HEALTH AND SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS

April 4, 2018 (San Diego's East County) -- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting edge news that could impact your health and our future.

HEALTH

• Marijuana legalization could help offset opioid epidemic, studies find (CNN)
• Surprise! Medical Research a Big Winner in New Federal Budget (Healthline)
• New Human 'Organ' Was Hiding in Plain Sight (National Geographic)
• 'Nightmare bacteria' spreading across the U.S. (NBC News)

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

• The Taliban have gone high-tech. That poses a dilemma for the U.S. (NY Times)
• SpaceX launches 10 Iridium satellites from California (KPBS)
• Tesla: Car in fatal CA crash was on autopilot (10 News)

For excerpts and links to full stories, click “read more” and scroll down.

HEALTH

Marijuana legalization could help offset opioid epidemic, studies find (CNN)

…The studies, published Monday in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, compared opioid prescription patterns in states that have enacted medical cannabis laws with those that have not... researchers found that states that allow the use of cannabis for medical purposes had 2.21 million fewer daily doses of opioids prescribed per year under Medicare Part D, compared with those states without medical cannabis laws. Opioid prescriptions under Medicaid also dropped by 5.88% in states with medical cannabis law….

Surprise! Medical Research a Big Winner in New Federal Budget (Healthline)

Despite the president’s threats to cut funding, Congress approved budget increases for cancer, Alzheimer’s, and other medical research.

New Human 'Organ' Was Hiding in Plain Sight (National Geographic)

 The interstitium, scientists found, is under our skin and between our organs. Understanding it may eventually help treat disease.

'Nightmare bacteria' spreading across the U.S. (NBC News)

 Aggressive testing at hospitals and clinics can stop superbugs. / A new program for testing suspect bacteria turned up unusual antibiotic-resistance genes 221 times in 2017, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. And 11 percent of people screened for these superbugs carried them, even though they had no symptoms, the CDC said.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

The Taliban have gone high-tech. That poses a dilemma for the U.S. (New York Times)

Once described as an ill-equipped band of insurgents, the Taliban are increasingly attacking security forces across Afghanistan using night-vision goggles and lasers that United States military officials said were either stolen from Afghan and international troops or bought on the black market.

SpaceX launches 10 Iridium satellites from California (KPBS)

… The payload was the fifth set of 10 new orbiters launched for the company, which is replacing its entire space-based mobile voice and data network with a satellite constellation dubbed Iridium NEXT. The $3 billion project is scheduled for completion this year, with a total of 75 new satellites in orbit.

Tesla: Car in fatal CA crash was on autopilot (10 News)

The fatal crash on March 23 occurred in Mountain View, Calif. The vehicle had been engaged in Autopilot and alerted the driver with "several" visual and audible "hands-on" warnings, Tesla said in a release.