Marijuana smokers get nod to light up in Colorado as pot legalized

(Reuters) - Pot smokers formally gained the right to light up in Colorado on Monday as Governor John Hickenlooper signed into effect a controversial ballot measure legalizing marijuana for adult recreational use in what proponents hailed as a "historic day."Hickenlooper's signature, largely a formality, made Colorado the second U.S. state after Washington to legalize recreational pot use, and put...

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Automated Poll Pegs Colbert for Senate

Rep. Tim Scott tops the list of candidates Republicans expect to see in South Carolina's Senate seat this spring, but at least one poll found voters holding out hope for a wholly different personality.Automated phone pollster Public Policy Polling released a poll today saying comedian Stephen Colbert is South Carolina's favorite to take Jim DeMint's seat in the Senate.Rumors about Colbert's candidacy...

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Clinton cancels Middle East trip because of ill health

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has canceled her trip to Morocco this week for a meeting on the future of Syria's opposition because of a stomach virus, the State Department said on Monday.Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns will travel to the meeting in her place."Since she's still under the weather, we'll be staying put this week instead of heading to North Africa and...

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Egypt opposition fears violence from Brotherhood

CAIRO (AP) — They showed a military-style precision: Crowds of bearded Islamists proclaiming allegiance to Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi and chanting "God is great" as they descended on tents set up by anti-Morsi protesters outside the presidential palace, swinging clubs and firing rifles. They set up a detention facility, interrogating and beating captured protesters.The scene from bloody clashes...

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Modern Family' Star: My Son Nearly Died

What are the odds a child will be exposed to two powerful allergens at the same time? It happened to " Modern Family" actress Julie Bowen's son. He was stung by a bee - at the same time he was eating a peanut butter sandwich. The toddler immediately went into anaphylactic shock. His entire face swelled up, including his eyes and lips, and his breathing became labored. "We took him to the ER, where...

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Teen Dies After Disabled Mom Loses Custody

The last time Doris Freyre saw her 14-year-old daughter, Marie, alive was around 1 p.m. on April 26. She watched helplessly as the disabled girl was strapped to a stretcher and sent by ambulance to a nursing home in Miami -- five hours away from their home in Tampa, Fla.Florida child welfare authorities had deemed Freyre, a 59-year-old single mother with six herniated discs and carpal tunnel syndrome...

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Supreme Court to hear "pay-for-delay" drug case

(Reuters) - The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to decide whether brand-name drug companies may pay money to generic drug  rivals to keep their lower-priced products off the market, a practice estimated to cost consumers and the government billions of dollars each year.The arrangements, known as "pay-for-delay" or "reverse payments," have for more than a decade vexed antitrust enforcers, including...

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House panel seeks compounder group papers in meningitis probe

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. congressional committee that oversees drug safety issues has asked a compounding pharmacists' industry association to provide documents on the group's role in helping pharmacies in their interactions with federal and state authorities.The request to the International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists came as the House Energy and Commerce Committee continues an investigation...

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GlaxoSmithKline in deal with MD Anderson on cancer drugs

(Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline signed a collaboration agreement with the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston to develop new drugs that promote a patient's immune system to attack cancer based on discoveries by Anderson researchers.Anderson, one of the world's premier cancer research and treatment centers, announced the agreement on Friday. Under terms of the deal, it will receive an undisclosed upfront...

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Czech MPs vote to legalize marijuana for medical use

PRAGUE (Reuters) - Czech lawmakers voted on Friday to allow marijuana and drugs derived from it to be available on prescription from pharmacies from next year, extending narcotics laws which permit possession of small amounts of drugs including heroin and cocaine.Only imported marijuana will be available for the first year, after which the central European country's State Institute for Drug Control...

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When drugs for depression fail, talking therapies help

LONDON (Reuters) - Patients with depression who fail to benefit from antidepressant drugs  may do better if they are also treated with a type of "talking" psychotherapy called CBT, according to new research published on Friday.In the first large-scale trial to test the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, alongside medication for depression, scientists said they found that...

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