WASHINGTON — Birth control pills work great if women remember to take them every day but missing doses can mean a surprise pregnancy. Now scientists have figured out how to pack a month’s supply into one capsule. The trick: A tiny star-shaped gadget that unfolds in the stomach and gradually...
Program to Erase Old Pot Charges Aids 58 California Counties
SACRAMENTO — Every California county prosecutor can now use new technology to erase or reduce an estimated 220,000 old marijuana convictions after voters broadly legalized the drug in 2016. Code for America, a San Francisco-based nonprofit tech organization, announced Thursday it is making its computer algorithms available for free to...
Judge Orders Drugmaker to Pay $572 Million in Opioid Lawsuit
NORMAN, Okla. — An Oklahoma judge on Monday found Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiaries helped fuel the state's opioid crisis and ordered the consumer products giant to pay $572 million, more than twice the amount another drug manufacturer agreed to pay in a settlement. Cleveland County District Judge Thad...
Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman Sentenced to Life in Prison
NEW YORK — The Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was sentenced Wednesday to life behind bars in a U.S. prison, a humbling end for a drug lord notorious for his ability to kill, bribe or tunnel his way out of trouble. A federal judge in Brooklyn handed down...
Anti-Opioid Addiction Drug Maker Charged With Fraud
RICHMOND, Va. — Federal prosecutors say the company that makes a drug meant to curb opioid addiction has been lying for years about the relative safety of its product. Prosecutors in Virginia filed fraud charges Tuesday against British-based Indivior, which makes Suboxone film strips that dissolve under the tongue and...
Can ‘Craft Weed’ Compete With ‘Big Marijuana’?
You’ve heard of Big Pharma and Big Tobacco. How about Big Marijuana? The drug’s growing legalization is raising concerns among small-scale marijuana farmers and retailers that the corporatization of weed may be right around the corner. For example, earlier this year NASDAQ became the first major U.S. stock exchange to...
Is Alzheimer's Breakthrough Drug Finally Coming?
CHICAGO — Hopes are rising again for a drug to alter the course of Alzheimer's disease after decades of failures. An experimental therapy slowed mental decline by 30 percent in patients who got the highest dose in a mid-stage study, and it removed much of the sticky plaque gumming up...