Healthcare & Pharmaceutics

Can marijuana ads be shown on TV in states where it’s legal? Broadcasters aren’t so sure

If the recent spate of states repealing marijuana prohibitions could be likened to a revolution, it's one that won't be televised—at least not as a commercial. That's the transmission received recently in Colorado, where a 15-second advertisement for a cannabis-oil vape pen that was set to air during a Denver…

Dec 1, 2015 4:00 AM CST

Suit claims birth-control pill packaging errors led to 113 pregnancies

A lawsuit filed last week in Philadelphia seeks millions of dollars of damages for 113 women who say they became pregnant after taking birth control pills that were improperly packaged. Among the damages sought are the costs for delivering, raising and educating the children, report Philly.com and ABC News. The…

Nov 13, 2015 6:15 AM CST

Lawyer charged in marijuana operation case says state and federal laws ban prosecution

Arrested last year at his Denver law office, a Colorado attorney facing federal charges in connection with an alleged illegal marijuana operation says he shouldn’t be prosecuted. That’s because state law permits him to do what he did and a federal budget amendment bans the use of federal funds to…

Nov 3, 2015 1:55 PM CST

Arizona asks FDA to return seized shipment of illegal execution drugs

Arizona’s attempt to import a lethal injection drug not approved for use in the U.S. was thwarted in July by federal agents who caught the shipment at the Phoenix airport, the Associated Press reports. The sodium thiopental had been used previously for executions in the U.S. but is no longer…

Oct 23, 2015 12:35 PM CDT

Parishioners at Church of Cannabis avoid criminal charges, plan civil suit

Parishioners at the First Church of Cannabis in Indianapolis left their pot at home when they gathered for a service on Wednesday, the same day that Indiana’s new religious freedom law took effect. Police had announced in advance that any pot smokers would be arrested, and officers were posted outside…

Jul 2, 2015 7:30 AM CDT

Meet a lawyer trying to guide the all-cash cannabis industry into the federal banking system

South Carolina litigator Mark Mason knew as much about the marijuana industry as any other middle-aged, law-abiding lawyer. That is, until his son called from Denver asking for help. Now Mason, principal in the five-lawyer Mason Law Firm in Mount Pleasant, is leading the charge to give Colorado's all-cash cannabis…

Jul 1, 2015 6:05 AM CDT

SCOTUS upholds use of lethal-injection drug; two justices want death penalty re-examined

The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected an Eighth Amendment claim by Oklahoma death-row inmates who challenged the use of the sedative midazolam in executions. The court ruled 5-4 (PDF) that the inmates failed to establish that the use of midazolam violates the Eighth Amendment. The inmates had argued the drug…

Jun 29, 2015 8:53 AM CDT

SCOTUS justices are ‘unusually antagonistic’ in arguments on lethal injection drug

Justices considering the constitutionality of the lethal injection drug midazolam spent so much time talking on Wednesday that Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. gave lawyers additional time to make their arguments. “To an extent that’s unusual even in this court,” Roberts said to Oklahoma Solicitor General Patrick Wyrick, “you…

Apr 30, 2015 10:19 AM CDT

FDA restricts use of device blamed for spreading uterine cancer, after news of patient deaths

Robotic surgery, including the use of an instrument known as a laparoscopic power morcellator, made it possible for many women to undergo hysterectomies with minimal pain and scarring and make a rapid recovery. But for Linda Interlichia, who turned out to have an aggressive form of cancer rather than the…

Nov 25, 2014 11:25 AM CST

Death by hacking? US investigates possible cybersecurity flaws in medical devices

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is reportedly investigating possible flaws in medical devices that could allow hackers to gain control of the equipment and injure or kill patients. Among the products under review are an infusion pump, implantable heart devices, medical imaging equipment and hospital networking systems, Reuters reports,…

Oct 23, 2014 6:15 AM CDT

Kozinski dissent: ‘Firing squads can be messy’ but they are better than lethal injection

A dispute over a death-row inmate’s claimed First Amendment right to information on execution drugs heads to the U.S. Supreme Court after a federal appeals court declined to hear the case en banc, spurring an unusual dissent calling for a return to the firing squad. The Arizona Attorney General’s office…

Jul 22, 2014 12:51 PM CDT

Seattle city attorney is among the first in line at Cannabis City

Five marijuana stores opened in Washington state on Tuesday, including Cannabis City, where Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes was the fourth person in line. Holmes bought two two-gram bags of OG pearl, report Q13Fox, HeraldNet and the Seattle Times. “I’m keeping one bag for posterity,” he told Q13Fox, “and one…

Jul 9, 2014 12:05 PM CDT

Nationwide lethal-injection drug shortage forces states to experiment with executions

Due to a nationwide shortage of approved lethal injection drugs, states have had to scramble to come up with ways to execute inmates. According to the Washington Post, Tuesday’s botched execution of Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma was just one example of a state having to improvise due to a lack…

May 1, 2014 7:52 PM CDT

Judge strikes Oklahoma lethal injection law because source of drugs is secret

An Oklahoma judge struck the state’s lethal injection law as unconstitutional Wednesday, saying that it violated due process because it keeps secret from inmates the sources of drugs used in executions. The ruling by Oklahoma County District Judge Patricia Parrish follows recent adverse reactions by dying inmates during executions in…

Mar 26, 2014 6:10 PM CDT

Oklahoma delays two executions due to lack of drugs needed for lethal injection

A lack of lethal injection drugs has led to the postponement, until next month, of two scheduled Oklahoma executions. Sidestepping, at least for now, constitutional claims by two convicted murderers that they are entitled to know the source of the drugs to be used in their executions, a state appeals…

Mar 18, 2014 11:15 PM CDT