How health care may be affected by the high court’s affirmative action ruling

• July 12, 2023

Michelle Andrews | (TNS) KFF Health News

Doctors are concerned that a Supreme Court ruling issued June 29 will have far-reaching effects not only on the diversity of doctors and other care providers in training but ultimately also on patient care.

The decision found it is unconstitutional for colleges and universities to use race as a factor in student admissions, which will affect enrollment decisions at public and private educational institutions, including medical schools.

Like other academic institutions, medical schools have long factored race into admission decisions. The schools operated under the principle — and there is considerable evidence they are correct — that a more diverse workforce of doctors does a better job of treating diverse patients.

The “decision demonstrates a lack of understanding of the critical benefits of racial and ethnic diversity in educational settings and a failure to recognize the urgent need to address health inequities,” read a statement from David Skorton, president and CEO of the Association of American Medical Colleges, and Frank Trinity, its chief legal officer.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion. It held that the admissions programs of defendants Harvard College and the University of North Carolina violate the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, which prohibits racial discrimination. The decision overturned decades of legal precedent that had allowed colleges and universities to evaluate prospective students by their race, in addition to factors such as academic records and test scores.

In a dissent, Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote on behalf of the court’s three liberal justices that the ruling “cements a superficial rule of colorblindness as a constitutional principle in an endemically segregated society where race has always mattered and continues to matter.”

What Does the Ruling Mean for Med Schools?

The decision may have serious repercussions, medical educators say.

The AAMC, which represents more than 500 medical schools and teaching hospitals, filed an amicus brief with the court arguing that diversity in medical education “literally saves lives” by ensuring that doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals can competently care for an increasingly diverse population.

“Diversity in health care providers contributes to increased student, trainee, and physician confidence in working with patient populations who are different from their own identities,” said Norma Poll-Hunter, senior director of workforce diversity at the AAMC.

Although it’s impossible to predict the full impact of the court’s ruling, looking to some of the nine states that already have bans on race-conscious college admissions may provide clues. An analysis of bans in six states found that medical school enrollment of students of color who were members of underrepresented groups fell roughly 17% after the bans were instituted.

What About Patients?

At this point it’s hard to say.

Despite the United States having one of the world’s most advanced systems of medical research and clinical care, Black people and some other minorities often fare worse than white people across a range of health measures. Their life expectancies are shorter: 65.2 years for American Indian and Alaska Native people and 70.8 for Blacks in 2021, versus 76.4 for whites, according to KFF. Black and AIAN infants were roughly twice as likely to die as white infants, and women in those minority groups had the highest rates of mortality related to pregnancy in 2021.

Research shows people of all races tend to prefer to see physicians who are similar to them in race or ethnicity, according to Poll-Hunter. When patients are of the same race as their provider, they report higher levels of satisfaction and trust and better communication.

When patients are of the same race or gender as their provider, they may also have better health outcomes, research shows.

For example, in a study of 1.8 million infants born in Florida hospitals between 1992 and 2015, Black newborns were half as likely to die when cared for by Black physicians as when their doctors were white. Research has historically focused on white newborns with white doctors, said the study’s lead author, Brad Greenwood, a professor of information systems and operations management at George Mason University.

“To the extent that physicians of a social outgroup are more likely to be aware of the challenges and issues that arise when treating their group, it stands to reason that these physicians may be more equipped to treat patients with complex needs,” according to the study.

However, the solution is not to try to ensure all Black patients are seen by Black physicians, Greenwood said.

“Jim Crow-ing medicine is not going to solve this,” he said, referring to laws enacted in the 19th and 20th centuries that enforced racial segregation.

Ensuring a diverse physician base can improve care for all patients, including those from marginalized groups. “As you increase diversity, the diversity of opinion increases the scope of how people think about things and express best practices,” he said.

Do No Harm, a group of medical and policy professionals who oppose race-conscious medical school admissions and other policies that incorporate identity-based considerations into health care decision-making, says race-conscious admission is about discrimination, not diversity.

“Our view is that whoever gets into health care should be the most qualified,” said Stanley Goldfarb, who chairs the board of Do No Harm. “It doesn’t matter the gender or the race. The only thing that matters is that they’re good, ethical people and good at what they do.”

Goldfarb cited studies that showed “no relationship” between race or ethnicity concordance and the quality of communication, and “inconclusive” evidence for patient outcomes.

The first med school class that will be affected will be the class of 2028. Some experts have suggested that colleges and medical schools may adopt policies that take income or family wealth into account when determining whom to admit. After California banned race-conscious admissions in 1996, the medical school at the University of California-Davis upended its process to put less emphasis on MCAT scores and grades and more on socioeconomic measures, according to Stat.

Poll-Hunter, with the AAMC, isn’t convinced. “There’s no substitute or proxy for race,” she said. “The reality is that in the United States we have a history of exclusion, displacement, and colonization such that we can’t ignore the reality of race.”

___

(KFF Health News, formerly known as Kaiser Health News (KHN), is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs of KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling and journalism.)

©2023 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

​ Orange County Register 

Tech company calculates the cost of work meetings

• July 12, 2023

By Jennifer Korn | CNN

One tech company is escalating its war on meetings by introducing a calculator that shows employees how much it really costs to force dozens of their colleagues to huddle together for an hour instead of just sending an email.

Shopify, a Canadian e-commerce company, rolled out its Meeting Cost Calculator internally Wednesday as part of ongoing efforts to encourage emptier calendars. The tool functions as a Chrome extension built into Google Calendar, showing Shopify’s 11,000-plus global employees the estimated cost of their meetings by using data based on average compensation, number of attendees and length.

The average 30-minute meeting with three employees at the company costs between $700-$1600, according to an internal note shared with CNN Wednesday. By getting rid of even three meetings a week per person, Shopify estimates it will see a 15% reduction in overall costs.

Shopify first took steps to reduce unnecessary meetings in January by doing away with all previously scheduled recurring meetings involving three or more people. It also enforced meeting-free Wednesdays and limited large meetings with over 50 people to a six-hour window on Thursdays.

But the company says its initial effort wasn’t enough.

“[W]e have seen meeting creep seep back in and we needed to take immediate action,” the company wrote in the internal note this week. “Time is money, and it should be spent on helping our merchants succeed or having fun – meetings frequently do neither.”

While the tool puts the cost of meetings into monetary terms, the company stresses that it is ultimately less focused on the dollar value and more on the wider need to reconsider how time is spent.

“The Meeting Cost Calculator is here to challenge the status quo, nudging us to reconsider meeting necessity and explore more creative collaboration methods,” the company wrote.

​ Orange County Register 

Under fire from House GOP, Wray defends the ‘real FBI’

• July 12, 2023

By Farnoush Amiri, Eric Tucker and Lisa Mascaro | Associated Press

WASHINGTON — FBI Director Chris Wray defended the “real FBI” during a contentious congressional hearing Wednesday, dismissing a litany of grievances from Republicans who are harshly critical of the bureau, threatening to defund some operations and claiming the Justice Department is unfair to political conservatives.

Wray refused to engage in specific questions about ongoing federal investigations, including those involving former President Donald Trump and Hunter Biden. The son of President Joe Biden recently reached an agreement to plead guilty to misdemeanor federal tax charges; Republicans have derided that as a sweetheart deal.

In testy exchanges with Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee, Wray rejected the GOP assertion that the bureau was favoring the Biden family and said the notion that the bureau was involved the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol was “ludicrous.”

“The work the men and women of the FBI do to protect the American people goes way beyond one or two investigations that seem to capture all the headlines,” Wray said in his opening remarks.The director spelled out the bureau’s crime-fighting work breaking up drug cartels, taking some 60 suspected criminals off the streets each day and protecting Americans from “a staggering array of threats.”

He said, “That is the real FBI.”

It’s the latest display of the new normal on Capitol Hill, where Republicans who have long billed themselves as the champions of police and “law and order” are deeply at odds with federal law enforcement and the FBI, accusing the bureau of bias dating to investigations of Trump when he was president.

This new dynamic has forced Democrats into a position of defending these law enforcement agencies they have long criticized.

The committee chairman, Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, said he is trying to stop what Republicans call the “weaponization” of the federal justice system, which they say is tilted against conservatives, including Trump and his allies.

Jordan opened the hearing reciting a federal judge’s recent ruling against the government’s efforts to halt misinformation on social media before listing other grievances against the FBI over its treatment of conservatives.

But the top Democrat on the committee, Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, said the hearing was “little more than performance art” by the Republicans who are undertaking what he called baseless investigations too far-fetched to be true.

During one tense exchange with Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., Wray noted that in Florida, the number of FBI applicants is up by more than 100 percent.

“We’re deeply proud of them, and they deserve better than you,” Gaetz said.

Wray became animated at one point by the suggestion from Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., that the FBI would have been involved in suppressing a theory that the coronavirus pandemic originated via a leak from a laboratory in China rather than a transfer from animals to humans.

“The idea that the FBI would somehow be involved in suppressing references to a lab leak theory is somewhat absurd when you consider the fact that the FBI was the only — the only — agency in the entire intelligence community to reach the assessment that it was more likely than not that was the explanation of the pandemic,” Wray said, pointing with his index finger for emphasis.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., said she thought it was “actually sad that the majority is engaging conspiracy theories in an effort to discredit one of the premier law enforcement agencies in the United States.”

Jordan has been laying the groundwork for Wray’s appearance since House Republicans took the majority in January.

Republicans have held hearings with former FBI agents, Twitter executives and federal officials to make the case that the FBI has been corruptly using its powers against Trump and the right. The GOP has formed a special committee on “weaponization” of government, also led by Jordan, to investigate abuse.

Along with GOP leaders of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee, the panels opened a joint investigation into the Hunter Biden case, citing testimony from two IRS whistleblowers who say the Justice Department meddled with their work.

The department has denied the allegations and said that U.S. Attorney David Weiss in Delaware, the federal prosecutor who led the investigation, always had full authority over the case. Weiss was appointed during the Trump administration.

Republicans have requested interviews with Weiss and other Justice Department officials, but those are not likely until after the case is closed, in line with department policy.

Hanging over the proceedings were GOP threats to impeach Attorney General Merrick Garland and withhold money for federal law enforcement as Congress in the midst of preparing annual spending bills.

At one point, Rep. Thomas Massie showed a short surveillance video moments before officials found a pipe bomb outside the Democratic National Committee’s Capitol Hill headquarters on the day of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack. Massie, R-Ky., demanded answers about the investigation.

“We fund your department so you need to provide that,” Massie said.

Another focus of the hearing was the push to reauthorize a program under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, that grants agencies such as the FBI broad powers to surveil and examine communications of foreigners outside the United States.

A provision known as Section 702 is set to expire at year’s end unless Congress agrees to renew it. Members of both parties are frustrated with the program, citing allegations of federal officials abusing the system.

Wray, meanwhile, discussed a difference of opinion over Garland’s 2021 memo instructing the FBI to coordinate with local law enforcement over threats against school boards. Republicans have complained that went too far in trying to police parents.

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“I will say to you the same thing that I said to all 56 of our field offices as soon as I read the memo, which is that the FBI is not in the business of investigating or policing speech at school board meetings or anywhere else for that matter,” said Wray, who has led the FBI since Trump nominated him after firing James Comey in 2017.

The Justice Department has accused Trump of illegally storing government secrets at his Florida estate and then refusing to give them back after he left office. Trump has pleaded not guilty to 37 felony counts. A separate Justice Department investigation is probing efforts by Trump and his allies to undo Biden’s election in the run-up to Jan. 6, 2021.

Some of the GOP’s most conservative members are pushing to cut off some funding for the FBI, and Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., has questioned a plan to move the FBI headquarters from downtown Washington to a suburb in Virginia or Maryland. He has said Congress should focus on FBI offices in the states.

​ Orange County Register 

New signs of Westminster’s civic failure

• July 12, 2023

Westminster has for years struggled with a financial meltdown even as council members squabbled over political matters in the Vietnamese media and a proposed Vietnam War memorial – and verbally chastened one another from the dais. Even the possibility of bankruptcy didn’t stop the infighting.

Residents bailed out City Council by voting overwhelmingly in November 2022 to extend the city’s “temporary” 1 percent sales tax until 2043. Tax supporters said the tax boost was needed to “prevent cuts to 911 emergency response, police, gang/drug prevention, firefighters, paramedics, emergency response equipment, disaster preparedness” and so forth.

Unfortunately, council elections that year didn’t yield any significant change in approach. This Editorial Board complained that “none of the candidates running for mayor nor either of the open council seats has anything insightful to say about the city’s woes.” Some craziness has subsided, but the city now is turning to a fiscal gimmick to bolster its budget.

City Council agreed last month to build two LED billboards along the 405 freeway. As VoiceofOC reports, Westminster is tapping a private firm to operate the signs, with promises of at least $63 million in advertising revenue over 30 years. The council meeting had little public debate, with details mostly hashed out during closed session. So who knows if those estimates are credible?

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Critics say the signs will create blight and safety issues. The proposal was developed by staff, which was instructed to propose revenue sources when the council in May approved a “strategic plan.” During the May meeting, the city manager and council members sparred over transparency issues in choosing the vendor, but the council was happy with the final choice.

This isn’t the worst idea in a city that’s home to 29 billboards. But it’s not the best one, either. Well-managed cities look closely at improving their basic functions by, say, reducing pension debt and outsourcing services – not coming up with quick-buck ideas to paper over systemic problems.

As commuters drive past the bright LED ad messages, they should view the billboards as a sign of Westminster’s poor financial management.

​ Orange County Register 

Elon Musk announces new company xAI as he seeks to build ChatGPT alternative

• July 12, 2023

By Rachel Metz | Bloomberg

Elon Musk, who has hinted for months that he wants to build an alternative to the popular ChatGPT artificial intelligence chatbot, announced the formation of what he’s calling xAI, whose goal is to “understand the true nature of the universe.”

On a website unveiled Wednesday xAI said its team will be led by Musk and staffed by executives who have worked at a broad range of companies at the forefront of artificial intelligence, including Google’s DeepMind, Microsoft Corp. and Tesla Inc., as well as academic institutions such as the University of Toronto.

Musk was involved in the creation of OpenAI, the highest-profile AI startup and developer of ChatGPT. But he has frequently and publicly criticized OpenAI since he left the board in 2018, especially after it created a for-profit arm the following year. He has said he believes it to be “effectively controlled by Microsoft.” Microsoft has invested some $13 billion into OpenAI.

Despite his work in AI, Musk has expressed deep reservations about the technology. The billionaire was among a group of researchers and tech industry leaders who in March called for developers to pause the training of powerful AI models.

The 12 men listed on the website as of Wednesday morning (including Musk) include Jimmy Ba, an assistant professor at the University of Toronto who studied under AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton, and Christian Szegedy, who spent years as a research scientist working on AI at Google.

Though Musk is a frequent critic of San Francisco, the xAI website says that the company is “actively recruiting experienced engineers and researchers” to work “in the Bay Area.” So far, most AI development has been concentrated in Silicon Valley.

Musk and Jared Birchall, who operates Musk’s family office, incorporated a business called X.AI in March, according to a Nevada state filing with the Secretary of State.

In April, the Financial Times reported that Musk was holding discussions with Tesla and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. investors about helping fund an AI startup, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter. The billionaire has acquired thousands of processors from Nvidia Corp. for the new project, the paper said.

The xAI website said the company is being advised by Dan Hendrycks, who is the director of the Center for AI Safety — a group that has warned about what it sees as existential dangers of developing AI quickly. This spring, it released a letter of caution signed by chief executive officers of some of the leading companies in AI, including Alphabet Inc.’s DeepMind and OpenAI.

Musk, 52, now oversees six companies: Tesla, SpaceX, Twitter, Neuralink, the Boring Co. and now xAI. In regulatory filings, Tesla says the auto giant is “increasingly focused on products and services based on artificial intelligence, robotics and automation.” Tesla’s website invites people to help “build the future of artificial intelligence” with a variety of products, from the “Tesla Bot” known as Optimus to AI interface chips that will run the electric automaker’s automated driving software.

Musk has a long history of borrowing engineers from one company to help out at another, as the contours of his ever-expanding empire bleed into one another. Tesla and SpaceX share a vice president of materials engineering, for example, and engineers from Tesla “volunteered” to work at Twitter after Musk bought the company for $44 billion in October.

The xAI website says that it is a “separate company from X Corp,” the parent company that Musk merged Twitter into earlier this year, but that it will “work closely with X (Twitter), Tesla, and other companies.”

–With assistance from Dana Hull and Sean O’Kane.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

©2023 Bloomberg L.P.

​ Orange County Register 

Wimbledon: Americans Chris Eubanks, Madison Keys bow out

• July 12, 2023

WIMBLEDON, England — Chris Eubanks finally ran out of aces and energy during his magical Wimbledon debut. The 27-year-old American who captivated the crowds at the All England Club and back home still seemed to be having the time of his life Wednesday, but Daniil Medvedev’s steady game was just too much to overcome.

Basking in the roars from the stands at No. 1 Court, Eubanks grabbed a two-sets-to-one lead against the 2021 U.S. Open champion — and then was four points from victory in the fourth. The wear-and-tear of the unseeded Eubanks’ deepest run, by far, at a Grand Slam tournament began to show from there, and Medvedev pulled away for a 6-4, 1-6, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-1 victory to reach the Wimbledon semifinals for the first time.

If Medvedev was unsteady for a bit, perhaps distracted by a back-and-forth with the chair umpire over a stray ball that struck a TV camera operator, he gathered himself well.

“There was a moment in the match where I completely lost the, how to say, game itself, and he played well. I started to sink. I started to do a lot of mistakes. Not serving well enough,” said the No. 3-seeded Medvedev, who will face No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz in the semifinals on Friday. “In the third set, I started to build something. … From the tiebreak, I started to play amazing.”

Alcaraz’s 7-6 (3), 6-4, 6-4 victory over No. 6 Holger Rune at Centre Court was the first men’s quarterfinal at Wimbledon in the Open era, which dates to 1968, with two players who are not yet 21. Both Spain’s Alcaraz, who won last year’s U.S. Open, and Denmark’s Rune are 20.

When Alcaraz smacked a backhand return winner to seal the first set, he threw threw his head back and screamed. He paused for a second and screamed again. He strutted to the sideline, head held high, and yelled, then got to the sideline and yelled “Vamos! Vamos!”

In the women’s quarterfinals, Ons Jabeur eliminated defending champion Elena Rybakina 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-1 in a rematch of last year’s championship match, and reigning Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka defeated No. 25 seed Madison Keys 6-2, 6-4.

No. 2 Sabalenka plays No. 6 Jabeur on Thursday, when the other semifinal will be between unseeded players Elina Svitolina and Marketa Vondrousova. None of the four remaining women has won Wimbledon; Sabalenka is the only one who already owns a major trophy.

Sabalenka, who is from Belarus, and Medvedev, who is from Russia, were banned from the All England Club a year ago, along with every player representing those two countries, over the invasion of Ukraine. The war continues, but Russians and Belarusians were allowed back this time.

In Eubanks-Medvedev everything started to tilt one way midway through the fourth-set tiebreaker.

Eubanks put a forehand in a corner that drew a netted backhand from Medvedev, making it 3-all. Many in the seats rose, cheering wildly, and Eubanks shook his right fist, staring toward the support.

Maybe Eubanks, who is from Atlanta and was a college All-American at Georgia Tech, enjoyed that moment just a tad too much. Maybe he let his focus slip. Then again, hard to blame a guy who came into this tournament with a career record of 2-8 at the majors and who never had won an ATP title until the week before Wimbledon began.

So close to moving on, Eubanks faltered. So close to the brink, Medvedev surged, taking four of the following five points and pushing things to a fifth set.

Medvedev smacked a forehand winner. Eubanks sailed a forehand wide. Eubanks pushed a forehand return long. After Eubanks saved one set point with a service winner, he ceded the next by flubbing a forehand volley.

Medvedev, who won 28 of the 30 points he served in that set, shook his racket. He was fully back in the match — and, it turned out, on his way to a win.

As big a server as the lanky, 6-foot-7 Eubanks is, Medvedev hit more aces, 28-17. And while Eubanks finished with more winners, 74-52, to raise his tournament total to 321 and break Andre Agassi’s 1992 mark for most winners at a single Wimbledon (since 1977), Medvedev played incredibly cleanly. He only made 13 unforced errors, 42 fewer than Eubanks.

When the match ended, when Eubanks’ wonderful ride was over, he was accompanied off toward the locker room by a loud and lengthy standing ovation — as his pal, 2022 French Open runner-up Coco Gauff, captured the scene with her phone camera.

Eubanks paused his walk. He turned to all sections of the arena to wave and then put his hands together overhead in the shape of a heart, soaking it all in.

​ Orange County Register 

As more states legalize pot, their uneven safety rules can pose a risk

• July 12, 2023

Amanda Hernández | Stateline.org (TNS)

Amid the growing acceptance and legalization of cannabis use across the country, a concerning reality has emerged: The state-by-state patchwork of safety regulations can leave marijuana consumers wandering through a haze of uncertainty, exposing them to potential risks.

Under federal law, marijuana is illegal — period. So, it’s up to individual states to determine their own regulations and safety standards.

Those inconsistent regulations are part of a broad debate about the U.S. cannabis industry. The 47 states that allow at least some cannabis use (cannabis is still illegal in Idaho, Kansas and Nebraska) have taken various approaches to issues such as the allowable amount of euphoria-inducing tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, in a product.

“We don’t really know what’s going on behind the doors of each and every lab in each and every state,” said Anna Schwabe, a cannabis geneticist and the director of cannabis education, research and development for 420 Organics, in an interview with Stateline. “I don’t really have any sense of or any level of comfort for the numbers that they’re putting out.”

Most states require legal cannabis products to be tested by licensed laboratories for potency and for contaminants such as pesticides and heavy metals.

Still, the lack of uniform testing standards has led to inconsistent lab results. Some labs that test products on behalf of farms have been caught inflating THC levels to cater to the demand for potent products, leading to a practice called “lab shopping” by producers, according to Leafly, an online platform dedicated to all things cannabis.

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“Some businesses will decide to contract with those labs because it means that their products will test stronger [in THC] and in theory, be more attractive to consumers,” said Morgan Fox, the political director for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, known as NORML. “This is pretty unethical, and also an unfortunate byproduct of a financially competitive testing market.”

Some states have had to issue recalls due to products being cleared for sale despite the presence of harmful contaminants. In May 2022, the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority suspended Scale Laboratories’ testing license after regulators uncovered more than 140 approved samples with mold, salmonella or E. coli. The authority also recalled 99 products related to the lab’s alleged rules violations.

An estimated 64,000-pound marijuana recall in Michigan in 2021 was linked to at least 18 health complaints, including increased seizure activity, allergic reactions, paranoia and a chemical burning sensation.

The Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission, which regulates the production and sale of marijuana in that state, issued a recall in late June for several batches of cannabis flower that tested positive for mold and heavy metals, including cadmium and mercury. The recalled flower was harvested before testing requirements were updated to include tests for microbiological contaminants and heavy metals.

Cannabis edibles recalled for having 20 times allowable THC levels per serving

“Having some standards of operation across the board would dramatically decrease the variation that we see among labs, but then we would have to have some sort of regulatory oversight to make sure everybody is following the rules [on THC levels and testing practices], which we already don’t have,” Schwabe said.

Testing methods

Labs across the country have different methods of testing cannabis for potency and contamination, which may be part of the reason why there’s so much variation, Schwabe said. Some states run the labs and have a more standardized testing approach, while others offer licenses to independent labs.

Inconsistent state cannabis regulations could have potentially dire implications for consumer health, according to a 2022 study published in the Environmental Health Perspectives journal. The study found that state-level regulatory disparities pose an increased risk of contaminant exposure for immunocompromised people who could contract potentially fatal infections, while also causing confusion among cannabis growers, manufacturers and testing laboratories.

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The study also found that identical cannabis samples could be considered acceptable in one jurisdiction but not in others.

Cannabis consumers also face the challenge of navigating inconsistencies in THC potency and marijuana strain names across different dispensaries and states, Schwabe said.

“If you’re thinking that Durban Poison is your go-to strain to alleviate whatever symptoms you are having and it works well for you, if you wanted to refill your medicine in a different state or at a different dispensary, you might end up getting something that’s not what you’re used to,” Schwabe said.

What is permissible in one state may be prohibited or regulated differently in another, said Karmen Hanson, a senior fellow with the health program of the National Conference of State Legislatures, a think tank working on behalf of state lawmakers.

“Legislators generally want to just have a program that works for their state in the way that they feel is best for their state, and that’s why they all look different,” Hanson said in an interview with Stateline. “What’s going to work in Colorado isn’t going to work for North Dakota or Texas.”

Moreover, cannabis programs are constantly evolving as states learn from one another and adapt their laws and regulations based on factors such as emerging research or public health concerns, said Michelle Rutter Friberg, the National Cannabis Industry Association’s director of government relations.

“States are still very interested in the revenue, but they’re also more interested in things like getting rid of an illicit market, making sure that the products that people are consuming are safe or trying to end the war on drugs by legalizing cannabis and doing so in an equitable way,” Rutter Friberg said in an interview.

Keeping consumers safe

Industry supporters say regulatory consistency also could steer consumers away from illicit sources, which can be even more dangerous.

“You don’t know what’s in it, especially at a time when we’re talking about things like fentanyl. That’s more of a reason now than ever to talk about the regulation of products like this,” Rutter Friberg said.

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States have implemented various initiatives to ensure product safety and to protect consumers. In several states, including Colorado and Washington, edibles are limited to 10 mg of THC per serving, with a maximum of 10 servings or 100 mg of THC per package. In Connecticut, edibles are limited to 5 mg of THC per serving and a maximum of 100 mg of THC per package. And in Massachusetts, edibles are limited to 5.5 mg of THC per serving and up to 110 mg of THC per package.

The Colorado legislature in 2017 began prohibiting the production and sale of edibles shaped like humans, animals or fruits in an effort to reduce their appeal to children. Similar measures, including child-resistant packaging, have been implemented in other states to make cannabis products less accessible to children.

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Some marijuana advocates argue that federal legalization could provide a solution by establishing consistent standards and harmonizing regulations across state lines. Alongside potential research funding, they say, federal legalization could be a way to streamline the cannabis industry and enhance consumer safety.

“If [the federal government] legalized it, that would open the doors tremendously and wipe out some of the issues that we have,” Schwabe said. “We could all work together as one industry and start working on some of the things we don’t know … and start working toward making it safe for everybody.”

Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a national nonprofit news organization focused on state policy.

©2023 States Newsroom. Visit at stateline.org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

From airfares to used cars to groceries, slowing US inflation eases pressure on households

Seven rescued from smoking boat on Lake St. Clair on Fourth of July

Another Republican spat reported in Clare

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​ Orange County Register 

Tour de France: Philipsen wins another sprint, Vingegaard still leads

• July 12, 2023

MOULINS, France — Jasper Philipsen is in a class of his own when it comes to sprinting at the Tour de France. He is so strong that even when the teammate in charge of setting him up is not there, he still wins in the end.

The Belgian sprinter posted his fourth stage win at this year’s Tour de France on Wednesday, taking his career tally to six.

“It’s been an incredible Tour so far,” Philipsen said after outclassing the field. “I can’t realize how good it is all going, so I’m super proud and really happy with my shape. And also, to get through the final without problems is also a big challenge, and we managed to do it four times, so I’m super happy.”

There were no major changes in the general classification: Jonas Vingegaard kept his 17-second lead over two-time champion Tadej Pogacar. Jai Hindley remained in third place, 2 minutes, 40 seconds off the pace.

Philipsen, who rides for Alpecin–Deceuninck, had been perfectly guided by his leadout man Mathieu van der Poel in his three previous stage wins. Left on his own this time, he perfectly timed his move and once again proved strongest in the frenetic last kilometer of the 180-kilometer (112 miles) Stage 11 from Clermont-Ferrand to Moulins in central France.

Philipsen has lost just one of the five mass sprints that took place at this year’s Tour when Mad Pedersen won Stage 8.

With van der Poel not taking part in Wednesday’s sprint, Philipsen navigated his way through traffic at an average speed of 65.6 kmh (40.8 mph) in the last kilometer to join Mark Cavendish as the only active rider with at least four stage wins in a single Tour edition. Cavendish crashed out of the race last week.

“I can also win without (van der Poel), but of course, he makes it more easy,” Philipsen said.

After Alexander Kristoff launched the sprint, Dylan Groenewegen countered with Philipsen on his wheel. The Belgian’s power was too much to handle for Groenewegen, who had to be content with a runner-up finish. Phil Bauhaus completed the stage podium.

“I had to find my wheel a little bit, and it’s also finding the space, and it’s hectic and dangerous for crashing, but I’m happy I could find a good wheel — Groenewegen — in the end, he opened up early, and I could go over,” Philipsen summed up.

Following a day of furious racing in hot weather that took a toll on the peloton, Andrey Amador moved to the front immediately after the start of the stage but quickly noticed there were not a lot of riders interested in jumping into a break.

Amador for a while rode only a few meters ahead of the bunch before Matis Louvel and Daniel Oss joined his effort as they broke away without facing resistance from the peloton.

With only three riders in the lead group, the breakaway was doomed to failure and the sprinters’ team did not react, well aware that they would catch the trio further down the road. The main bunch was happy to sit back for a while, riding at an easy pace on long stretches of flat roads bordered by sunflowers and fields.

But amid crosswinds that made the teams of contenders nervous about possible splits, the chase started quite early, with the three-man lead dropping to just 30 seconds with some 75 kilometers left.

Louvel was the first to sit up, before Amador gave up too. Oss kept fighting alone at the front a bit longer and managed to regain some time.

A heavy downpour with 30 kilometers left didn’t slow the peloton, which swallowed up Amador some 14 kilometers from the finish.

Thursday’s 169-kilometer (105 miles) Stage 12 from Roanne to Belleville-en-Beaujolais will take riders on a hilly route that could favor a breakaway. The battle for the yellow jersey is expected to resume on Friday with the ascent of the Grand Colombier, a mammoth climb concluding the stage.

​ Orange County Register