Year: 2014

Louisiana has banned the sale and use of eight compounds marketed as synthetic marijuana to stem an increase in the use of the drugs that have sent scores of people to hospitals with dangerous reactions to toxins, officials said on Thursday. In recent weeks, more than 100 people have been treated in emergency rooms in the state after using synthetic marijuana, including many suffering life-threatening maladies, they said. “This emergency rule immediately empowers law enforcement officials to remove these dangerous substances from commerce,” said Kathy Kliebert, the chief of the state’s Department of Health and Hospitals. The drugs, also known as synthetic cannabinoids, first began appearing in the United States in 2009, the American Association of Poison Control Centers said.

(Reuters) – Confirmed cases of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus increased by 296 in the week ended March 15, bringing the total number to 4,757, according to data released on Thursday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN). The U.S. and Canadian hog industries have recently developed partnerships to research what role, if any, feed or feed ingredients have had in the transmission of PEDv, the National Pork Board said earlier this week. While one case can represent an individual animal or an entire herd at a single site, hog industry analysts estimate PEDv has killed an estimated 5 million U.S. hogs since it was discovered in May 2013. “Unfortunately it has spread rapidly this winter, especially here in Ohio,” said Duane Stateler, Ohio Pork Council president and hog producer with a 7,200 head operation.

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.