No Medical Benefit From Marijuana: FDA
There are "no sound scientific studies" supporting the medical use of marijuana, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said in a statement Thursday.
That statement contradicts the findings of a 1999 review by the Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academy of Sciences, the United States' most prestigious scientific advisory agency, The New York Times reported Friday.
The FDA statement is based on a combined review by federal drug enforcement, regulatory and research agencies that concluded that "smoked marijuana has no currently accepted or proven medical use in the United States and is not an approved medical treatment."
The 1999 review by the Institute of Medicine found that marijuana is "moderately well suited for particular conditions, such as chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting and AIDS wasting," the Times reported.
The Bush administration opposes medical marijuana but 11 states have legalized its use.
The FDA will likely do nothing to enforce its statement.
"Any enforcement based on this finding would need to be done by the DEA since this falls outside of FDA's regulatory authority," FDA spokeswoman Susan Bro told the Times.
Critics said the FDA statement is an example of politics trumping science.
"Unfortunately, this is yet another example of the FDA making pronouncements that seem to be driven more by ideology than by science," Dr. Jerry Avon, a medical professor at Harvard Medical School, told the Times.
Medicare Drug Beneficiaries Face Increased Costs Next Year
The six million poorest beneficiaries may pay as much as seven percent more next year for the new U.S. Medicare prescription drug benefit.
While these beneficiaries have no annual co-payment and don't have to contend with a coverage gap, their co-payments for generic drugs will increase from $2 to $2.15 and from $5 to $5.35 for brand-name drugs, the Los Angeles Times reported.
These increases may seem small, but many state-sponsored Medicaid plans previously charged no co-payments. These Medicare co-payments may prove too much of a burden for low-income people who require 10 or more prescription drugs, say independent experts and state officials.
These and other cost increases were included when the new prescription drug plan was designed, the Times reported. Congress decided to index the share paid by beneficiaries to yearly increases in prescription drug spending.
TV Report Questions Sharon's Stroke Treatment
Doctors said it was a mistake to give former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon large doses of a blood thinner after he suffered a mild stroke late last year, according to an Israeli TV report broadcast Thursday.
Sharon has been in a coma since he suffered a massive stroke on Jan. 4, two weeks after he had the minor stroke.
The report on Channel 2 TV quoted doctors at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem as saying the anticoagulants given to Sharon after the minor stroke, which was caused by a blood clot, may have led to the later debilitating hemorrhagic stroke, the Associated Press reported.
Brief excerpts of the report were broadcast Thursday. The TV station said it would air fuller versions on Friday and again next week.
Hadassah Hospital officials contested the report's conclusions. The interpretation that the doctors admitted a mistake was "in the imagination of the reporter," said a statement released by the hospital, the AP reported.
CDC Offers Pre-Pregnancy Health Steps for Women
Stopping smoking and drinking, taking folic acid supplements, and getting proper nutrition and exercise are among the steps women can take to ensure good health before they become pregnant, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations released Thursday.
The recommendations, created through collaboration with more than 35 federal, public and private partners, identify more than a dozen risk factors and conditions that require interventions before pregnancy to be effective. Following this advice can help improve the health of both mothers and babies.
"The child-bearing years are an exciting time in a woman's life and there are a number of steps they can take to be healthy, benefiting both them and their future child," Dr. Julie Gerberding, CDC director, said in a prepared statement.
"For instance, even before pregnancy, women of child-bearing age should see their doctor about controlling existing medical conditions, such as diabetes, high blood pressure and eating disorders. They should take 400 micrograms of folic acid to help prevent neural tube defects and avoid smoking or drinking alcohol," Gerberding said.
Other measures include checking for medications that may affect the mother or fetus and reviewing a woman's pregnancy history.
The recommendations appear in this week's issue of the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Driver Distractions Increase Crash Risk
People who talk on cell phones or apply makeup while they drive are three times more likely to be involved in a crash than motorists who focus all their attention on driving, says a report by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute.
Researchers spent more than a year studying 241 drivers in 100 sensor-equipped vehicles. The drivers put on a total of two million miles and were involved in 82 crashes and 761 near-crashes, CNN reported.
Reaching for a moving object while driving increased the risk of a crash or near-crash by nine times, while reading, dialing a handheld device or putting on makeup tripled the risk, the study found.
Nearly 80 percent of the crashes and 65 percent of the near-crashes in the study occurred within three seconds of some form of driver distraction, CNN reported.
Drivers ages 18 to 20 were four times more likely to have a distraction-related crash or near-crash than drivers over age 35. Drowsy drivers had a four-times increased risk.
Cell phones were the most common distraction for drivers in this study and the seconds that drivers spent dialing were the most dangerous.
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