pennsylvania. finally moves from conviction to candidates. today we'll speak with the republican nominee. e-mail insecurity. if you think your in box is private, think again. epa worse, you probably gave others permission to take a peek. that plus high hopes about medical marijuana's ability to treat disease. now a local hospital has the first of its kind cannabis center when it comes to the benefits of medical pot. nbc 10 issues starts now. i'm jim rosenfield. thanks for being here. mention the office of attorney general and kathleen cain and

you probably get a roll of the eyes, a perjury conviction, secret grand jury information leaked to the press and now a former ag who now stands a convicted criminal. but today we meet john rafferty, the republican nominee who wants to become next attorney general. attorney general serving burks county, once worked in the ag's office as a deputy. last month kathleen cain resigned after a jury convicted her of conspiracy and perjury. it's really stolen the thunder of the current election. rafferty's challenger, shapiro. he'll be our guest next sunday. state senator john rafferty is joining me now. you were with us during pril

area season. congratulations on your victory there. you were very confident you would be the victor. are you equally as confident this time around? >> i am. i think people will look at this race and say who has the experience and who has the ability to be attorney general. >> how are you going to boost confidence in that office. >> certainly as senator and elected official before that, people know i'm no nonsense, straightforward. we have on the website ethics policy for proper use of government property all employees will adhere to. traveling to the commonwealth and all regional offices to talk to the staff and them knowing someone familiar with the office and heading the office will be a real boost for them and the people of pennsylvania. someone who understands it, someone who has been there. would you acknowledge the huge

chal toning boost moral in the office given what they have been through? >> yes and no. yes in that there's some moral issues. since bruce took over as attorney general he's cleaned out some of the people at issue in the office and that's done a lot to boost moral. >> you've talked about priorities, opioid, fighting that, fighting the scourge of addiction in our state and so many other states in our area. how will you as attorney general fight that problem? >> that's the number one criminal issue before the commonwealth of pennsylvania and every state in this union. what i envision heroin strike task force i talked about at length across commonwealth, office of attorney general with its many resources, that is with agents, grand jury wiretap, we'll work very closely with d.a.s which hasn't been done for years, work with the d.a..as to attack this problem head on.

with local law enforcement, sheriffs, we'll have the state police and agents in ags office, former strike forces, the d.a., street dealers, mid level and high level dealers pushing out for return of mandatory sentences for high-level drug dealers in pennsylvania so they know they are facing five to ten year mandatory if they start dealing drugs in pennsylvania. additionally we're going to be very effective in that we're going to disrupt and dismantle operation. hit in one area, another go, back at a later time disrupting their operation. we've seen where if one person gets arrested, the next day somebody is ready to step into their shoes. if you keep it moving around and hitting them it really will onslow down their business with them. >> as a state senator we know you've supported legislation to protect pensions of law enforcement officers, but there's a bill in harrisburg that could cut those. how will enforce the very laws

you opposed as state senator? put you in a tough position. >> number one, i do not believe the bill will pass. that's off the table. >> that scenario could crop up. >> one of my bills was being chal he could. yo -- challenged. your duty, spelled out clearly is you defend the statutes of the commonwealth. dully enacted. if i felt it was a conflict, my bill, talk to general counsel and governor's office and they would weigh in and defend it. otherwise you make the determination that it's your job to do that. you don't make the call whether it's constitutional or unconstitutional. we have a third branch. ladies and gentlemen in black robes make that call. your job is to defend the laws of the commonwealth, and i would do so. >> how difficult has it been to raise money for this local race because we've seen so much money pouring into the national and

other election. >> fortunately more interest in the race now, starting to see more political contributions which are right. with the presidential race with the u.s. senate race, they have taken up a lot of the air time and taken up a lot of the attention. but after labor day now people are starting to focus on the importance of the office of attorney general, especially making sure the right person is in there. we can't have someone with less experience than kathleen kane, we have to have the right person. >> enough money for people to see you on airwaves in tv ads? >> yes, we're making sure of that. we've cut a number of ads that will be on the air very shortly, jim. >> you have endorsed donald trump for president when others in your party have been reluctant to do so. you still stand behind that decision obviously. >> i support donald trump. i said i'm a republican, and he won overwhelmingly in pennsylvania. he won the nation. the party has endorsed him. i am on the ticket with donald

trump. we haven't campaigned together, anywhere together, but i support the particular, that includes donald trump and all the way through to the state senator. >> is there anything at all about his campaign or anything he said that has caused you concern? >> donald -- i've been frank, donald wasn't my choice. i had another choice in mind. he certainly is now the presidential candidate. i may not always agree with some of his messages or how he did the messaging but he seems to have gotten better with that now. i'll tell you what, there is a lot of support for donald trump especially in western pennsylvania, republicans and democrats. i think you're going to see him do very well come november. >> should a presidential candidate be required to release his tax returns which trump has not yet done? >> i think you have to be transparent for whatever office. if that's the request, you should be able to do those. i don't know what his reason is for not doing it. >> he says it's because he's under audit. >> it might be, i don't know. are all the health records from

other candidates being released? i'm not sure they are. they have their own agendas there. but i think we try to be as transparent as you can with the public so they know exactly who they are especially -- >> are you comfortable voting for a candidate for president of the united states who has not shared with the public one iota of information what he paid in taxes, what he has given to charity, those kinds of questions. >> i'm working and focused on john rafferty for attorney general. that's the essence of my campaign, my focus has been. >> you're going to have -- i'm asking if you're comfortable voting for him? >> i don't believe either side has baseball clear in all the information distributed. i still have questions about someone who runs a foundation where she's secretary of state and getting foreign money into that foundation. it's already been stated let's arrange meetings for foreign diplomats because of money to the foundation. >> she doesn't run the

foundation. we should make that clear. >> i'm sure she had a hand in it. i think transparency object both sides may be lacking. do i have a problem voting for the republican party new york city. >> you maintain your pledge that you will not run for higher office if elected attorney general? >> jim, to me, ag stands for attorney general. it doesn't stand for aspiring governor. i have pledged i served four years. if re-elected i will serve four years. it's important for people of commonwealth to know you're making the right decisions for the right reasons, not political spotlight, the next venture. pennsylvania deserves that and office of attorney general deserves that. >> are you concerned about turnout on election day and as people go down that ticket if they aren't supporting trump, you're on that ticket. here in the philadelphia area that's a clear concern if you ar republican. >> suburban counties have shown over and over they will ticket split. so i think that that bodes well for us.

i've done a lot in the way of gaining momentum and endorsement on nontraditional republican organizations. building trade, philadelphia firefighters, certainly 40,000 strong the state fraternal order of police are still with me. i think that's going to bode well for whatever the party affiliation is to have them make sure they push my lever. >> state senator, thanks for being here on at issue. >> sure, my pleasure. >> we wish you the best on election day. onmaybe we'll talk between now and then. >> thank you. >> nbc 10 next on at issue. if you think your inbox safe prying eyes, think kben. find out who is reading your e-mail and what you did to let them in. i'm hillary clinton and i approve this message.

donald trump says he alone can fix the problems we face.

well i don't believe that's how you get things done in our country. it takes democrats and republicans working together. that's how we got health care for 8 million kids. rebuilt new york city after 9/11. and got the treaty cutting russia's nuclear arms. we've got to bring people together. that's how you solve problems and that's what i'll do as president. former secretary of state colin powell just the latest high profile person or organization to suffer an e-mail hack. but people who aren't in the headlines, they are also at

risk. your e-mail is probably getting looked at a lot more than you realize, and it's because you've actually granted permission. joining me now, a lawyer in center city specializing in privacy, data and cyber security. thanks for being here. so we've given our permission for them to look at everything. >> first of all i like to think any time you're operating there's no expectation of privacy. any web searches, e-mails, it's always out there and someone can always get it. a lot of e-mail products you look at, such as gmail through google and other ones, a lot of times you look, check that terms and conditions, you're actually granting them access to the e-mails. >> yeah. we don't pay attention very much to terms. >> it's there, boilerplate, run together. >> but we are granting them permission to actually look at contents we are sending and receiving. >> yes. how that usually works, what google does, for example, in

gmail accounts, they have an automated program that screens engoing and outgoing e-mails. part of that is good. part is to help stop spam, viruses like malware. they also use content for advertising purposes. they take that content and try to match it with some of your recent web searches or looking on google maps. that's when all of a sudden that advertising pops up that looks like it's tailor made for you. >> we're talking about something different than hacking released to the public you don't want out there. in the instance of colin powell personal e-mails in which he discussed hillary clinton, in which he discussed donald trump and how he felt about both of those individuals. here we're talking about your personal information that is being used for marketing purposes, right? other reasons. what's done with that information? >> we often don't know. a lot is done for marketing purposes. screen for viruses and so forth. one of the things i would say i said before, no expectation of privacy.

any time you write an e-mail at work, also at work and using your work's e-mail, your employer has access to that e-mail as well. any time you write an e-mail, if you're at work you think this is something my boss would want to see. if you're writing an e-mail to your spouse complaining about your boss, that might come back to you. same thing with personal e-mail, anything you write. that happened with colin powell. think about it. it happened to him. this could end up on "new york times" or "washington post," is that something i should write. there's really no expectation of privacy, whether it's through hackers or gmail accounts and so forth. >> same thing like drop box where we might store information or store documents or pictures. >> right. in drop box in particular a couple months ago revealed they had a massive hack with their system. that's why, for example, as lawyers we have to keep our information confidential. we were at our firm forbidden from using drop box for those very reasons. sometimes you're working on a case and client and want to put

information in there, we wouldn't do that because of security. they had a massive hack to all the data in there which is frightening. >> what about texting? >> texting is a little more risky. they both have protecteds and encryption. the problem with texting it's on a phone. your phone is receiver. you don't know what's going to happen with the other person. if i send a text, i don't know if it's encrypted, password protected. people lose their phones all the time. 73,000 cell phones turned frin taxicabs. those are the ones turned in. if you text someone you don't know what happens with a phone. if you lose a phone not password protected, it's vulnerable. that's more risky than an e-mail going to a server in someone's computer. >> we're asked to give out our e-mail all over the place when we sign up for on websites whatever the reason. you're saying be very careful about giving out your e-mail. >> i think, again, e-mail address. e-mail address essentially gateway to your web activity.

everything we do is on e-mail. we all have an account. that gives folks looking to hack or do nefarious things, gives them their first entrance. they may get information about you on the web, such as your address, telephone number. now they have your e-mail account. they can use that to send you e-mails called phishing expedition. they send and e-mail that's very enticing, you've won a prize. you click on it and it let's a virus into your computer where they get all your sensitive data. >> what's the best way we can stay as safe as possible with this information. >> just to be cautious. we talk about cyber security being more of a people problem than technology problem. like i said, don't just give your e-mail out to anybody. if you get an e-mail that looks suspicious, you don't know where it's coming from, they are asking you for password, social security number, that's a red flag. don't get on that right away. be very cautious opening up e-mails from entities, companies you're not aware of. if you don't have any

relationship with them, they are asking you for information right off the bat, that's a red flag, some sort of phishing expedition. >> are you surprised at all people like colin powell had their e-mails hacked, other high-profile cases? >> no. i'm not as much on the technical side. certainly people try to do it all the time. john brennan, cia director had his personal e-mails hacked into last year. i think it's a growing trend. i think it's a scary trend what's going on now seems to be used for political purposes. what i read in the news reports, seems to be done by other states, other countries, that's a frightening prospect but unfortunately times we live in cyber security. >> thanks so much. giving us something to think about when we send and receive those e-mails out there, to be careful. thanks so much. next on nbc 10 "@ issue," medical marijuana, it's legal in our area. what do doctors know about proven benefits of property.

very little, if anything. how local doctors plan to fix that when we come right back.

pat toomey started his career as an investment banker. then, a wall street wheeler-dealer, overseeing stock trades in new york, london and tokyo. next, toomey moved to hong kong to work with wealthy chinese investors. in the senate, it's no surprise toomey's been siding with wall street. voting to allow banks to continue making the risky investments that wrecked our economy. pat toomey. he's for wall street. not us senate majority pac is responsible for the content of this advertising.

there's too much hype when it comes to medical marijuana. that's according to dr. charles pollock of thomas jefferson university. he stresses there is very little scientific research on the benefits of medical pot. that could change with the creation of jefferson center for medical cannabis, education and research. aid chance recently to talk about this controversial area of health care with dr. pollock who will lead that new center. >> medical schools and health science universities in the country have been a little bit discouraged, a little bit tentative about stepping into this space because we're still talking about a federally banned substance, despite pennsylvania being the 24th state to approve medical cannabis, we're still talking about a substance that's not considered a drug by fda, it's a banned substance. >> explain to us what research

will be done. >> in pennsylvania there are 17 what are called serious medical conditions that can potentially qualify a patient to be eligible to get a recommendation from a pennsylvania physician. we can't prescribe, only a recommendation. >> such as? >> such as intractable nausea and vomiting associated chemotherapy, wait loss, loss of appetite with other hiv and other chronic diseases. epilepsy that doesn't respond to other medications. if we look at that list, for example, of these 17 different diagnoses, some of them have very -- i shouldn't say very, have reasonably strong medical evidence behind their use. in others, it's really just limited reports, anecdote, advocacy. a lot of people think, wow, this may help, we shouldn't prevent patients from getting it and shouldn't be studied in a systematic way. what we propose from the center toys look at each one of those medical conditions and others

adopted by other states, summarize the data that have been published on each of those conditions, and then sort of project or propose a research agenda to fill in the gaps on the other conditions. because many of these, again, have very little substantial evidence behind them. we've recruited a steering committee of 15 of the leading experts in medical marijuana from around the world. this group will work as a committee to develop this prioritized research agenda, which the field of medical cannabis has never had before. these are the questions to answer if you're going to use medical cannabis safely to treat x, y, or z. >> so the question is why did they pass legislation in some of these states, for instance, pennsylvania, without having these questions answered first? >> there are a lot of people asking that question. there are policymakers, there are physicians, there are patients, advocacy groups who are very impatient for change.

the push has happened in pennsylvania. they pushed to go ahead and legalize this within specific standards. have you to have trained physicians. have you to have trained pharmacists working dispensaries and patients have to have one of these specific conditions. the thinking is within those parameters this is safe enough while we're waiting for more information to accrue and the law to change. >> what about those that might be worried, i need this for my condition and research shows, perhaps, it's not effective in this particular case and that is taken away as a right for them. >> that may well happen. just as conventionally studied drugs proposed for specific disease states or specific indications and when when you actually do what's called a phase 3 trial, big trial that might qualify a drug for an fda level, turns out it doesn't work or works in a different way. there's a real dearth of objective data. that means there are significant questions to be answered.

we don't know how they are answered. it's better to know than be operating in the dark. >> you'll be looking for patients, obviously, taking part in these research studies. >> in the past when smaller studies proposed to look at the effects of medical cannabis, there usually hasn't been a lot of difficulty recruiting patients. one of the challenges we have, making sure patients are taking it only as directed as part of the study. >> dr. pollock, thanks for being here. we appreciate it. thank you. the new center will offer online courses for doctors and pharmacists. there will also be science-based information available to the public. we'll be right back. narrator: terrorism here at home.

fourteen americans killed in a san bernardino mass shooting... but after this tragedy - when pat toomey had the chance to ban suspected terrorists from buying guns - he voted against closing this loophole for terrorists - and with the gun lobby. katie: we have to do everything in our power to keep guns away from terrorists who threaten our way of life. i'm katie mcginty and i approve this message because we can't risk our families' safety on a loophole.

that's it for this week's nbc 10 "@ issue." if there's a topic you'd like to see us cover, just let us know on twitter @nbc "@issue." next week candidate josh shapiro. i hope you'll join me toll on

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