Moralists clash with medicine. While Colorado is the first state to fully legalize marijuana, Denver Broncos players are banned from using the drug. However, as CBS News correspondent Barry Petersen reports, a former NFL player said the hits he took on the field made him, and others like him, turn to pot. "Pain is constant when you play ... MORE
by Jacob Sullum. Before Tom Frieden became director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2009, his two main nemeses were tuberculosis and smoking. Although both are commonly described as threats to "public health," they differ in ways that may help explain the CDC's stumbling, alarmingly amateurish response to Ebola in the ... MORE
Curious incentives on display. The Food and Drug Administration just granted permission for “expanded access” to an experimental medicine for Ebola. It’s OK as far as it goes, but it’s an exception to the FDA’s reluctance to approve the use of life-saving products. Safety and efficacy testing of the drug, designated TKM-Ebola, has barely ... MORE
by Zenon Evans. Good Intentions made a big splash
last year when it opened its doors as the first medical marijuana
clinic in not just Chicago but the entire state of Illinois. The
business launched just days after Gov. Pat Quinn signed the
Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Pilot Program Act. One
problem:
There was no medical marijuana. ... MORE
Just ask states with legalized medical marijuana. As the number of patients who receive opioid prescriptions to treat non-cancer pain has increased in the past decade, so too have the number of overdoses. A new study, however, finds that states that legalized medical marijuana between 1999 and 2010 had 25% fewer annual ... MORE
by Serge F. Kovaleski. More evidence the government is not us. Nearly four years ago, Dr. Sue Sisley, a psychiatrist at the University of Arizona, sought federal approval to study marijuana’s effectiveness in treating military veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder. She had no idea how difficult it would be. The proposal, which has the ... MORE
More damage to the medical profession. I'm the underachiever in my family. My parents also produced Harvard Medical School research director Thomas Stossel. Mom called him the one who had "a real job." For years, my brother annoyed me by not embracing the libertarianism that changed my life. It bored him. He was comfortable in his Harvard ... MORE
UN argues against its own policy. JAMAICA, Uruguay, Colorado, Washington—more and more places are rebelling against the UN conventions that established the criminalisation of narcotics half a century ago. But the latest organisation to weigh in against the UN’s line is rather surprising. It is a branch of the UN itself. A report just ... MORE
by Jon Rappoport. What happened to the "36,000 die from flu every year" bit. It’s always interesting when official agencies’ statistics come back to bite them. Hard. In December of 2005, the British Medical Journal (BMJ online) published a shocking report by Peter Dosh, which created tremors through the halls of the Centers for Disease ... MORE
by Tom Wilemon. Government's noble war to free you from pain relief. A powerful new pain medication approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that easily can be manipulated by abusers has officials in Tennessee and other states worried. Called
Zohydro, it’s an extended-release form of hydrocodone that comes in a
capsule ... MORE
by Shane Trejo. Raids in legal weed states display contempt for the people's will. Major developments are taking place in the medical marijuana community
that are opening eyes everywhere, much to the chagrin of the feds. A number of testimonials continue to emerge that indicate the tremendous healing power of marijuana rich in CBD, ... MORE
Inconvenient truths for prohibitionists. Number 10. Marijuana use has no effect on mortality: A massive study of California HMO members funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) found marijuana use caused no significant increase in mortality. Tobacco use was associated with increased risk of death. ... MORE
Nothing short of a miracle treatment for epilepsy. Two years ago, Charlotte Figi was losing a lifelong battle to epilepsy. Her parents were using a hospice program at home because she wasn’t eating, had chronic pneumonia, and couldn’t swallow water. At the age of five, Charlotte was suffering up to 50 seizures a day. Two years ago, ... MORE
We're told government protects us, but protectors quickly become bullies. Take the Food and Drug Administration. It seems like the most helpful part of government: It supervises testing to make sure greedy drug companies don't sell us dangerous stuff. The FDA's first big success was stopping thalidomide, a drug that prevented the ... MORE
by Lisa Bernard-Kuhn. Moving to Colorado. The Bentons will move as soon as Addyson comes off the waiting list, which they hope will be October – leaving behind the home in Liberty Township, Ohio, that they built less than a year ago and the friends and family who have supported them. "It's so sad to know that Addyson won't be able to see ... MORE