At first blush, the tobacco tax measure on California’s November ballot looks pretty straightforward. Proposition 56 would raise the price of a pack of cigarettes by $2 and tax e-cigarettes for the first time. Proponents say the higher price would prevent kids from smoking and lower health care spending because people won’t suffer as much […]

Five states — California, Arizona, Nevada, Maine and Massachusetts — are voting this fall on whether marijuana should be legal for recreational use. That has sparked questions about what we know — and don’t know — about marijuana’s effect on the brain. Research is scarce. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency classifies marijuana as a Schedule I […]

Many people take for granted the addition of fluoride into public drinking water systems that aims to prevent tooth decay. It’s a seven-decade-old public health effort. But it’s not nearly as universally accepted as one might think. At least seven cities or towns across the country debated it just this summer. For example, Wellington, Fla., […]

In five states this fall — California, Arizona, Nevada, Maine and Massachusetts — voters will be deciding whether marijuana should be legal for recreational use. And any of those states that do legalize marijuana will have to wrestle with the question of how to enforce laws against stoned drivers. It has been legal to smoke pot […]

If pot laws were colors, a map of the U.S. map would resemble a tie-dye T-shirt. In some states, marijuana is illegal. In others, it’s legal for medical purposes. And still in others, it is even legal for recreational use. Five more states could come into that last category this fall, as voters decide whether to […]

Jamie Landrum has been a police officer for two years in District 3 on the west side of Cincinnati. In late August, the city was hit by 174 overdoses in six days. Landrum says officers were scarce. “We were literally going from one heroin overdose, and then being on that one, and hearing someone come […]

Aside from pesky side effects like nausea and headaches, hormonal contraceptives are generally considered quite safe and effective. But researchers Wednesday identified a heightened risk of an unintended consequence: depression. A study published in JAMA Psychiatry found women using hormonal contraception faced a higher rate of developing depression and using antidepressants than women who did not […]

After months of bickering, Congress agreed Wednesday to allocate $1.1 billion toward curbing the spread of the Zika virus, a primarily mosquito-borne disease that has raised public health alarms. The package is part of a larger spending bill to keep the federal government running until Dec. 9. It comes as the virus — which can cause […]

As controversy about the pricing of EpiPens reverberates from Capitol Hill to school districts across the country, one recurring complaint from consumers is that the high cost is magnified because the drug expires quickly, forcing users to regularly bear the cost of replacing the medicine that saves lives in the event of a severe allergic […]

This story was first published June 13, 2016; it was most recently updated April 5, 2017. The Zika virus caused birth defects in about 10 percent of the 250 pregnant women confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to have contracted the virus, according to figures published April 4. The virus, which is […]