Healthcare & Pharmaceutics

Obama commutes sentences of 95 federal prisoners, grants 2 pardons

Updated: More than doubling the number of federal prison sentences he has commuted during his entire time in office, President Barack Obama on Friday granted clemency to 95 inmates and pardoned two. Most were nonviolent drug offenders. A total of 184 prisoners have now been granted clemency by Obama while…

Dec 18, 2015 1:40 PM CST

Despite Holder’s call for clemency to free over 10,000, actual number so far is much lower

Updated: In a 2013 speech delivered at the American Bar Association’s annual meeting, then-U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced a new “Smart on Crime” initiative and called for a number of changes to reduce “shameful” sentencing disparities that often affect drug offenders. Among the measures he suggested was clemency. Yet…

Dec 9, 2015 3:20 PM CST

How blogging can help you carve a niche for your practice (podcast with transcript)

Can a commitment to blogging help develop a practice area and turn you into an expert? In this month's Asked and Answered, the ABA Journal's Stephanie Francis Ward speaks with Hilary Bricken, a Seattle lawyer and one of the authors of Canna Law Blog. Ward speaks with Bricken to find out how her firm decided to launch a blog on the topic of marijuana law; how the blog has performed as a client-development tool; and how writing for the blog has helped her expand her own knowledge and expertise.

Dec 7, 2015 8:30 AM CST

Employers and workers grapple with laws allowing marijuana use

On June 15, 2015, the Colorado Supreme Court was the ultimate buzzkill. When the state's residents passed a referendum in 2012 legalizing recreational marijuana use—long after the state sanctioned medical use in 2000—few had any idea that Coloradans who partook in the bud would end up jeopardizing their livelihood.

Dec 1, 2015 5:30 AM CST

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