White House Tackles Drug Reform, Artificial Intelligence Bill of Rights
The Biden Administration is taking steps to end the federal criminalization of marijuana and introducing a new artificial intelligence bill of rights.
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By - Last week, President Joe Biden announced that he was pardoning all people convicted of federal marijuana possession and seeking to reclassify marijuana with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Meanwhile, White House officials announced a new plan for dealing with industry use of artificial intelligence, coining their blueprint proposal “The AI Bill of Rights.”
LifeBridge Health Agrees to $9.5 Million Settlement
Baltimore-based health system LifeBridge Health paid $9.5 million to settle a lawsuit that began in May 2018 after employees discovered malware on a server responsible for hosting patients' medical records. LifeBridge later found that the breach had been ongoing since 2016, likely affecting thousands of patients during that time.
LifeBridge’s settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing. Class members are eligible for $250 to cover unreimbursed losses and may be eligible for up to $5,000 in some cases. READ MORE.
NIH Awards Grant to Treat Addiction via Telehealth
Researchers from the City University of New York School of Public Health (CUNY SPH) and Yale School of Medicine received a $1.1 million grant from the NIH to create a telehealth program to treat opioid use disorder. CUNY SPH Associate Professor Nasim Sabounchi, PhD, and Yale School of Medicine Assistant Professor Rebekah Heckmann, MD, will use the award to build a support structure for patients with a history of opioid abuse and study the effectiveness of telehealth interventions for opioid use disorder. The study comes as opioid deaths are on the rise in the US. READ MORE.
Biden Administration Takes on Marijuana Reform
President Biden is issuing pardons and attempting to reschedule marijuana as part of a national reform effort. Last week, the President issued pardons for marijuana possession and urged state governments to do the same. Biden also requested that HHS review how marijuana is scheduled under the Drug Enforcement Administration scheduling scheme.
“Criminal records for marijuana possession have also imposed needless barriers to employment, housing, and educational opportunities. And while White and Black and Brown people use marijuana at similar rates, Black and Brown people have been arrested, prosecuted, and convicted at disproportionate rates,” stated the president in the press briefing. READ MORE.
White House Publishes Artificial Intelligence Bill of Rights
The new AI Bill of Rights released by the White House outlines five core principles for artificial intelligence tools. The draft document includes tenets that encourage safety, discrimination protection, data privacy, and other human considerations with specific implications for healthcare. READ MORE.
SCOTUS Declines Vaccine Mandate Case
SCOTUS declined to hear a Missouri vaccine mandate case, signaling the end of the court’s intervention in cases involving the federal vaccine mandate. In January, the court decided to allow a mandate to continue for federal healthcare workers while the case was heard in the lower courts. The supreme court previously ruled against a different Biden administration directive that required large non-healthcare employers to mandate vaccines or testing of workers. READ MORE.
