Conditions are ripe for transforming the U.S. mental health care system, with scientific advances, the growth of Medicaid and political consensus on the importance of improving mental health creating the possibility that goals once thought out of reach may be possible, according to a new RAND Corporation study. Broad changes will be needed to improve...
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Marijuana Use Typically Drops at the Beginning of the Year, Then Climbs in Summer and Fall
Marijuana use increases throughout the calendar year, with use up 13 percent on average at the end of each year (2015-2019) compared to the beginning, according to a new study published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence. “We found that marijuana use is consistently higher among those surveyed later in the year, peaking during...
Study Finds New Evidence of Health Threat from Chemicals in Marijuana and Tobacco Smoke
Scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have uncovered new evidence of the potential health risks of chemicals in tobacco and marijuana smoke. In a study published online today by EClinicalMedicine, the researchers report that people who smoked only marijuana had several smoke-related toxic chemicals in their blood and urine,...
Child Marriage Is Legal and Persists Across Canada
Canada is at the forefront of global efforts to end child marriage abroad. Yet this practice remains legal and persists across the country. In Canada, more than 3,600 marriage certificates were issued to children, usually girls, under the age of 18 between 2000 and 2018, according to a new study from researchers at McGill University....
Jack Ma: China’s Spat with Billionaire Is Part of Bigger Push to Control Big Tech – Silicon Valley Could Be Next
Chinese tech billionaire Jack Ma has allegedly fallen out with the Beijing government. Several recent articles reported that Ma offended the Chinese authorities by delivering a speech in Shanghai in October criticising financial regulation, and that he and his colleagues were called in for questioning. The planned IPO of his financial services powerhouse, Ant Group,...
Yellow Gadsden Flag, Prominent in Capitol Takeover, Carries a Long and Shifting History
Flown by many protesters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, the Gadsden flag has a design that is simple and graphic: a coiled rattlesnake on a yellow field with the text “Don’t Tread On Me.” But that simple design hides some important complexities, both historically and today, as it appears in rallies demanding President...
Businesses Stand to Benefit from Sustainable Restructuring
The Earth is populated by an increasing number of people who demand more and more products, which is simply not viable in the long run. Our planet does not have unlimited resources. Emissions are harming the environment in various ways. More companies thus need to switch to more sustainable production, sometimes due to pressure from...
A Third of U.S. Families Face a Different Kind of Poverty
Before the pandemic, one-third of U.S. households with children were already “net worth poor,” lacking enough financial resources to sustain their families for three months at a poverty level, finds new research from Duke University. In 2019, 57 percent of Black families and 50 percent of Latino families with children were poor in terms of...
Archaeology: Sharing Leftover Meat May Have Contributed to Early Dog Domestication
Humans feeding leftover lean meat to wolves during harsh winters may have had a role in the early domestication of dogs, towards the end of the last ice age (14,000 to 29,000 years ago), according to a study published in Scientific Reports. Maria Lahtinen and colleagues used simple energy content calculations to estimate how much energy...
Noncognitive Skills — Distinct from Cognitive Abilities — Are Important to Success Across the Life
Noncognitive skills and cognitive abilities are both important contributors to educational attainment — the number of years of formal schooling that a person completes — and lead to success across the life course, according to a new study from an international team led by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, the University...