Month: March 2014

A Mix-Up Over a Tattoo Gives a Mom the Scare of a Lifetime

By Verna Gates BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (Reuters) – A medical marijuana bill unanimously passed both the Alabama House and Senate on Thursday and is headed to the desk of Gov. Robert Bentley, who has said he will sign it into law. The measure makes it legal to possess only a prescribed medical grade extract known as CBD or cannabidiol, which is non-intoxicating. Called Carly's Law, the bill in Alabama originated to help control violent seizures suffered by a toddler with a severe neurological disorder.

Some profitable U.S. corporations that avoid paying federal income taxes manage to do the same in states where they operate, said a study issued on Thursday by a tax activist group. From 2008 through 2012, ten U.S. companies paid no state income taxes, said the left-leaning Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ). Among companies named in the study were aerospace group Boeing Co, drugmaker Merck & Co Inc and industrial group Rockwell Automation Inc. Companies are increasingly making deals with state lawmakers to reduce their tax bills, said Matthew Gardner, a co-author of the report. Some states did not collect corporate taxes in the years CTJ examined, including Washington State, where Boeing was founded.

By Andrew M. Seaman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – A treatment program incorporating mindfulness meditation is better over the long term than traditional approaches at preventing relapses of drug and alcohol abuse, according to a new study. One year after treatment for substance abuse, far fewer participants who got relapse-prevention training including mindfulness techniques had used drugs or alcohol compared to those given relapse-prevention therapy alone or a standard 12-step program. “Addiction is really a tough one,” Sarah Bowen told Reuters Health. “I don’t want to say mindfulness is better for everyone, but it’s another option.” Bowen and her colleagues write in JAMA Psychiatry that about 11 percent of people in the U.S. with substance abuse problems seek treatment every year, but between 40 percent and 60 percent relapse.

By Harriet McLeod CHARLESTON, South Carolina (Reuters) – South Carolina lawmakers failed to derail implementation of President Barack Obama’s signature health care law in the state when a measure was defeated in the Republican-controlled Senate. Late Wednesday night, however, Senators voted 33-9 to defeat an amendment regarding the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. The amendment would have banned state agencies and employees from helping to carry out the health care law. It would have required healthcare navigators who help people sign up for health insurance to be licensed by the state.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The Arkansas Supreme Court tossed out a $1.2 billion judgment against Johnson & Johnson on Thursday, reversing a lower court verdict that found the drug maker engaged in fraudulent tactics when marketing the antipsychotic drug Risperdal.

By Shereen Jegtvig NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – In a new study suggesting laziness could be tapped as a tool for healthier eating, people reached for low-calorie apple slices more often than buttery popcorn when the apples were within easier reach. “There are the little things that we can do to just make our diets healthier, and one of them is the simple idea to just put the healthy foods closer to you and you’ll find you can use your laziness to your advantage,” Gregory Privitera told Reuters Health. Privitera, a psychology researcher at Saint Bonaventure University in Bonaventure, New York, led the study, which he says was inspired by experience with his kids. “Every time my kids would tell me, ‘I want a snack,’ I would point to the bowl of fruit on the kitchen table and just say, ‘go at it – you can have as many as you want.,’ and they’d say, ‘oh I don’t want that,’ and I’d say, ‘okay then, make your own snack,” Privitera recalled.

Johnson & Johnson on Thursday won a reversal by the Arkansas Supreme Court of a $1.2 billion judgment imposed after a jury concluded that the drugmaker improperly marketed its anti-psychotic drug Risperdal and concealed its risks. The penalty had been imposed in April 2012, one day after a jury in Little Rock, Arkansas, found that Johnson & Johnson and its Janssen Pharmaceuticals unit violated state laws governing Medicaid fraud and deceptive trade practices. Arkansas' highest court, however, said the jury verdict and subsequent award could not stand because Arkansas had relied on the wrong law to sue Johnson & Johnson, using a law covering healthcare facilities rather than drug companies.