prop 90, see Adam B. Summers, San Francisco Chronicle, 10/20/06

STUDY CLAIMS MANY ADULTS “ADDICTED” TO INTERNET

STANFORD, CA -- Stanford University School of Medicine researchers have released findings from a telephone-based study of so-called Internet addiction in which 2,513 adults responded to questions designed to determine if the Internet has become a problem in terms of addiction or other impulse control disorders. Interviewers asked eight questions, which yielded the following results: 5.9% of respondents felt their relationships suffered as a result of excessive Internet use; 8.7% attempted to conceal non-essential Internet use; 3.7% felt preoccupied by the Internet when offline; 13.7% found it hard to stay away from the Internet for several days at a time; 8.2% utilized the Internet as a way to escape problems or relieve negative mood; 12.3% had tried to cut back on Internet use, of whom 93.8% were successful; and, 12.4% stayed online longer than intended very often or often.

Adult entertainment was not singled out for special attention, being lumped in with online gambling, email, blogging and other forms of Internet use in the study. However, the study was picked up on the wire services, where sensationalistic headlines warn of the dangers of Internet addiction, thereby adding fuel to the fire for those who would censor the Internet. The study also adds momentum to the concept of addiction as dubiously applied to an ever-wider range of behaviors. “Internet is as addictive as drugs,” said a story in the San Jose Mercury News. “Like a roll of the dice or a sip of bourbon, the glow of the computer screen has an irresistible and dangerous allure to many people, according to a new nationwide study by Stanford University,” said the newspaper.

Actually, the research did not claim that the Internet was as addictive as drugs. Indeed, reading between the lines, the study falls short of showing any such thing. Consider this: If a series of questions similar to those listed above were asked in instances of alcohol addiction, alcoholics who say their relationships had suffered would frequently also have attempted to conceal it, used it to escape problems, etc. In most cases, virtually the whole list of markers would apply. In this study, however, when any combination of four proposed sets of four diagnostic criteria were considered, there was a dramatic fall-off (to 0.7%) in terms of how many respondents reported all four. The proposed criteria sets may have set the bar too high, said the researchers in the study abstract. There was no mention of a high bar in the press releases.

In any case, the authors of the study dramatically concluded that potential markers of problematic Internet use seem to be present in a sizeable proportion of adults and recommended future studies to decide whether problematic Internet use constitutes a pathological behavior that meets criteria for an independent disorder, or represents a symptom of other psychopathologies. That seems like a pretty strong statement to us, so we Googled around a bit on the background of the researchers. It is worth noting that this study is not the first one of its kind conducted by the lead researcher, Elias Aboujaoude, M.D., Director of the Impulse Control Disorders Clinic at the Stanford School of Medicine. Doctor Aboujaoude has also done research showing significant results through the use of the drug Celexa to help those afflicted with compulsive shopping; and in a 2004 study investigated the efficacy of the use of the drug Lexapro to treat Kleptomania. For the record, the Internet addiction study obtained major funding through a grant from Forest Laboratories, which makes Celexa and Lexapro. Aboujaoude and co-author Lorrin Koran, M.D., serve on Forest Pharmaceuticals' speaker’s bureau. No word on whether Celexa or Lexapro might be under consideration for those poor souls suffering from Internet addiction.

From the International Journal of Neuropsychiatric Medicine Abstract, 10/11/06
And from a Stanford School of Medicine Press release, 10/06
For Compulsive Shopping study see WCHSv.com
For Kleptomania study see International Society for Pharmacoeconomics, May 2006