you could hear in america because he happened to be. coming up on r t the un general assembly weighs in on syria's chemical weapons all indications show that deep seated tensions between the u.s. and iran may now be unwinding the latest updates on today's events ahead. in the u.s. synthetic marijuana is usually sold with an odd or goofy brand name for what it can do to the human body is no laughing matter a look at the terrible effects of these substances in special artie investigation and a columbia university professor attacked by more than twenty people all because they thought he was muslim we'll look at his case and whether the trend of islamophobia is growing in the u.s. all later in the show.

it's tuesday september twenty fourth eight pm in washington d.c. i'm lynn neary david and you're watching our t.v. we begin tonight with the un general assembly world leaders from one hundred and ninety three countries have descended on new york city for their annual meeting this week in the morning president obama addressed the assembly and pushed for a u n security council resolution that enforces syria's cooperation however syria was not the only foreign policy issue on the president's agenda he also addressed nuclear proliferation in iran to discuss more on the highlights coming out of the u.n. today i'm joined now by our t's honest. who is in new york following all of the developments . on a sausage just a few hours ago rouhani addressed the u.n. general assembly for the first time can you elaborate on some of the points that he made in his speech well i mean where this was the first time he addressed the united nations general assembly as iran's president certainly for the last eight years we witnessed mahmoud ahmadinejad come to new york and kind of put on

a show today we was the first time we're in a while where we did not see western and u.s. delegations walk out of the room as the president was making his address only these really delegation left of the hall and some of the points he made to basically an important point was that iran phobia according to the iranian president is dangerous for world security and he said that he believes that imagining iran as a threat is just a plot of people's imaginations he went on to say that iran is in fact willing to prepare and prepared to cooperate with the united states he said that to iran has no interest in increasing tensions with the west and he believes that if mutual respect is in place the two countries should be able to work together interesting lee what he talked about syria he said that he does not believe that a military solution is possible and a good idea and while cadet condemning the use of chemical weapons in syria he said

it's important to also if that is the case to condemn the use of drones to tackle terrorism take a listen there is a the killing of innocent people. in humanity of extremism and one terrorism is a. country or national girders bunts the violence and the extreme actions such as the use of drones against innocent people in the name of combat and tourism should own the condemn. well now despite fears from the united states and the west in terms of what kind of uranium enrichment program tehran is carrying out to the iranian president today did see that there is no place for nuclear weapons in iran's political doctrine and he said that it's in iran's national interest to remove any such concerns now president obama also took the stage earlier this morning where he addressed iran is it clear at this point that

the u.s. wants to engage iran in negotiations well i mean that certainly seems to be the case we were expecting and waiting to hear whether or not obama would be meeting with the iranian president of the sidelines of the united nations general assembly that is not going to be the case we hear that the obama administration did try to set up some kind of meeting and according to the white house this was not possible because iran said it was too complicated at this particular point in time but we have been seeing sort of. more friendlier and warmer i guess less tense behavior coming from both the united states and iran we do know that earlier today barack obama did in fact say that the u.s. is willing to conduct dialogue and that the doors for dialogue remains open if tara ron is willing to walk through it take a listen to some details on that we should be able to achieve a resolution that respects the rights of the iranian people while giving the world

confidence that the iranian program is peaceful but to succeed conciliatory words will have to be matched by actions that are transparent and verifiable after all it's the iranian government's choices that have led to the conference of sanctions that are currently in place well that we know that we are expecting a meeting between john kerry and his return to his iranian counterpart to take place throughout the week in a couple of days so certainly we should be hearing more details on what to expect to come out of the latest on what's going on between iran and the u.s. . and of course obama spent a good portion of his speech also talking about syria what was the main message underlying his statements there well i mean rebel bomber really continued to push forward the u.s. position that a strong resolution needs to come out of the united nations security council we do know of course that the one security council has been working round the clock to

implement to put together a text that would reflect syria's agreement to put its chemical weapons under international control however something that's remains to be a disagreement between the u.s. and russia the main negotiators on this resolution is america's belief that the use of force should be kept as an option kept open if assad's government does not comply fully with what is being negotiated russia however believes that the use of force should refrain from being put in this text language so this is what we're expecting to really be clarified at the one in the days to come and of course we do know that at the sidelines of the u.n. also sergei lavrov has been meeting with john kerry to discuss this in more detail earlier today i was our correspondent on a sausage here can i thank you it wasn't too long ago that we learned through a series of disclosures that the u.s. national security agency had been spying on both the leaders and citizens of

several countries one of those countries brazil took these revelations very seriously so much so that brazilian president dilma rousseff actually canceled a state visit to washington d.c. earlier this month and president rousseff didn't let her message die easily and in fact she had the world watching this morning as she addressed this very issue in her opening speech at the u.n. general assembly artie's sam sachs has more. it didn't take long for the recent n.s.a. leaks to dog president obama in the united states at today's u.n. general assembly debate mare in new york city or maybe very first speaker the day was a brazilian president dilma rousseff who recently canceled a meeting with president obama and devoted a third of her speech to bashing mrs mask global surveillance operations them to see what we have before was a surprise and is a serious case of violations of human rights and civil liberties a case of invasion and capture of confidential secret information pertaining to

business activities and above all a case of disrespect to national sovereignty the national sovereignty of my country and we have let the u.s. government know about a protest by demanding explanations apologies and guarantees that such acts procedures will never be repeated again she even went a step further and urged the u.n. to join brazil in building a new internet framework that protects the privacy and sovereignty of all nations as well as you up example is ill will put forth. and that establishing a multilateral civil framework the full internet governance and use as well as measures to ensure the effect is protection of the data and information and trafficking through the internet heading into today's u.n. general assembly debate there have been a series of diplomatic dust ups between the white house and various south american

nations all since edward snowden began disclosing the n.s.a.'s activities on that continent there was last week's tussle over airspace in which i've been a story when president nicolas maduro claimed the united states committed a serious offense by not granting permission for his playing to enter u.s. airspace in route to china the united states said the best way would didn't provide enough notice of course there was also an incident last july when bolivian president evo morales had. this plane forced to land in vienna what he called an imperial skyjacking after was believed that the plane may be harboring edward snowden it wasn't and latin america grew enraged by the actions with cuba calling it an unacceptable and unjustifiable act that offends latin america and the caribbean an ecuadorian president rafael correa urging fellow south american leaders to quote take action the critters foreign minister ricardo patino sat down with r t to talk about how president obama has handled the n.s.a. spying scandal and the sequel bogle noted in the close of yet he hasn't apologized

to anyone not even his so-called friends or his so-called enemy of. his friends in fact his friends are so trustworthy that he has to spy on them i think brazilian president dilma rousseff was very brave in her recent decision i was very happy to hear she would suspend her trip to the united states out of dignity it's impossible that someone can spy on me and then turn around and invite me to come visit them it's disrespectful not only is it disrespectful but it's a violation of international laws the very same laws that protect international communities. ultimately though the white house wasn't interested in addressing the n.s.a. controversy and it's nearly forty five minute speech today before the u.n. president obama didn't mention the n.s.a. one time but despite this silence the white house understands there may be economic consequences for its mass spying on both hostile and friendly nations brazilian

president dilma rousseff canceling her planned october meeting with the white house may have cost a boeing a four billion dollar fighter jet contract and other latin american nations like bolivia ecuador and venezuela all carry on very important trade relations with the united states that could be in danger as more n.s.a. secrets are exposed reporting from the white house in washington d.c. sam sachs r t. it's labeled as popery marked with the faces of popular cartoon characters and sold on store shelves across the country synthetic marijuana is rapidly becoming a public health emergency earlier this month and dozens of people flooded into emergency rooms in colorado tennessee kansas and georgia after smoking a bad batch of fake we'd and at least three people have died just today the mother of nineteen year old nick colbert filed a lawsuit in colorado springs against the store that sold her son a fateful batch back in two thousand and eleven however stephanie colbert is not

the first mother to experience such a tragedy tomorrow the senate caucus on international narcotics control will hold a hearing on capitol hill to talk about the dangers of these substances but before then our t. correspondent megan lopez brings us the story of three families dealing with the real consequences of synthetic marijuana i had never heard so confident that marijuana and show probably the day after my son died i was at my front and i got a phone call and i was told my son had died and our son is. no different than any other child here from the county he was a straight a student played baseball everything by the book and then unfortunately you know somebody there introduced him or whatever he got involved in it and was all downhill from there and bomb about it and i tried it and then i

go. to the market and then i bought my own home and then i was smoking like a half and i would go. three families thousands of miles apart but only him to buy a dangerous drug these are the stories of tristen cantor an athlete who was getting ready to head to college and leave our a seventeen year old known for a funky hair colors and backstopping or the adventurer who loves no boarding his dog and his family three stories three very different outcomes. it goes by many names as a climber and mr nika spice k two scooby snacks it's also known as synthetic marijuana or more formally synthetic canal benoit's a designer drug where chemicals are created in a lab then sprayed on herbs and sold in stores synthetic because it's meant to mimic the effects of actual marijuana these drugs can be purchased in gas stations

and convenience stores cleverly marked as potpourri with a label on the back that reads not first human consumption but don't let the label fool you that's exactly what this product is for just ask the parents of tristen kantor their son began experimenting with drugs when he was fifteen after years of trying to get clean he turned to synthetic canal benoit's as a safe alternative because not only is it easily accessible this stuff doesn't show up on drug tests. you know or a mother finding the package is the in can package isn't we don't know what they were they were just their son's way to get a high a high that turned out to be more dangerous than tristen originally thought kristen told us had numerous occasions where he was in the in a vehicle with with other people not driving but he had become almost paralyzed and couldn't move under the influence of synthetic marijuana he's now in rehab and on

the road to recovery he's planning to go to college in the spring but for him lee bowers family recovery wasn't as easy emily had been smoking synthetic. marijuana for months until one day her body couldn't take it anymore she didn't know where she was she wasn't making any status is generous bumping into walls they found that she had multiple strokes that damaged seventy percent of her brain and told her family she would remain in a vegetative state what was that moment like when you decided that you were going to stop that haitian they were going to stop the two yeah that was those were the hardest ones and i may have not much more that's a good job. i'm coming alive and i know at first emily had no control of her arms or legs and she was blind now she's back at school and learning to walk again the family believes emily's preexisting condition combined with the synthetic can

now be annoyed almost took their daughter's life where were you getting it from the queer boy of course when one of your friends went in to buy it did they make them show it they was it pretty easily accessible now they didn't make them to live here and all. the paranoia anxiety rapid heart rate trouble breathing hallucinations all of these are real effects that doctors have reported in just two thousand and ten alone the drug was linked to over eleven thousand four hundred emergency room visits it's russian roulette you don't know what you're going to get it's a fitness to karen dubner knows by heart karen says her son max only trying to synthetic marijuana one time and it cost him his life the store owner actually talked them into parchin saying the product he was mrs friends who drove him all. smoked it and she dropped him off she said that when he walk into the house he

looked fine. i guess a few minutes later he didn't feel so fine and. half an hour later he jumped into his car and drove a hundred miles down roads and people who are calling nine long months saying there you see a car drive going one hundred miles an hour gallon road weaving in and out of traffic on the wrong side of the road making corners why in eventually his car landed in a house and he flew eighty feet through the air and landed in the hands and died max's death is a reality the dog in our family confronts every day it's still painful it's it's. it's a different life my life is different without masks he was my best friend. my

life is completely changed it was a horrible ending to a beautiful life one in nine high school seniors admitting to trying synthetic canal benoit's in two thousand and eleven according to a survey by the university of michigan and karen fears it won't be long before there are more deaths as a result of these dangerous chemicals max was the perfect son he did all the right things he made one mistake and it killed him and if it could happen to max it could happen to anybody at any it in washington meghan lopez r t. and a columbia university professor was assaulted this past saturday while walking in upper manhattan project saying who is sikh and wears a turban and a beard was attacked by multiple suspects who shouted anti muslim statements just before knocking him down and punching him numerous times in the face the new york police department says it is investigating this as

a hate crime since nine eleven there have been a spate of attacks in new york and around the country on sikhs who have been mistaken as muslims in fact just last year a white supremacist named wade michael page went on a shooting rampage at a sikh temple in oak creek with wisconsin killing six people and wounding four others it's all a part of a growing trend toward islam phobia and you don't have to go all the way to wisconsin to find it right here in washington d.c. numerous elected representatives have said disparaging remarks about islam often as a result of ignorance about their religion i was joined earlier by uber heem hooper communications director for the council on american islamic relations i first asked him to put the attack on dr prob good seeing into context and talk about how often we see attacks on muslims and sikhs within the united states. members of the sikh community are often targeted unfortunately because sikh men wear turbans and they often wear very long beards and bigots not being brain surgeons they associate

turbans and beards with muslims so we see it quite often we've we've come to the assistance of sikhs who have been attacked on a number of occasions a number of cases in california california elderly sikh men out for a walk beaten shot and killed one of the first deaths after nine eleven was a sikh man shot to death in the aftermath of the nine eleven terror attack so we've seen this unfortunately too often and we saw it in this case as well the individual was called osama in other words osama bin ladden called a terrorist but we see that same day a muslim woman at a pro-democracy rally in times square in new york was similarly called a terrorist and hit by an individual who was arrested and we're working on that case as well it's it's an unfortunately growing phenomenon and we as a muslim community we're very tiny minority we can't combat or challenge growing

islamophobia all by ourselves we have to do it in coalition with others of course and saying talking a little bit more about the trend toward islamophobia i know that over twenty states have at least a canted to pass bills against adopting shari'a law. is this a rational fear of islam like we growing in the land we've seen this in a number of states nationwide where right wing anti muslim extremists in state legislatures take a template promoted by a right wing anti muslim extremists name named david euro shalmi he has a template for these laws they introduce them in the state legislature drum up fear against islam and muslims sometimes they pass sometimes they don't i think they're really into. and is to promote anti muslim hysteria and this is one vehicle for doing it it's like passing a law to outlaw unicorns but if you can scare enough people promoted off anti

muslim hysteria. at least they feel they're having some impact it's a negative impact but that seems to be what they want and of course we hear a lot of and muslim rhetoric coming from politicians so many of our congressional leaders i remember not too long ago hearing rep peter king call for hearings on the islamization of america and then recently we heard senator lindsey graham talk about the phrase a la akbar let's take a listen to what he said. akbar is associated with a war chant it doesn't it's not exclusively owned by al qaeda i've seen people kill al qaeda guys in yellow bar but it is when somebody yells a lot bar in the mideast i duck it is not like hey how you doing lindsay it is not a you know it's a war chant so he says it's like uttering a word chant first of all for people that don't know can you explain what this phrase a la barre means god is great it's one of the most common phrases uttered by muslims

every time you you pray here saying it every to in your daily life you're saying it just say god as senator mccain correctly mentioned when this issue was first promoted by again by the right wing right wing pundits and extremists are constantly manufacturing these false controversies and then it becomes a viral thing on the internet and you know it's utter nonsense but people believe it and they're willing to believe. that was the brit hume hooper communications director at the council on american islamic relations. just over a week ago twelve people were killed and eight others injured when government contractor aaron alexis opened fire at the u.s. navy yard ambulances and fire trucks led to the scene last monday as the country tried to figure out what was happening inside the country's oldest navy installation now while the city of washington commended its fire and the invest

a partner in their response to the shooting a recent investigation is called into question whether more could have been done artie's justin underhill has more. during last week's navy yard shooting officer scott williams was shot multiple times in the leg the ambulance that transported him to washington hospital center did not have a paramedic on board two minutes after he was placed in the ambulance dispatchers reported. that i don't need to get at the data that we. haven't. got it however there should have been medic units available from the two closest stations the navy yard medic unit seven and eight but these had both been downgraded meaning they were operating without a paramedic paramedic units had to be brought in from maryland the fire department has repeatedly struggled to provide timely emergency care as dozens of paramedics have resigned and ambulances are in disrepair this is been an ongoing issue for

years that i don't believe the city has adequately solved in august d.c. announced the hiring of sixty new fire and e.m.'s cadets along with nine paramedics by the end of the year but even with the addition of nine paramedics d.c. will still be far behind other cities including columbus memphis and phoenix places with comparable emergency call volumes according to ed smith head of the d.c. fire union the city has been in a downward spiral they're overworked or stressed or actually seeking employment in all the surrounding departments they're being held over time against their wishes twenty four hour shift and they will be forced to stay another twelve hours. stressing to the max in response to criticism and d.c. fire spokesman denied the downgrades had an impact on the ability to transport patients from the navy yard last week this is the nation's capital we should be the best of the country we need a lot of resources we have yet to see how effective recent reforms will be but without proper meet once and stuffing those facing medical emergencies in the

nation's capital are left vulnerable in washington just seen under health artsy. in the u.s. many of us have experienced the benefits of modern medicine but that's not without a hitch with the growing influence of pharmaceutical companies as one of many examples if that influence you've likely felt through more ads for drugs for more on mask the residents lori harshness. look at that girl leaping don't you want to sleep that well all you need to do is take a messed up and that glowing butterfly will descend into your bedroom to low you

just leave to look at this backseat couple in the regular don't you want to have fun like this then with a reptile this function all you need to do is take cialis and you will be able to have that kind of fun again to depression chronic pain any kind of mental or physical anguish that you might be suffering from it can all be cured with drugs at least that's what american pharmaceutical companies want you to believe with all the t.v. commercials pay produce drug commercials argue big quips and american t.v. thing is the us is one of only two countries in the world that allows pharmaceutical companies to market their products directly to consumers and according to a new study from the journal of general internal medicine as many as six out of ten pharmaceutical ads that run on american t.v. contain potentially misleading claims. researchers found that fifty seven percent

of all the commercials they studied left out vital information exaggerated a claim or inserted a. opinions rather than fact there were a lot of what the researchers called lifestyle association where the as said things like taking x. will help you live the life you want to doesn't sound off them doesn't that just make you want to take drugs. the other country that allows pharmaceutical companies to advertise to consumers is new zealand but unlike new zealand the us also has its war on drugs according to drug policy alliance for us spends more than fifty one billion dollars every year on its war on drugs which targets drugs that the government doesn't approve. but more people overdose on the kind it does approve of prescription ones than they do on heroin and cocaine combined according to

a recent report by the l.a. times so the u.s. spends billions of dollars on its war on drugs telling people not to do drugs all the while allowing pharmaceutical companies to make a bunch of fake claims i'm t.v. about their drugs even though prescription drugs cause the largest percentage of deaths from overdosing doesn't that the progress we just make your head spin and your blood boil. don't worry i'm sure there's a pill you can take for that tonight let's talk about that by following me on twitter at the rest of the. while that does it for now for more on the stories we've covered today go to youtube dot com slash r t america or check out our website r.t. dot com slash usa you can also follow me on twitter at amir and david and don't forget to tune in at nine pm for larry king now at tonight's guest is famous talk

show host wendy williams for now have a great night. well . it's technology innovation all the least a melanin still around russia. the future covered he smoked it when he walked into the house he looked fine half an hour later he jumped into his car and people were calling nine one one. see a car going one hundred miles an hour needing an out of traffic his car landed and . was a horrible rendering to a beautiful life. if you could have been a max it could happen to.