Political Health

Voters approved recreational marijuana in 4 states on November 8 – California, Maine, Massachusetts, and Nevada. Further, an additional 4 other states passed medical marijuana provisions: Florida, Arkansas, North Dakota, and Montana, with Montana loosening restrictions on an existing law. In fact, election day was the biggest day for marijuana reform since 2012, when voters approved it for recreational use in Colorado and Washington. [1] [2]

The federal government said on November 10th that cigarette smoking among American adults is still dropping dramatically. [1]
But the good news comes with 1 major caveat: smoking still causes 40% of all cancer diagnoses in the United States. Not just lung cancer, either. That percentage encompasses a dozen other parts of the body, including the throat, stomach, pancreas, and liver.

A panel of U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) experts has recommended that an experimental antibiotic made by Cempra Inc. be approved, but just barely. [1]
The panel voted 7-6 in favor of the drug, saying the effectiveness of the new antibiotic outweighed risks of liver toxicity seen in many studies. The FDA does not have to follow the panel’s recommendation, but it typically does.

A Gooding, Idaho, mom lost custody of her children and is facing charges after treating her daughter’s seizures with marijuana butter. [1]
Three-year-old Madyson began suffering seizures and hallucinations in early October after coming off of the prescription anti-psychotic drug Risperdal, which was being used to treat a history of seizures.
Madyson’s mom, Kelsey Osborne, explained:

“They [the seizures] would stop and come back, stop and come back with the hallucinations and everything else.” [2]

Bayer CropScience LP has agreed to pay Massachusetts $75,000 and caved in to the state’s demand that it stop saying that its neonicotinoid pesticides are like “giving a daily vitamin” to plants, when the chemicals have been linked with honeybee colony collapse disorder. [1]
Source: Compound Interest

The state of Michigan has given a preliminary go-ahead for food and beverage maker Nestle to nearly triple the amount of groundwater it will pump from beneath the state, to be bottled and sold at its Ice Mountain plant, approximately 120 miles from Flint. [1]
Source: mlive.com
Nestle Waters North America asked the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to allow the company to increase pumping from 150 to 400 gallons-per-minute at 1 of its production wells north of Evart.

The marijuana industry created more than 18,000 new jobs in Colorado last year, and had a $2.39 billion impact on the state, according to a new report released October 26. [1]
In a study conducted by the economic consulting firm Marijuana Policy Group (MPG), researchers looked at two years’ worth of sales numbers from Colorado and found that legalization resulted in nearly $1 billion in retail sales in 2015.
Source: WeAreChange.org

An Anarctic bay encompassing 600,000 square miles of the Southern Ocean will gain protection from fishing for 35 years. The area is said to be the earth’s most pristine marine ecosystem. [1]
Attendies at the United Nations (UN) meeting in Hobart, Australia, agreed unanimously to designate the Ross Sea a Marine Protected Area (MPA) after 5 years of negotiation brokered by the U.N.’s Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources.

Two new types of genetically modified (GM) potatoes were approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on October 28. The GM potatoes are designed to resist the pathogen that caused the Irish potato famine.
Source: PotatoPro.com
The approval covers Idaho-based J.R. Simplot Co.’s Ranger Russet and Atlantic varieties of the company’s 2nd generation of Innate potatoes.

A new ‘scorecard’ report gives a failing grade to 17 out of 20 major food retailers in the United States, based on their policies and practices regarding pollinator protection, organic options, and pesticide reduction. [1]
Source: Friends of the Earth
Read: Aldi Bans Bee-Killing Neonic Pesticides on Produce
Tiffany Finck-Haynes, food futures campaigner with Friends of the Earth, said: