TV News LIES

For addicts, cravings override all normal rules of behavior. In interviews throughout Northern Kentucky, addicts and their families described the insanity that takes hold. Some addicts shared stories of shooting up behind the wheel while driving down Interstate 75 out of Cincinnati, or pulling over at an early exit, a Kroger parking lot.

A mother lamented her stolen heirloom jewelry and the dismantling of the family cabin piece by piece until every inch had been sold off. Addicts stripped so many houses, barns, and churches of copper and fixtures in one Kentucky county that the sheriff formed a task force. Another overdosed on the couch, and his parents thought maybe they should just let him go.

The CDC warned the 2014-15 flu season would be a bad one and new numbers from the agency's weekly FluView report show the elderly, in particular are spending more time in the hospital because of it.

About 198 out of every 100,000 people 65 and older have been hospitalized this season with a flu-related illness. A total of 86,000 elderly have been hospitalized.

A new initiative announced by the President Barack Obama Friday will see renewed efforts to collect more than a million genetic samples for research on individualized medical treatments.

Personalized or targeted medicine is the future of health care, doctors say. But from a research and execution standpoint, it's currently only in its infancy. The basic idea is that the specifics of a person's genetic makeup, or genome, can dictate the types of treatments and medications ideal for each individual.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), which has the largest pediatric publishing program in the world, recommends decriminalizing marijuana and says it could be good for some kids in a new policy statement.

"The AAP opposes 'medical marijuana' outside the regulatory process of the US Food and Drug Administration," says the new statement. However, it recognizes certain situations could be benefitted by marijuana.

A new study from Planned Parenthood doctors and a doctor from outside the organization finds medication abortion is safe and effective.

The study uses data from 13,000 women who had a medication abortion at Planned Parenthood Los Angeles health centers over a five-year period. The researchers found the drug is 97.7 percent effective, and only .01 percent who used it experienced an infection requiring hospitalization.

Evolving attitudes about marijuana among the majority of Americans, as well as decriminalization laws starting to sweep the nation, have done little to quell questions about the health effects of longtime use among medical professionals, lawmakers, and people on both sides of an ongoing debate about the plant.

Even with a dearth of research, the general consensus in past decades has been that smoking marijuana regularly poses significant health risks. A new study out of Emory University in Atlanta, however, could challenge what has become the fundamental argument for maintaining the plant’s designation as a Schedule 1 drug.