A newly discovered drug in Louisiana known as gray death has the potential to kill someone, just by touching it. Kevin Barnhart has the story.
Cut 1 (32) “…I’m Kevin Barnhart”
____________________________
A Tulane study uncovers data that supports a push to begin colorectal cancer screenings before age 50. Matt Doyle has more.
___________________________
A final removal vote in the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump is set for tomorrow, and Senator Bill Cassidy says he will vote against removing the Commander in Chief.
The vote is expected to split along party lines, and Cassidy says that’s evidence the whole process was a partisan exercise.
Polls show a near dead even split on public opinion related to impeachment and removal, and Cassidy says you can’t undo an election without a strong consensus.
Cassidy ended his comments by quoting then-Congressman, and now Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer’s 1998 Clinton impeachment speech…
Democrats allege the President used military aide pressure Ukraine into investigating his political rival, Joe Biden.
_______________________
A new, potentially lethal drug has been discovered in a St. Mary Parish traffic stop. It’s called “gray death” and it is heroin cut with fentanyl. St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s spokesperson David Spencer says different batches contain different levels of fentanyl and just touching it could have bad consequences.
Some reports indicate the potency is up to 10,000 times that of morphine. Spencer says it doesn’t look like heroin that officials are used to seeing on the street.
Cut 7 (09) “…pieces of concrete.”
Spencer says this drug is fairly new, first popping up around Georgia and Alabama in 2017.
If someone sees this drug, Spencer says alert authorities.
_________________________________
There’s an active debate in the medical community about whether to start colorectal cancer screenings at 45 or 50, and a study by Tulane indicates starting screenings before 50 may be the better choice.
Tulane Associate Clinical Professor Dr. Jordan Karlitz studied cancer rate increases on a year to year basis, and found a 46 percent increase in diagnoses from ages 49 to 50…
The increase from 49 to 50 was particularly noticeable in men, who saw a 53 percent increase in diagnoses.
The study also found 93 percent of cases discovered at age 50 had been growing for quite some time. Karlitz says that’s dangerous.
Karlitz hopes the study will receive further review and potentially influence policy creators, as well as the public.
______________________
The CDC launches a first of its kind virtual human simulation tool to help cancer survivors adopt healthier behaviors. It’s called Talk to Someone, a place to ask questions and engage in conversations with Linda, a virtual cancer survivor, about a variety of topics, including mental health. Cancer survivor Rebecca Shimkets…
Linda will also talk about issues such as alcohol use, tobacco use, nutrition and fitness to prevent recurrences. Shimkets says it is a tool that would have been valuable to her upon recovery.
There are nearly 17 million cancer survivors in the US, with 22 million projected in ten years. Shimkets says there’s no shame in having challenges and reaching out for help…