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FDA Could Approve Prescription Drugs Made From Marijuana By 2013

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A quarter-century after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first prescription drugs based on the main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, additional medicines derived from or inspired by the cannabis plant itself could soon be making their way to pharmacy shelves, according to drug companies, small biotech firms and university scientists.

A British company, GW Pharma, is in advanced clinical trials for the world's first pharmaceutical developed from raw marijuana instead of synthetic equivalents— a mouth spray it hopes to market in the U.S. as a treatment for cancer pain. And it hopes to see FDA approval by the end of 2013.

Sativex contains marijuana's two best known components — delta 9-THC and cannabidiol — and already has been approved in Canada, New Zealand and eight European countries for a different usage, relieving muscle spasms associated with multiple sclerosis.

Questions About Ganja Dominates Pres. Obama YouTube-White House Chat

President Obama's live, online chat slated for Monday afternoon is intended to focus on issues raised during last week's State of the Union address -- but his online audience seems to be much more interested in marijuana policy.

Following Mr. Obama's State of the Union address, the White House invited voters to submit questions to the president via YouTube. The president plans on answering some of those questions during a 45-minute "hangout" session on on Google's social networking site Google Plus. In the "hangout" session, Mr. Obama will chat from the West Wing with some of the voters who submitted questions. The chat will be streamed live on YouTube and WhiteHouse.gov at 5:30 p.m. ET.

According to the White House's YouTube page, 133,216 questions were submitted for the discussion (voting is now closed). YouTube visitors could give the questions a "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" rating, and more than 1.6 million votes were cast. Sorting the questions by popularity reveals that 18 of the 20 most popular questions, according to YouTube, have something to do with marijuana policy, including the legalization of marijuana use, the cost of the war on drugs and other related issues.Questions about marijuana policy have dominated multiple online engagement efforts from the Obama White House. In fact, the second-most popular question for today's "hangout" comes from a retired police officer with the group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) -- just as it did in Mr. Obama's 2011 YouTube chat.

Michelle Obama Tours Florida To Promote Healthy Eating

First Lady Michelle Obama promotes healthy eating

As Republican presidential candidates aggressively campaigned to win the Latino vote Thursday, First Lady Michelle Obama spent the day in Florida promoting healthy eating among Latinos.

The first lady was part of a sharper focus on Florida by President Barack Obama and his surrogates this week as they tried to claim some of the spotlight from the Republican candidates who are traversing the state in advance of Tuesday's critical GOP primary. She spoke at a Hispanic grocery store in Tampa and was scheduled to be at fundraising receptions later in Sarasota and Palm Beach.

First Lady Inspires a Healthy Living

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood will follow Michelle Obama to Tampa on Friday to talk about progress on a $536 million highway project that will link a crosstown expressway with Interstate 4. Tampa is at one end of the I-4 corridor, in which a large chunk of the state's swing voters reside.

What is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)?

COPD is a lung disease that makes it hard to breathe. It is caused by damage to the lungs over many years, usually from smoking.

COPD is often a mix of two diseases:

What causes COPD?

COPD is almost always caused by smoking. Over time, breathing tobacco smoke irritates the airways and destroys the stretchy fibers in the lungs.

Other things that may put you at risk include breathing chemical fumes, dust, or air pollution over a long period of time. Secondhand smoke is also bad.

It usually takes many years for the lung damage to start causing symptoms, so COPD is most common in people who are older than 60.

You may be more likely to get COPD if you had a lot of serious lung infections when you were a child. People who get emphysema in their 30s or 40s may have a disorder that runs in families, called alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency. But this is rare.
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health news headlines provided courtesy of Medical News Today.

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FDA Could Approve Prescription Drugs Made From Marijuana By 2013

What is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)?

What causes COPD?